@compmom asked a similar question in one of the journal threads and I’m pasting my response in this thread so it doesn’t get buried and easier to search for future applicants.
“in hindsight applying only to Oberlin and our local conservatory would have been just fine and would have ended up with the same result. Nothing is guaranteed in life so obviously we didn’t choose that risky option. Knowing what we know now, a more realistic option would have been to discard the stand alone conservatories and replace them with other academic end reach universities with fine music schools that meet 100% need such as Northwestern, Rice and USC to name a few. We are a family that qualify for grant need money based on our EFC so if accepted to these schools, she would have received a more acceptable financial package from them thus having more realistic offers.
The problem with most stand alone conservatories is that they usually only offer merit money. Based on my D’s conversations with her peers, high end sopranos candidates usually receive merit money in the 20-30K range. A merit scholarship in that range still makes the remaining balance unaffordable for the family with a mid to low end EFC. Again, applying for these universities were probably academic reaches for my D but a rejection from them would have the same end result as an acceptance from a stand alone conservatory with only merit scholarship. Needless to say acceptances to these universities had to compete with Oberlin which was still her first choice, so maybe all this is a moot point , but hopefully helpful for a parent or future student reading this.”