It may be apocryphal, but I thought that UNT give at least 1k in music merit to all admits to activate the in state rate. If your son got even 1-2k academic merit that would be pretty good. Isn’t their in state around 8k before deductions?
UNT is definitely an affordable option.
You are right! Class rank is a joke if you are at a good competitive high school. My son has a 3.8 unweighted GPA and does not get him into the top 25% as his school is also IB. I do think they take that into account. My son never applied to UNT as he got into his first choice before deadlines. Did your children have to have their counselor fill out a form with information pertaining to their high school and class? UNT is really a GREAT school and a GREAT value if they have the degree you are seeking!!!
I really don’t know - we did the FAFSA because I’m a single mom and there’s quite a bit of need based aid she qualifies for (at least this year - I’m getting married in October and that will change everything, but it’s nice to know she also has significant merit aid at a couple of these schools).
@Irishmomof2 congrats on your upcoming marriage in October 
if your child does receive financial aid, it may be affected when you get married, of course. The circumstances would be different than they are now, so they would alter the amount of scholarship accordingly, by what I’ve been told previously.
I’m glad to hear that your D will also be receiving merit aid. I find that merit aid is usually higher than financial at most schools. Which I find a little strange, but it’s understandable.
The one thing that always irks me though, is that someone who plays football can get a full ride, while having a 2.5 GPA, but someone with a 4.0 GPA will often receive little to no scholarship. That’s frustrating, don’t you think?
Yes!!! I totally agree @OperaAdri
When 90 thousand people come out to hear you sing and play on any given Saturday maybe there will be more scholarship funds.
A couple of MM in Voice Performance friends just heard from SFCM. Still waiting for my email, but just wanted to let folks know admissions has started sending them out already!
Chiming in on the various topics …
We’ve seen that most schools require the FAFSA (or CSS in some cases) before they make a merit award. The logic is that they want to give you government money first before they give their own money, and they need the FAFSA to do that. I appreciate the “paranoia” of not wanting to divulge full financial info when you know you aren’t qualified for need-based aid, but that’s unfortunately the way the system works. Note that if your 2014 taxes aren’t complete, you can fill in the form with 2013 info and then edit later.
RE: UNT, I don’t think it’s necessarily true that they give $1,000 merit scholarships to everyone from out of state, but it does seem to be a fairly common thing for them to do. The value of that scholarship is $11,000, since it qualifies you for the in-state tuition waiver, bringing total cost of attendance to about $22,000 (tuition, room, board, misc). I get the impression that they see this as a strong selling point for the value of their program. And it is a great school with an increasingly impressive faculty, good facilities, and solid performance opportunities in both jazz and classical genres (they feed into symphony and opera programs in both Dallas and Ft Worth, where both cities have considerable civic funding for the arts).
We haven’t seen any merit scholarships yet. A few of the schools have academic scholarships apart from their music merit scholarships, and those have different application requirements. Read all the emails and troll the website for information, and don’t be afraid to get on the phone with the admissions and financial aid folks. I’ve found them very easy to work with. But in general we’re expecting to see merit offers come in around the 1st, and then we have a few weeks to review and decide.
@FriscoFred, only one of my son’s applications required the FAFSA for merit - NEC. None of the other conservatories (Eastman, Oberlin, Berklee, Frost, New School, etc) required it for merit aid. But from reading these posts, it does semm as if merit aid and financial need are not always independent!
Seems like most of schools requiring FAFSA for merit are state schools and not conservatories. @drummergirl Has your son received acceptances yet? I see he applied to Berklee. That is where my son will be attending and always like to talk to other Berklee parents
@drummergirl, we saw that a few of the schools required it for merit aid consideration, so we went ahead and sent the FAFSA to all of them while we were at it, including several on your list. UNT was the most clear about requiring it before any merit consideration.
Accepted, University of Missouri-Kansas City, DMA flute 3/16/15
Hmm. I got a different answer from UNT about that. I think I will call them again. I believe my son didn’t qualify for any of the fafsa scholarships because of his class rank. Its a holiday today.lol. I cant call and confirm.
Congrats flute 123!
Accepted at San Francisco Conservatory, MM in Voice Performance!
UNT website states that everyone is ENCOURAGED to fill out FAFSA. It does not say you have to. It also says they will begin awarding $$ in late April. That kind of stinks to have to wait that long. UNT Excellence Scholarships are incoming Freshmen that are in top 50% of their class and score at least 1100 on SAT. Also says you must fill out general scholarship application every year of attendance.
Congrats!Sopranobie
Baldwin Wallace
CCPA
cellomom6’s S cello performance, BM
Thats it!
@cellomom6 YAY!! Congrats. Your son has some amazing choices
Congrats everyone on all the acceptances!!!