Hi all,
My daughter is a high school junior wanting to pursue a music (piano performance) major with a minor in business, or a music business in those universities offering this option. She is a classically trained pianist for the past 12 years and is building her portfolio towards auditioning at various universities by end of the year.
Below is the initial list of universities that we have put together, which we intend to whittle down to (maybe) 12.
Given this, I would like to get your thoughts regarding which universities have a history of providing good merit aid/scholarships/discounts for music undergrads. I found a post in CC that is about 8 years old, I am not sure if information contained in the thread is still valid. So, thought of posting the question here.
Thanks in advance for your insights!
Below is the list we have so far..
| University of Michigan |
| Indiana University |
| UT Austin |
| University of Houston |
| UNC, Chapel Hill |
| University of Miami |
| University of Florida |
| Berklee College of Music |
| Syracuse University (Bandier)? |
| Rice University |
| Boston University |
| SMU |
| Trinity University |
| New York University |
| Belmont University |
| Northwestern University |
| Lawrence University |
| Northeastern University |
| University of North Texas |
| Tulane University |
| Temple University |
You may want to look at our Acceptance thread that we started a few weeks ago that shows schools students have been accepted to and what kind of merit they received.
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/acceptance-thread-for-class-of-30-undergrad-28-grad-music-majors/3702652/60
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My understanding is that music merit scholarship can vary quite a lot depending on the students. In the same school, even the same studio, there could be students receiving full tuition waver and also students paying full tuition. It makes more sense for a school to admit full-pay students as they offer full tuition wavers so they can balance their books. If a school has a record of giving merit scholarship to 70% of their students, it does not translate to each accepted student has a 70% chance of receiving scholarship.
When my son decided to apply for BM (when he was high school junior), he started making connections with people (same instrument) 2-5 years ahead. How much scholarship they received and from where made up his range of expectation. You may want to look up the piano students your daughter has befriended, or under the same private teacher, in the same summer camp, entering same competition, etc. Piano is so different from string instruments. A string player can easily find peers in orchestra and branch out from there. I have no idea how pianists do it.
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This is the strategy we used as well. Absolutely agree that while there are some general trends at schools, there is also a lot of variability by instrument, year applying and probably a handful of other factors.
My son received a lot of guidance from his private teacher as we were very much chasing good programs with significant chance of high merit.
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Be careful with merit in and of itself. UF, as an example, will be cheaper with no merit than some schools with.
Start with a target cost and then see if schools can hit. If not, find those that can.
Good luck
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Thanks for the suggestions. I will take a look at the threads linked above. In addition, do any of you have suggestions on college advisors/counselors that you would recommend based on experience?
Yes - the CC is loaded with music parent guidance and offers and I read many posts with huge detail and experience.
I’d recommend the free help on cc posts and DMs from those willing to talk off line.
Good luck
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If your daughter plans to be a music performance major, her music merit award will be based on the strength of her audition relative to others auditioning on piano when she does. There really isn’t a way to predict this in advance for music performance majors. But it does sound like your daughter will be well prepared and will do a great audition.
That’s a pretty long list of colleges if she plans to audition at all of them.
I would discuss this with her private piano teacher. Your daughter also wants to get some good recommendations for the applied piano teachers she might study with in college.
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Thanks. Yes, this is a preliminary list of colleges, which we will narrow down to 10-12 colleges. Some of these, she will apply for music major and some of them for music business (for example, belmont, berklee). Hoping that she will do a music audition at no more than 5 colleges.
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IU has a joint music business degree with Jacob’s and Kelley.
I am not sure what merit would look like for this program or where the merit money would be from (JSOM, Kelley, or admissions).
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The later posts on this current thread discuss merit quite a bit Class of 30 Undergrad/Class of 28 Grad: All Things Related to Music School Applications (prescreens/tours/interviews/auditions/supplements/etc) - College Majors / Music Majors - College Confidential Forums
Twelve schools is still a lot! Are you assuming she won’t pass prescreening at some of them?
To me it seems strange that she is applying for performance at some schools and music business at others. Which is her priority? (In our experience, there are other ways to get experience in music business, such as interning or volunteering, if performance is her preference.)
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Thanks. I sent you a DM regarding IU and Jacobs.
We are also seeking merit and I have been following this forum and others for music schools for awhile now to help inform our decision. My son is cellist, and is a HS sophomore this year.
Here is my perspective of some of the schools on your list based on what I have seen reported from others
University of Michigan: very hit or miss. A few substantial merit awards, but also a lot of students who get $0
Indiana University: decent-sized awards, and an overall COA that is lower than others
University of Miami: can offer HUGE awards (up to full tuition or even full ride) for music merit. But it’s very expensive, so smaller awards barely make a dent.
Rice University: it seems that if you get in, they can offer a lot. It might be partially need-based, since they claim to meet demonstrated need.
Boston University: I have not seen much merit offered from them
Northwestern: seems similar to Rice - if you can get in, they have a combination of merit and need-based awards to make it feasible
Lawrence University: VERY generous merit for music and academics; COA for many students is less than it would be at their in-state schools (full disclosure: I am an alum)
Northeastern: No merit for anyone
NYU: No merit for anyone
UNT: Very good value - if you get even $1000 of music or academic merit, you qualify for in-state tuition, which is quite low
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Thank you for listing that. It matches up with my general observations, as well. Thank you for confirming them.
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Generally speaking, based on what I’ve seen this cycle, I would not have any expectations about getting any sort of merit. Yes, it may be out there, but appears to vary dramatically, and, in some cases, even a ‘large’ amount isn’t as much when you’re starting with $97k tuition. If you don’t expect much, you may not be let down.
NEC gave out more this year than I expected based on their reputation, but not enough for some accepted students to actually attend.
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Yes! Go into it expecting very little and be pleasantly surprised when the opposite happens because it can and does happen. There really is no rhyme or reason to any of it either.
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