Interesting conversation with Admissions Office

violadad
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:41:29 +0000

ABBeachMom I’ll agree with Singersmom07, and would address merit (talent/performance/audition) based money directly with music admissions. It’s conceivable they may refer you to Fin Aid, but in most cases, the music school will have control of the pot of talent based allocations.

Non-music academic merit grants/scholarships are nebulous, and it would be best to start with music admissions, particularly in an audition based or dual application school. If nothing else, they will redirect you.

Need based financial aid is almost always a function of being administered by the parent institution office of financial aid, but start with music admissions.

Some prior thoughts here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/448632-negotiate-better-scholarships.html?highlight=scholarships

As to your question as to if 1/2 tuition is normal, low, or high, it’s too school specific to peg. If a full scholarship is awarded based on talent alone, you can assume the student is among the top of the heap (at least within their instrument). This means that in all probability the student is an extremely desirable candidate. Some schools spread the money around a bit more evenly, some award lots to the top candidates, and significantly less to the average level talent.

Some are notoriously stingey across the board, and many awards will vary from year to year to balance instrumental, department and individual studio needs.

Some prior threads with both $ results and experiences.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/645690-non-need-based-scholarships-not-based-musical-talent-either.html?highlight=scholarships