<p>my family's income is fairly low (50k/3 people). while i would be fine with simply applying to UCs and CSUs, i've heard that oftentimes for low income students, public schools will give most of their aid in loans, whereas private schools tend to give more non-loan aid. what i'm interested in studying is music composition and/or music technology (recording arts, etc). can anyone recommend schools that are good for my goals as well as good when it comes to giving financial aid? thanks.</p>
<p>bmp;)klklk</p>
<p>I'm not an expert, but my son is a high school senior musician and here's what I know: </p>
<p>Case cross registers with Cleveland Institute of Music; Case has music tech and CIM probably has composition. Case give good merit money. If you get into Case, you can study at CIM also.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon has a good music tech department and has a great conservatory style music program, but gave very bad aid packages to just about everyone I know. Try your luck there, but don't become too attached to CMU! </p>
<p>I know someone who got nice aid from the New England Conservatory, but I'm not sure how their composition and music tech is.</p>
<p>My son did get small amounts of aid from state schools, but they were still cheaper than private for us (except Case, which was comparable to our PA state schools).</p>
<p>Not much help, I know, but maybe it's somewhere to start?</p>
<p>Here are a few to research:</p>
<p>UCSB--College of Creative Studies, Music, contest in fall includes stipend.
USC, Thornton School of Music, great endowment and funds for students in need of financial aid, also merit awards
Indiana School of Music, if instate, IU has merit awards for all. You need to read through their information.
College of Wooster, merit awards (some you must apply for) and great financial aid packages
Lawrence University, merit awards and great financial aid packages</p>
<p>UC-Berkeley has a good composition department, as do CalArts and Stanford.
Rice is a great composition department, and has extremely generous financial aid. Vanderbilt is also solid in comp, has very ample need-based aid available, and the location in Nashville could be a real plus for recording arts studies.
I'll second USC. Very good comp, and I'd imagine good recording arts because of the LA/film industry connections.
Once again, Indiana is great for comp and rec. arts, but oos fin. aid is incredibly lousy (which is why I'm not going there).</p>
<p>thanks for your help so far</p>
<p>i'm wondering if anybody knows about the programs/aid at these schools:</p>
<p>loyola marymount university
emerson
northwestern
nyu</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Northwestern has an excellent music program in the context of a great university, but I don't think they give merit aid, only need based aid.</p>
<p>University of Houston, while not the greatest school on the planet, does have a really cool composition prof, Dr. Nelson. If you're a National Merit Scholar, you get tuition, room, board, books, and i think a stipend, too. They're very generous with other aid beacuse, well, they're really trying to improve the school. The conductor, Franz Krager, is awesome, as is one of the violin professors.</p>
<p>Good suggestions above.</p>
<p>Good for composition: Michigan. Good for recording: McGill (about to open a state of the art recording building). Really hard to get in: Eastman. Not as hard to get in: SF Conservatory. Worth looking in to: Syracuse.</p>
<p>Affordability: you will qualify for need based, so try for some private schools.</p>
<p>I know personal attacks don't belong on this board, but I will say that I played under Franz Krager last summer, and he is definitely a love-him-or-hate-him type. I didn't like him at all, personally, though plenty of people do. Just warning you that he's not for all tastes...</p>
<p>He does have his moods... I play under him in a youth orchestra, so he's not quite as, um, rough with us as I imagine he may be with a college orchestra. Everyone loves Andre Grabiec, though (violin prof).</p>
<p>Grabiec rocks!
Actually, my objections to Krager had more to do with a lack of roughness.</p>