@Sunnysar I’m not sure I agree about the money/level readiness. I think anyone who gets in was judged ready to thrive there by the faculty. Otherwise they would be rejected.
In our case, the merit money ranged from $0 at three schools to $20k at one, $30k at one, and $50k at another. The $30k school was the most prestigious and was his reach school. I don’t think the other schools saw him as less ready — I believe many other factors were at play, including what instruments they need this year, balancing the class, etc.
Just my .02. I know our kids will all grow where they are planted!
For those of you not getting enough money to make a top choice affordable, I agree with @SpartanDrew on the appeal. I would start with 1st “realistic” choice and if they can’t make it affordable, move to 2nd choice, etc.
My D was not “on board” with appeals if they already fell within our budget. (I think this was touched on several pages back by others). For us, most were “affordable” though I would have loved to see lower COA across the board. (We are not wealthy and/or sitting on large 529s, but she had many good scholarship offers.) Berklee was the only one for us that was far and away unaffordable and we did not bother (she instead deferred). However, if she had REALLY wanted to attend somewhere and it was just out of reach financially, I would have insisted on appealing.
I know I’ve posted this before, but for anyone who may have missed it:
My D did not attend ANY of the 8 schools she was originally accepted at 3 years ago and we could have realistically paid for 7 of them. Regardless, she ended up applying / auditioning / accepting at a school in May - June. It worked out 100% fine…my D has zero regrets. Do not give up hope!
I feel like maybe if I had found this board earlier and pushed some of the advice on my s for his applications and auditions it might have helped some, but would have, should have, could have. We/he did the best we could at the time with the information we had.
My s has affordable schools to go to in the fall and I think he can thrive and grow at either one of them. I need to go lick my wounds and get over it.
I wish we could take $ out of the decision making process. But it is the reality of life. A $30-50,000 per year difference is significant. We are waiting on financials from CMU and NU and then the tough decision process. Lots to love about all of the schools. I’m sure you are all going through the same angst as we are. We have found that a nice bottle of red is a perfect cure to parental nerves. LOL.
To anyone who applied to Berklee, are decisions coming out on the 31st? Also, how do you go about viewing the decision because as of now it just says “review application” and “start a new application” and that my application is 100% done
@SpartanDrew I will tell D to appeal. D is so happy and honored she got in! Mannes has been her dream since she started this process. I never even heard of it but I’m new to the whole music thing.
I haven’t posted about her Mannes experience since the flute world is so small and wanted to wait until we had all offers on the table but D was in hog heaven at Mannes. At Eastman she was intimidated but Mannes she was star struck. They had a masterclass with the principal flutist from the Vienna Philharmonic and members of the NYC Flute Club were there. Let’s just say there were some big name flutists in the audience, one came in late and sat next to her. After the class she was supposed to say hello to Judith Mendenhall as they’d been exchanging emails about doing a lesson. She was shaking in her shoes and it took her 25 minutes to finally get her nerve up to say hello. The only thing I could compare it to would have been meeting Steve Perry when I was her age.
So while it may not work financially, it truly is an honor for her. Maybe she gets lucky with more money. I wish we had a big pot of gold but it will all work out in the end. She has an excellent offer with a great teacher and program that is a good fit for her. This lessens the sting that we don’t have deep, deep pockets.
@akapiratequeen I guess the wording “not quite ready” wasn’t appropriate. In D’s case, I think that may be the case though. She has no resume, no all state band until this year, no summer programs/camps, no private lessons or classes with the teachers and she didn’t start preparing until August. She was competing with a competitive instrument against kids with resumes a mile long and their skills very polished. D has a natural talent that hasn’t been honed in yet.
@CaraCoMO I forgot we had discussed this before. I just had this conversation with my husband because we are second guessing our decision of not taking on debt for her college. I’ve come to the conclusion that if D could accomplish coming this far by attending her small high school, surely she can achieve this and more at the grad school level by attending her financial back up. Same as for your son. If he came this far in his home town where he has little opportunity, think what he will be able to accomplish going to a good financial safety school. Use the savings for summer classes with some top teachers.
I took D this past week to hear the orchestra play and for her to sit in on the studio class of her financial safety. This was so helpful and I thought had sealed the deal for her but here we are second guessing the decision.
@sunnysar I hear you on second guessing, lol. It does not help, or maybe it’s better this way, that s is on a spring break camping trip with friends, and husband is currently out of the country. We will all be back together on Sunday and be able to have some conversations then. I was practically in tears earlier, so maybe it’s better I get it out of my system before they get back.
@CaraCoMO Which schools are you waiting for? In my son’s case last year he was pretty disheartened that Berklee didn’t offer him any scholarship. It took a lot of work (from private instructor, band director, and from us) to convince him it wasn’t the end of the world…that he should obviously continue to play (Jazz trumpet, but he’s been in honors classical groups too) and just wait the year and audition again. He went to local state univ and was happy at first…in the marching band, symphonic wind, jazz big band and chorus…but then he admitted that he wanted to a place with more challenges musically…
Back to Berklee…they had initially offered him the chance to defer, he never accepted it last year. So this year we’d been told he’d have to apply again, pay the $150 audition fee…once we did that , someone from Admissions contacted him to ask if he just wanted to come back as a deferral…they actually refunded our #2 audition fee and gave him a slot at the end of Feb to audition. We were told by some staff from Admissions office (at audition day) that they see a LOT of students come back the next year (maybe more) when they dont’ get a scholarship (or enough of one) the first time around.
So they were really pretty accommodating about him coming back…and generous with the deferral policy.
An aside but hopefully it helps anyone looking for $$ awards from Berklee. They just announced at their HS Jazz Fest this year that they were suspending the festival supposedly because they wanted to put “more $$” towards scholarships and aid for admitted students. We will see!
This is where the decisions get tough. Only you know your kid and what will be right for them at this point. For us, my older son didn’t have a passion driving him and wasn’t terribly focused academically. He did well at a state school, though it took an extra couple of years for him to finish, and is happy to be debt free. My daughter, on the other hand, was absolutely driven and focused on her goals. She squeezed every possible contact, experience, and opportunity out of her high priced education, from studying abroad twice to fellowships and research programs. We took on debt to help her attend her dream program and have no regrets. (She took a Perkins loan as well.)
Music S is strong academically and will thrive in an academic environment, but he’s flexible as long as his program has excellent teachers and includes the two components he wants (jazz and music ed). He has several good options and will, we hope, choose the one that challenges him the most while not incurring a lot of debt. He has a first choice and we are currently appealing his offer to see if we can push it over the no-debt line. If necessary, though, we will support him in attending his first choice even if there is some (manageable) amount of debt involved.
@JeJeJe Thank you! It’s amazing to me that they’d make us wait until a weekend day…didn’t think most admission offices would be working on the weekend… so less than 2 days to go. : )
@SnackysMom he is waitlisted at SFCM and waiting on MSM. I sent you a PM with more details. Learning about the Berklee deferment option is very helpful.
@CaraCoMO My D deferred @ Berklee as well. It was a simple process. D ended up happy where she landed, but it made her feel better "in the moment’ knowing that she had an “out” if things hadn’t gone well.
Woke up this morning to see that S was accepted at The New School with $25k in merit.
We are very happy – and even more relieved. It’s been a long, somewhat disappointing, and rather confusing week at our house after declines from USC and Miami and waitlisted on NYU, and S (not to mention wife and me) needed the reassurance and boost of confidence going into the weekend.
Forgive me for sharing a quick true story from his New School audition a few weeks ago: after playing his first two songs, the faculty asked him, “So, where are you currently attending college?” . . . “Um, I’m actually a senior in high school.” . . . “Wait, you’re not auditioning for grad school?!?!?” (checks notes) . . . “Actually, no, applying as a freshman for Fall of 2019” (suppresses smile and moves onto final audition number).
Huge congrats @WestOfPCH!! Does that take NS to the top of his list? Let me know if you have any questions I can help with. That is a fantastic merit award!
@WestOfPCH that’s awesome news! Made my morning. He’s obviously a hell of a player, and the disappointments from the past week were obviously driven by academics or some other X factor. Clearly not his musical abilities. So that’s awesome news and I assume a very viable option for him now!