Hi @Pl1277 - the anecdote of the freshman CMU student offers a good example of this very complex financial path, and all you will learn along the way. ? Actually, a student can only take a max loan of ~$5.5K as a freshman. So maybe what you heard was only a piece of the financial story for that particular student. There may have been grants, or perhaps loans taken out by the parents. It’s unique to a given school and family. As a starting point for financial aid (when you get to that point) - determine for each school if your family is eligible for financial aid or not. If not, then your family could decide to focus on a selection of affordable schools or schools with generous merit aid. Many schools are very transparent about how merit dollars are awarded. (Start pouring through school websites.) You’ve got time and your student’s voice teacher can be a big help.
What schools traditionally offer large merit awards. At least then we can consider those schools.
We used the NPC with my older daughters but thought things would differ with merit. Also I know the NPC doesnt take into account where the parents are in life as far as retirement.
The large merit awards depend on your D’s academic standing as well as music talent. You need to get a better handle on where she is musically and wait for an SAT result before doing a lot of research. I know the Peabody professor was encouraging, but doing (or even watching) a competition will help you sauce out how she compares to others her age and how competitive she will be for awards. How about NATS? Schmidt Vocal Competition? Classical singer? Even just doing the local round and not going on to other rounds (if she passes) is a good dry run at live auditions and will give written feedback.
SUNY’s like Purchase and Crane are relatively affordable, Hartt, not sure about Ithaca but check. Temply Boyer and Rutgers Mason Gross. Is Curtis still tuition-free? Peabody might have aid- not sure it it is separate from JHU for that. McGill is a good option too.
It is always an option to go to a liberal arts college and study with a teacher, do extracurricular performance, and then do a master’s. Or look at schools of music at universities that might give you financial aid.
Avoid debt and and as many of us know only too well, the expense of preparing for a career in music can extend to grad school and summer programs. Some grad programs are funded, but many aren’t.
@jim33h we are friendly with a student who got very nice package offers to both Harrt and Westmister. Westmister was a better offer, fully covered as I remember, but she was a bit hesitant bc there was some uncertainty about the future of the school. I believe Harrt was a full tuition scholarship, she just had to cover room and board.
@buoyant yes, I do believe the loans were taken by the parents in the case of CMU.
We just refinanced our mortgage to save a point, down to around 3% from 4.25%. To think that educational loans can be 7% is so crazy to me. When you see the actual total amount paid for say taking 100k in loans it’s really mind boggling.
Speaking on SAT… we only have a PSAT right now and went to schedule SAT and the two upcoming dates fall on Saturdays where my D has mandatory All State Chorus rehearsal (day before the concert) and day of a theatre production she is in. Looks like she will be taking SAT in June! We really.hoped to be able to take once and review the score and then retake if necessary. Is the PSAT really a good indicator of apx SAT score?
@jim33h We were in the same boat when my daughter started. Work with your voice teacher to get a list. For her top schools try and visit. A one on one lesson with a teacher at the school can give a sense of the program and give you a point of contact.
When my D soprano started we were open to all schools. She applied to:
Indiana U - big
Ball State - medium to small
Northwestern - big
NYU - medium
SUNY Purchase - small (conservatory)
Eastman - small (conservatory)
Florida State - big
After auditions and revisiting she ultimately decided small SUNY Purchase.
Things to think about.
At big schools ask specifically if undergrads get in performances - most do not. My D was in the chorus for both Operas her freshman year at SUNY (also not common - only 2 other freshmen got chorus). More opportunities to audition for a role starting sophomore year.
If she wants to go into Opera as a profession she will need to get a Masters so some of the school above might be better fit for grad school.
Ask about classical music program itself - some of the programs are classical voice learning toward musical theater, others are straight opera programs. Good to have that clarity.
Plan on doing some sort of summer program - most likely in Europe but can be in US - starting her sophomore year - again getting experience in how to perform and work on language skills.
Cast a big net initially in your applications - some schools care about SAT and others do not (like a conservatory). Your D most likely will not get an invite to a live audition for all so want to play a little percentage game.
Unfortunately there are alot of good sopranos out there and it is a numbers game who will invite her and who will send an acceptance. Its just part of the process and you need to understand that.
Good luck in the search and start working on your audition video this summer!!
Are you from Ohio? if so how did out of state tuition affect SUNY Purchase?
Thanks
SUNY Purchase was by far the cheapest schools of all the schools we looked at - even with out of state tuition.
Yes we are from OH but D refused to look at any in state schools - go figure. She will look at CCM for grad school. CCM opportunities for performances is low for undergrads as the grad students get most of the roles
Oh ok, When you visited Purchase did she do a sample lesson? Also did you look at Oberlin if so what did you think. Was gonna have her do the CCM summer program. My older one went to Kenyon but she was an athlete, loved it there.
@jim33h A LOT of great advice given above. Since you’re in PA, I’d highly recommend visiting some of the PA schools and having your daughter take a lesson and maybe even a shadow day. Boyer at Temple was already mentioned, but there are a few gems we found in the PASSHE schools with GREAT music programs. The Tell School of Music @ Millersville and Wells School of Music at West Chester both have awesome programs. I don’t know much about VP, specifically, as my son is an instrumentalist, but we were impressed overall with their music schools. You’re in State so you have that going for you regarding $$$ plus they both give talent merit award. Since you’re already “around”, it doesn’t hurt to go check them out… have your D take a lesson and maybe even shadow. Both those schools had Music Shadow Days. They don’t have the prestigious big names like a lot of those mentioned above, but we figured for UG, and for minimizing debt, finding the right fit with a great instructor was more important. Kid can go conservatory or some of the big names for post grad degree. I hear Mary Pappert @ Duquense has a great vocal program… dunno anything about it but I DO know the Music program for my instrumentalist and just in general was a winner!! They give ALL their accepted applicants a 50% off “Lead with Music Scholarship”… ALL of them. Worth looking into as well.
And while it appears that I’m from PA, I am actually OOS in DE, where our flagship school University of Delaware has an outstanding Vocal Performance program. I was blown away by one of their Opera Theatre’s productions. And I attend almost all their choral and VP concerts…(I’m a vocalist myself so it’s my thing) I kinda live on campus ?And the head of the Department is a WONDERFUL educator and overall great guy. And an hour and a half drive down the road from there is University of Maryland, also with a great Music Program AND Opera program. My kid didn’t make the academic cut for them so they were dropped of the list but loved the program there. And a friend’s daughter who graduated from there in VP had a NICE scholarship to attend.
Good luck with your search.
@jim33h yes lessons at SUNY but we did lessons at every school except FSU. I recommend the summer program at Indiana - it basically teaches you how to audition with lots of practice. It was an excellent program. Did not look at Oberlin (again she refused any in-state). She looked early on at Carnegie Mellon and liked but at the end decided not to apply. Also liked Vanderbilt but the school is divided into 4 separate schools and at the time was looking to double major. In the end no double major which is almost impossible for a voice major.
“What schools traditionally offer large merit awards”
One thing that we did not think about: Merit awards typically come with a requirement that the student has to maintain a specified GPA in order to keep the merit scholarship past the first year. You probably should figure out what you would do if a low GPA causes a loss of the merit scholarship.
My daughter attended University o Cincinnati CCM. It is one of the most affordable conservatories in the US because it is a public institution but is truly its own little world. My daughter started with a smaller amount of scholarship for talent, and received more each year and participated in local competitions to earn even more money. CCM is truly an amazing arts environment.
Eastman is a very small school so not that many admits, but gives substantial merit awards to most if not all students. Here’s the range as well as a breakdown of how they calculate the amounts: https://www.esm.rochester.edu/financialaid/cost-of-attendance-undergraduate/ We ended up with enough merit aid to make Eastman competitive with our in-state flagship (Rutgers), so definitely worth a try if she likes it.