CollegeDadofTwo: The original post mentions a fee waiver and also mentions cost as a factor in school choice, if you go back and read it. My own musician kid chose an Ivy over a fine conservatory, with lots of regret, for money reasons so I wanted to offer it as an option. We know very well there is no merit aid at Harvard et al.
Musicprnt, I said that “Nothing but the Best” is dated, only mentioned it (with some humor) because someone else wrote something about that reputation, and I wanted to make the point that the reputation may be from the past.
Also, rather than expressing the opinion that there is only one right path, I was just inserting another option (Ivies etc.), mainly because the original poster mentioned cost and implied some financial challenge. For my family, although my kid got into conservatories that she would have loved to go to, we just could not swing it after my spouse had a stroke.
There are many ways to do things, exactly the point. I would still like to know if vocal performers do well to delay training. This may be a totally ignorant question but it is relevant to the OP’s questions.