Thank you!
I’m doing a google search now!
From the beginning of February.
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Thanks for posting the link.
I wish there were more details. The last time we paid taxes on scholarship $$, it was earned income for their personal deduction and then the kiddie tax (unearned income parental rate) on the remainder. If that approach applies to tuition, that is an enormous tax.
The link I posted was from February. It’s not really all that recent…but it gives some ideas of what might and might not happen.
I’m wondering how they will deal with things like tuition remissions. One of my kids has this as part of a program she is completing. It’s not a scholarship or grant…she simply isn’t charged for the tuition for this portion of her program (a required portion).
Thanks for the article @thumper1
This has been proposed, but hopefully will not pass. It has been on my list of things to worry about.
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I saw that thread yesterday, but it was taken down by the time I tried to go back to it later in the day. A lot of people (myself included) searched through the bill for the info about scholarships being taxed, and no one found anything. This time.
With that said, it is in a leaked document of proposed legislation for 2026, so I’m not breathing too big a sigh of relief right now. I am watching things very, very closely.
As for the tax rate being the “kiddie tax” rate, I’m not so sure about that - definitely need to do more research. My daughter is looking at several schools that have a total cost of attendance of $80-90k. From what I found on the kiddie tax, everything over $2500 is taxed at the parent’s marginal tax rate, so assuming (best case scenario, obviously) she gets a full ride that includes room and board, she could be paying tax on $85k at our current tax rate, which is 35%. That’s $30k in taxes on a “free” education, and she will have earned no actual money to cover those taxes. That is insane. And now that I’m thinking about it, would we even be able to use 529 savings to cover the taxes on scholarships, if we’re not actually using it to directly cover college costs?
We haven’t qualified for a college tax credit since the first year my oldest was in college, back in 2020. And while it was a bit of a shock to lose that credit, at least we weren’t having to pay extra taxes on her generous scholarships.
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We paid something like $3800/yr for our ds’s full ride at Bama. Tax laws were slightly different then compared to now. Iirc, for our daughter’s, she had a higher personal tax deduction. Either way, we had to pay quarterly taxes on their full rides. Parents really need to be aware bc it can be a shock if you aren’t.
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Colburn is full free ride, they include room and board with that as well. It is hard to get into for obvious reasons, but it is a good school and coming out with 0 debt or strain on the parents can allow for better positioning for grad school.
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Colburn tends to prefer grads in many studios and has a very odd committee way of choosing students. If you’re one of the best in your instrument, don’t count on being chosen over someone who clearly has achieved less.
What does that mean? Can you elaborate?
I think what they are saying is that Colburn looks for fit into the program as well as musical ability and there is some truth to that IME, and that being the ‘best’ at your instrument may not get a student in there. I am not an insider, this is based on what I saw when my son interviewed there and from what I have heard from at least one teacher who taught there who my son knows, and from other musicians who have gone there.
The spend a lot of time talking to the students applying, it wasn’t just a 15 minute audition, they also are looking at the kids personality as well. In some ways it is the same approach orchestras take, auditions get you in the door but most orchestras have a probationary period because sometimes that great instrumentalist may not fit the culture of the orchestras.
Colburn is a different place. Being full free ride it is a small program (I think it is like 75 students) and it is somewhat insular and in those circumstances fit can be important, just too easy in a small program for disruptions (that is part speculation and part what insiders have told me) by someone who doesn’t fit in. Among other things, from what I have seen and heard, they tend not to like the kids who think they are a star player already and they don’t want one dimensional superstar instrumentalists who have no interest other than being a hot shot layer, they don’t want the big egos IMO (and it is just that, my opinion).
You would also figure being free it would necessarily attract the best of the best, given the cost of music schools, but that is complicated. Colburn IMO is a great school, but for example, it just doesn’t have the cachet that the Curtis and Juilliards have. Curtis does get a ton of applications from really, really incredible musicians, which is based in free tuitition but is also based in the incredible succcess that its faculty and students represent in the music world. Colburn is a much newer program, and they just don’t have the kind of track record a Curtis has and that is huge in the music world as students see it. So even being free, Colburn doesn’t always necessarily get the best of the best in every slot applying as compared to what a Curtis or Juilliard might get applying because high level students don’t view it as favorably.
As far as someone with less seeming qualifications getting admitted to colburn , that isn’t unique to Colburn. Places like Juilliard a student who is able to pay full freight will go over kids who technically are better than them,despite their denials schools have limited ability with aid and they are quite frankly looking for full freight students to allow them to give aid to others who they really want there.
Not to mention that ‘who is better’ is a subjective term in music school admissions, how people determine who is better is not scientific, there are a lot of factors there. Teachers may admit students into their studio who they feel have a high ceiling and they would like to teach them over some hotshot they might feel they can’t really teach, even though the hotshot has all these competitions and so forth in their jacket.
Every schools has its own dynamics, every school has its own methods and because admissions is totally subjective, it is very possible that depending on the criteria you use,‘lesser talented students’ can get in before a reputed superstar of the future in other words.
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Yes, all schools do this. When a school gives you notable merit, you should always consider that seriously over the bigger name that gives you no or little merit. My D had 2 friends at big name conservatories with no or little merit that were getting basic attn. Both were vocalists and were having trouble building their performance skills and resumes bc they just weren’t getting cast in any significant roles. If a school is excited about you (usually shown by $$$), you may get more attn and opportunities IMHO.
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I identify so much with having a “list of things to worry about.”
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Shepherd would be amazing. That’s good to hear about them being generous. It’s definitely in the category of schools that are a reach for every student due to low admission rate for both music and Rice as a whole.
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I am choosing to not even have this on my radar at this point because there is literally nothing I can do. Head in the sand time.
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I said this in a Berklee thread and people didn’t like it to put it mildly. Add grad students to the mix often paying a fraction of the practical undergrad freight, and you get a lot of confused and frustrated students and parents.
My wife follows a paying for college board and has received some pretty practical tips and tricks for figuring out the money. But she is constantly amazed at the number of people who have not properly prepared themselves and their students for the reality of these numbers. No matter where you are financially, it’s not a great idea to let it sneak up on you junior or senior year, and hope (assume?) that your student is going to get some merit money to close the gap whatever the gap is.
I’m getting tired of apologizing to people for saving for my son’s college education. Yes it definitely hurt at first. Then it didn’t hurt so much. Then we still noticed it, now we don’t notice it so much. No purses, no watches, no luxury car leases that that monthly 529 payment would have covered. 17 years of thinking, “huh, our son might want to go to college one day and not have a ruined life trying to pay for it.” Eight of those years were before he ever picked up a drumstick, and 15 of them before anyone thought, “oh snap, this kid can play, if he were a lacrosse player he’d be getting a full ride.”
Sorry for the rant, I know everyone’s situation is different, but my son has seen some pretty disappointed kids in the last few weeks who have had their hopes and sometimes expectations tempered by the reality of the admissions process and their level of talent.
ps, I know that all this is absolutely true for non music (sports and academic) kids too, but there is a level of opacity in music that goes beyond objective observation.
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Yea I hear ya. The whole college financial “thing” is frustrating. Honestly it shouldn’t be so expensive…but here we are. My recommendations based on experience for current parents and parents of juniors are:
TALK ABOUT MONEY! Normalize it. Not all families do. Talk about what you can and can’t afford…unapologetically. Talk about debt. Run debt calculators for kid to see. Give them an idea of rent costs, utilities, health insurance, food, transportation. That can bring some reality into the situation…as they get enough messages of “dream big” (on my bank acct).
Expect some disappointment. I’m disappointed in my ability to afford some of the finer things too. Oh well…life goes on. Your kid can still get an education…but they should know the financial parameters and make a list accordingly. I would rather have a disappointed Junior just entering the process than a devastated Senior at the end of an extremely busy audition season.
Be aware that once they enter college…the pressure to spend MORE money is ever present. There are so many opportunities…with a price tag affixed. So if you push yourself to the edge financially on tuition, you may not be able to afford the summer programs “that everyone is doing and is required to be successful”. Ugh, you’ll need to work with your kid again to make tough calls. Yes to some…and no to others.
Get your kid involved in ALL negotiations. They need to get comfortable negotiating program costs and later contracts. My D now negotiates all her contracts on her own. But for many years after graduating, she would bounce things off me. She did learn some of the basic skills during college as I pushed her on it…and a lot of grad students gave her advice too. You don’t want them leaving college without this important skill.
Hope this helps in some way.
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This is excellent advice.
Don’t let your kids be one of those new grads who thinks that health insurance is free and are then shocked with their first pay stub (I’ve had some of those on my team). Don’t let your kids be one of those new grads who doesn’t understand the difference between a debit card and a credit card. Or one of those kids who thinks that if your landlord requires first month, last month and a security deposit to rent an apartment, that means your first rent payment isn’t due for three months (plus the 10 day grace period).
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I am late to this post, but I do have thoughts. But we are upper middle class and full pay. I have 2 kids that auditioned for music programs. I would 100% NOT go into the process saying if you get into school X we will figure out how to pay for school X. Music path often leads to grad programs. Having at least some financial flexibility is helpful those years even if students get generous offers for grad school. I have also seen the side effects of freinds parents not being well funded for retirement and how hard that can be on the next generation. Much harder than having to select a cheaper undergrad school.
That said, you might get a unicorn financial offer at a reachier school. You never know unless you try. Both my kids left reachier schools on the table to attend the much more affordable schools they did attend. We paid about 22K all in for 1 kid at a T15 public university. That kid did a double degree. Perfect fit for him, a lot of flexibliity available on the music side. But he does have cohorts that have moved onto competitive grad programs from there. Another kid we’re paying about 32K for a private U in a large city with a conservatory style SOM. Currently a sophomore, having an amazing experience.
In terms of making a list, we tried to have a range of 8-12 schools and tried to have like 3-4 safer, middling, and reachier options. Your private teacher may be able to help with this. You may want to avoid or minimize schools that focus on need based aid. They may have some scholarships. We were told when my daughter auditioned at BU that the max scholarship for undergrads was 5K. Now I am not surprised they may flex that for harder to fill instruments depending on the year. Other schools that come to mind like this might be Northwestern, Vanderbilt, USC (Calif). Oberlin maybe? One of my kids got their max merit award for that year and that was still expensive for us, discouraged younger kid from bothering with that. They may have some larger merit awards for hard to fill instruments.
Both my kids got great offers at Lawrence U. If that is a good fit, you might also look at Saint Olaf in Minnesota, Baldwin Wallace, University of Denver, DePaul University. University of Miami has some money to play with, though I think that is coming up in price for musicians. Jacobs I have heard can be generous. Bard.
My younger kid who is a sophomore did a workshop on applying to colleges before audition season on the east coast with some faculty from one of the big conservatories out there that gets mentioned here all the time. He said unless you hit the jackpot, he didn’t think it was worth paying for a conservatory for undergrad. Which surprised giving that is literally his livlihood. That said, if it is affordable for you, there is nothing wrong with that. There are certainly students being well prepared. He just didn’t think it was worth a premium over other options with strong faculty and good performance opportunities for undergrad. That actually was really good for my kiddo to hear from a paid professional going into the process. Focus on teacher and culture fit. These programs can feel very different as you visit them.
The other thing is between 2 kids, we did a lot of searching and researching and in the process watched a lot of performances online and in person. We saw less well prepared performers at high end schools. Schools are business balancing their budgets and only have so much money to work with. Understanding that from a pragmatic point of view is good going into the proces. We also saw some amazing performers at lower end schools. Plenty of people are following the money in this process. Someone from my kid’s current program she worked with last year just won a high recognizable national competition.
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As the mom of a younger musician, I appreciate your input on the different schools’ financial likelihoods. We have zero illusions that our dd will be a top contender and get some rare award. I have been reading this forum all school yr and filing away the info. Your post is a good summation of what I have seen. $5k awards would be meaningless for us. Scholarships would have to be huge for some of the $$$ schools for them not to be a waste of time and $ for auditioning.
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