<p>Anyway you look at it, college is a major investment, but sounds like it is even worse for your family right now. All I can say is to repeat what we heard at workshops on how to pay for college, and that was “Don’t eliminate a college because you think you can’t afford it.” They said that if you like a college, you should apply to it and if you get accepted, you might be surprised at what they can do for you with financial aid. Worst case, you are out the cost of the application. If you go to the fafsa.gov website, you can fill out the FAFSA and get a report on your “expected family contribution”. It is a federal gov’t service that is free. You can fill out the real FAFSA, just don’t send it to any schools. That will give you an idea of how much financial aid you might get from colleges. Most colleges use the FAFSA to calculate need-based financial aid (which is different from merit-based scholarships, for which you don’t need to show financial need). The difference between your expected family contribution and the “cost of attendance” for the college is the maximum you might get in need-based financial aid. Most colleges show their estimated cost of attendance somewhere on their website. Colleges will not necessarily offer you that full amount, but some do. Also, I think some make their own calculation and might offer you more aid than the FAFSA calculated. I don’t know how merit scholarships, such as those that Miami offers, affect need-based financial aid. That would be a good question for a financial aid office. Your son could apply to both Miami and Dominguez Hills and if he gets accepted to both, decide based on finances. In any case, because the music technology majors are so competitive, it’s a good idea to apply to half a dozen or so.</p>
<p>Last summer we visited Drexel, Carnegie Mellon, Syracuse and Miami. We also visited American, George Washington, and Georgetown over 2009 spring break. We didn’t visit any during the school year, with academics, music & sports. Many private schools track “demonstrated interest” and use that when evaluating a student’s admission app. That means, visits and other contacts such as emails, letters, and phone calls. Generally, the larger the college, the less likely they track it. Syracuse definitely tracks (they have the Bandier Program for the music industry) and I think American University (Audio Technology) and Miami also track (but maybe less formally than Syracuse). If you Google “common data set” for a college you may be able to get the info on whether they track. It’s in the matrix that shows how important individual elements are for admission evaluations. If you don’t think you can make visits because of time and money considerations, I would start emailing questions to both admissions people (overall university and school of music, if applicable) and to professors in the major. Let them know that you can’t visit but are interested in their program. </p>
<p>I think at Miami the audition requirements depend on the instrument, since the professors who will be teaching you on your instrument conduct the audition. My son says that there was no sight reading for violin. </p>
<p>Good luck on your quest! You have quite a year ahead of you. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned, seems like it would be a shame to just forget all these details without someone else getting some benefit.</p>