Affordable Cello performance for an unsure student

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Well, I don’t think Oberlin is a fit in any way; sounds like it’s pretty impossible to get into anyways. Lawrence would not be a good fit, either. My son wants a school that is balanced rather than decidedly liberal or conservative. I think I mentioned that, though we’re Christians, he said he didn’t want to attend a Christian college. Yet, neither does he want one where everyone but him is liberal. (He’s pretty libertarian and socially conservative) I like diversity of thought and background and I think he does, too.</p>

<p>I think we’re ok with the list of schools we have at the moment. He originally liked the idea of more rural, but I think being in a place with good medical care is important, so I feel like suburban, or at least a town with a good med school would be more ideal.</p>

<p>We looked at Gordon but they don’t have enough scholarships even for top students. I do know Belmont is Christian, but I also know a kid who went there for a semester or year and came home with stories of kids getting kicked out for drinking and drugs, so I never assume Christian means insulated.</p>

<p>For now, I think he’ll stick with the California schools, a few reachy reach schools around the country with good offering of liberals arts, music, engineering, design, etc., and possibly some colleges with music schools attached to them.</p>

<p>I’ll be very curious about what the bassist we know says about UCSD.</p>

<p>So, are these lessons with teachers ever inexpensive? Free? I realize that our budget is very tight. My husband is currently on disability and the transmission went out on our 2005 Focus, so all savings is gone. I guess I could ask my dad to help out. How do you approach teachers? Do you just email music departments? Email the teachers directly?</p>

<p>We’re just moving slowly along. I know it will work out the way it’s supposed to.</p>

<p>I truly appreciate all the feedback. It’s eyeopening and very helpful!</p>

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<p>You guys have a lot on your plate and seem to be making good progress toward some clarity. Good luck!</p>

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<p>My son has not been charged money for a lesson with a bass professor. However my flute playing niece was charged every time. Here again, I think it just depends on the teacher more than anything. I had my S just ask straight up about a lesson fee when he introduced himself by email asking if a lesson was possible.</p>

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<p>I don’t think you can know how competitive he is unless you get an assessment from a conservatory level teacher or two. </p>

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<p>I think you’re right. His teacher is going to talk with the principal cellist of the local symphony and see if they can arrange a lesson. I don’t know about other teachers yet, but he also knows the cello teacher at UCSD, so might arrange a lesson with him, too. I think that’s a very good start. Once we get feedback from them, I think it will help to know what potential he has.</p>

<p>If my son feels compelled, we can look further north into OC and LA county for more sample lessons after this.</p>

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<p>Sounds like a good plan!</p>

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<p>By the way, I’m just curious how other people come up with a list of schools to apply to for music. Was it reputaio f the teacher, good scholarships/need-based aid, location, strength of particular programs, or something else?</p>

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<p>For my daughter, cost/aid was not a factor in creating the list (if she’d only applied to schools i could afford, she’d have been left with a one-school list), but it sure was a factor when it came to picking one from the schools she was admitted to. And the results from an aid standpoint, as others have noted, were entirely unpredictable. Not only that, but the packages changed quite a bit during April – and that’s fairly common. So–the list. It began with a crazy long list that wasn’t based on too much hard knowledge – names she’d heard of, I guess, with some internet research. From there, conversations with her teacher (and others, including conservatory teachers) narrowed the list somewhat. Sample lessons cut it further, in conjunction with school visits (a lesson with a teacher she didn’t click with at all in combo with the school’s somewhat remote location, which didn’t appeal to her, eliminated one immediately, for instance). Sample lessons also worked the other way, of course. For my daughter, after money gave us the short list, the teacher was the most important factor by far (this isn’t true for everyone), followed by general level of the students, strength of the program, and other intangibles that only became apparent after multiple visits. As for location, it wasn’t a big deal for her – in retrospect it seems she ended up in more urban than rural locales, though all over the country. In the end, her decision was highly personal, went against some advice of some well meaning others, and like I said, her sense of best teacher fit broke a tie breaker. </p>

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<p>StringPop, </p>

<p>Appreciate the feedback. Question: Are there actually conservatories that give scholarships? A lot of scholarship? Need-based aid? I just assumed most were like Berklee College of Music, which doesn’t seem to give much of anything except loans. Obviously, I haven’t done much looking at those types of schools (conservatories), since my son is unlikely to attend one, but I am curious.</p>

<p>What about conservatories associated with colleges? Do any of those give scholarships? Need-based aid? Probably scholarships are only for tippy-top candidates.</p>

<p>I guess I can dig through this forum to really understand what kind of aid is out there at the various schools, but would love to here personal stories.</p>

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<p>Conservatories do give scholarships - very often the size is more substantial if there is financial need. Schools of music within universities do give merit scholarships. And academic scholarships. And financial aid. And, yes, tippy-top candidates are the ones most likely to get the biggest offers. And those with significant financial need. There are a number of posters on here whose sons and daughters were offered either full tuition, or even full rides at a number of wonderful programs. And I feel like every one who has posted here in the past has found a good program for their son or daughter which ended up affordable to them - despite the initial forbidding sticker price.
However, yes, the better the audition, the more money one is likely to get - which is why it is a good investment to have sample lessons and travel to those auditions rather than sending in a recording if at all possible.</p>

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<p>Conservatories do have money but how it’s distributed varies from year to year and usually remains a mystery. If one attends a conservatory associated with a university or college, the aid will come from one or the other- the conservatory is the student is a music major. The initial aid offer isn’t written in stone either and can be appealed- you’d be surprised at how amounts can change if you deal with the correct person and state your case rationally.
There is nothing wrong with students working while in school, either on campus or off, and loans are an option also.
In my daughter’s case, her top grades and test scores actually netted her more scholarship money from her undergrad conservatory.
All of the things that you listed factor into the initial list of schools and into the final decision. We can tell you which schools have given aid to our kids or others we know, but we don’t know your situation nor the level of your student. </p>

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<p>Thank you, SpiritManager and Messo’sMama.</p>

<p>I don’t know my son’s level, either. Until he gets feedback from someone in a university program setting, it’s hard to know. His teacher has just commented that a gal we knew who played cello with my son got into Berklee (have no idea of the scholarship) and my son’s teacher acknowledges that my son is a better player.</p>

<p>We are a fairly high need family-this year’s EFC was $9500, but will go down with two in college and my dh’s lower income (probably around 5K lower for this year and the next), would qualify us for great need-based aid at top schools, but I don’t know how it works at other type schools.</p>

<p>I think we’ll keep as many options open as my son can handle and see what happens. Since he’s applying for different majors at different schools, it’s a lot for him. I am just having him concentrate on cello practice, college app essays, and school work. (Just-ha!) He’s got a little break between chamber camp and the start of the orchestral season, so I am hoping he will work hard at memorizing. He has a new cadenza for the Haydn that his teacher gave him-not sure why-and that likely will be the hardest thing.</p>

<p>Thanks again for all the help.</p>

<p>Ok, sorry one more question! (For now)</p>

<p>Do state schools typically have scholarships for the arts? Some schools on the list are: CSULB, Cal State Fullerton, possibly U of Cincinnati CCM, and not sure what other ones are out there, but those are possibles on the list. USCD, but that’s affordable since we qualify for Blue Gold free tuition.</p>

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<p>Just for comparison, D3 had good grades but terrible test scores (she’s never tested well) and got a full scholarship from Hartt for four years based on her audition. She got an on-campus job freshman year that she kept for her full undergrad career, with “promotions”, that paid for incidentals and morphed into a full time job the summer after she graduated, which set her up nicely for grad school. She also worked off campus at gigging and teaching.</p>

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<p>Wow, that’s amazing, stradmom! Congratulations to your D! Sounds like she is very talented and very motivated!</p>

<p>I think my son would be so much more motivated if he didn’t have to talk a couple of required high school classes (like foreign language-he’s so not into it; we’re looking at possible alternatives as I type), and could really concentrate on cello. But, I feel like he must take a minimum of two years’ equivalence of high school foreign language, preferably three, in order to be competitive at most colleges. Ugh. I supposed if he were totally bent on going to a conservatory, it probably wouldn’t matter, but that’s not the case.</p>

<p>Ironically, he has a hearing loss in one ear, and I waited to do foreign language with him until this year, because he was still being fitted with an aid after his surgery sophomore year. Still didn’t help; he doesn’t like it. :-(</p>

<p>Sorry, I digress! That’s just how it is in our house right now. Never think homeschooling is a panacea! LOL</p>

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<p>What about Italian? It can be very relevant to a music kid!</p>

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<p>Yes! That’s what I think!! He’s currently taking Italian at the local community college, but he doesn’t like it. I <em>think</em> it’s the fact that it feel embarrassing to him (he can be a shy introvert, but speaks up in his other college classes very nicely) to have to speak a foreign language in front of a native speaker and possibly other native speakers. He thinks he would like a language better online. Gah! I can’t think of a worse way to take a foreign language, but I want to be sensitive to him since he’s not really articulating totally clearly why he likes it.</p>

<p>Even more, what I call providential, is the fact that his ensemble is going to be playing for an Italian film festival in October. One of the movies features an intl known orchestra and the trumpet player will be in town and they will be accompanying him on a piece. Since one of the required assignments was to participate in an Italian culture event, um, could this have worked out any better? Sigh.</p>

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<p>@stradmom‌ , congrats! (How many daughters do you have–I thought it was two, but it sounds like more!) @sbjdorlo‌, I think I lost track of what it is your son wants to do? Is the ideal situation one where he takes cello seriously but majors in something else? I remember the search for your S1’s college.</p>

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<p>My son isn’t sure what he wants to do, but he’s not applying to conservatories. He’s applying to some schools as a music major, but other schools, he’ll apply for industrial design, game design, and even engineering, product design and possibly digital media design/studies. </p>

<p>He’ll have to make a choice at some of the state and UC schools. For instance, UCLA has either music or design media arts. He’ll need to decide which would be his first major of choice and then submit a supplement based on that. He has not decided yet.</p>

<p>So that’s where we are. He really feels that the quality of his pieces will help him decide how serious he is. It’s a totally new experience to perfect things for college auditions, at least for him since he only did one competition. </p>

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<p>It sounds like you will be looking for a college with a strong engineering program and a decent orchestra. </p>

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<p>@glassharmonica

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<p>It is two daughters - D3 the violinist turned violist and D2 the amateur violist. (Though to look at the collection of shoes I unearthed doing a cleanout upstairs recently, you’d think it was more!) I don’t often mention their older brother here, but he was a cellist and guitarist in his youth and now works doing live sound.</p>