Aren’t many music students right now sitting on a bunch of possible paths and weighing options? I guess I wouldn’t think to do this without having the full financial picture unless your student is already regularly in back and forth contact with a member of music faculty.
I don’t think the vast majority of music faculty are going to take it personally if you don’t/can’t take their offer and make another choice. They get it is expensive and there are many factors at play. My older kid did an early sample lesson at one school and a basically teacher said to him “you’re going to get a lot better financial offers than we can give you here this year and you should take them. Try us again for grad school”. I also suspect many music teachers wish they had buckets of money to throw at students having chatted with a few, but they’re working within their own contraints.
I agree with all of this 100%. I bet the professors wish they could give scholarships to everyone, and I know I would. I just thought he should write a thank you note. However, I can see how it could lead to complications.
At my D’s liberal arts college, a lot of students with majors in other areas also participate in music ensembles, take lessons, etc., so quadrupling the # would not necessarily show all involved in music. (Also some students may take longer or switch majors, etc.)
But it may be good to know approximately how many students expect to major in music and thus may be likely to continue professionally after college.
@BeverlyWest just be patient. My son did write two very nice notes to the applied teachers where he decided not to attend. Nothing complicated, just a thank you…but I have decided to attend elsewhere.
It’s all very confusing, I know. The new rule was already supposed to have been implemented, but it was put off until 2024-25. It’s a big change for schools, and I have yet to see anything in writing from any schools regarding what they plan to do when awarding their own aid. I suspect many FAFSA only schools won’t adjust for their own aid because they don’t meet need, anyway, & it’s going to be really tough to revise the FAFSA SAI (new term for EFC beginning 2024-25) to do adjust for more than one in school. It’s all very up in the air at this point, but I’m sure schools will have it figured out by the time they have to talk about 2024-25 financial aid.
I do think that in terms of requesting increased scholarship money, a music major may be in a better position than a typical student. If the school needs that student, they may be able to find a bit more money to keep them. It doesn’t always work - I recall a music student at a state school where I worked who got a scholarship increase … only to have his need based grant reduced due to the school’s packaging policy. But it never hurts to try.
You probably know all of this, and I’m just sharing what I’ve learned. I’ve been looking into this at the schools my son is accepted to, and I finally decided that even though this will happen at his most likely school, it would be better to have the renewable scholarship than the variable aid.
ETA I’m striking out the rest of my post, because I think I’m overstating or repeating something that’s not necessary, or is incorrect.
I recently read a lot about scholarship displacement, too… ETC…
Please remember…in the very vast majority of cases…when a student receives an outside scholarship…their MERIT aid at a college is not reduced. Their need based aid is reduced and usually starting with the self help portions…so loans and work study.
These posts you are making makes it sound like students will lose their music merit scholarships…and that just isn’t the case in most places.
It’s NEED BASED aid that gets reduced when outside scholarships are received. Because they actually reduce your need!
Of course, best for you all to discuss this with each college as policies do vary.
And in many places, your aid in total cannot exceed the coat of attendance. There are some exceptions for those who get full merit rides and are still entitled to a Pell Grant.
[quote=“BeverlyWest, post:2111, topic:3615633”]
, when outside scholarships reduce aid.
[/quote
@thumper1
I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand it at first, and since I think I now do, I don’t want to continue to sound that way. I thought reducing aid was the correct way to state it.
I think the FA stuff, all these forms and such, are the only thing I can control right now. I’ve been fascinated with it all, to the point that I’ve wanted to learn all I can, and probably more than I need to know.
@BeverlyWest enjoy learning about the aid process at various colleges. Just when you think you have it down…guaranteed, it will change. The recent FAFSA simplification changes, and the rollout of the new provisions shows how this cog turns.
And as of this post…no one knows how Profile schools will deal with some of the changes.
But right now…concentrate on your student. I think I would make that correction at that other college…if for no other reason…to see what happens.
Yes, sometimes need based aid is reduced because there is less need. At the school I cited, the packaging policy was approved by the board of governors. The rule was that all students were guaranteed a combination of “free” federal and institutional aid that, combined with their EFC, would equal the average cost of annual tuition. Private scholarships would not reduce the calculated amount. But if the student received an institutional need based grant, a departmental scholarship would reduce the need based grant dollar for dollar (although if the scholarship exceeded the need based grant, the student would still come out ahead by the difference).
Yes, some states do have scholarship displacement regulations, although there are some caveats for each state: Scholarship Displacement - Finaid.
Regarding Scholarship displacement; we received an interesting email from one of the national scholarships my son won. It briefly outlines ways how to avoid scholarship displacement. Before notifying the school about the scholarship do a deep dive into what your child’s school allows outside scholarships to pay for. What kinds of things would they consider cost of attendance, i.e. summer courses, study abroad, a laptop, and grad school. Have the school increase your cost of attendance to include these specific items while committing to not reducing your merit and/or financial aid award. Then have the scholarship organization only release the funds for the “increased cost of attendance”. Request that the scholarship organization hold the remaining funds to be allocated for graduate school.
Another scholarship that my son is a finalist for has a clause that funds cannot be released to a school without a guarantee that the school will not reduce any awards or financial aid.
Actually…ask the scholarship organization if they will do so. Some are very specifically for undergrads. Some also are given to only college freshmen and are not renewable in any way.
Remember, a lot of these scholarship organizations are not for profit groups that cannot hold above a certain amount of monies over from one tax year to the next without tax liability.
Definitely ask the colleges about other costs that can be included in the cost of attendance so your aid won’t be affected as much.
Also, consider whether these outside scholarships are for one year only.
As I stated above the information I shared came from a large national scholarship organization. All of the suggested I listed came directly from that organization. These options are of course not applicable to every situation. I shared the information because it may be helpful to some. Also it illustrates that organizations granting scholarship monies are open to working with families and institutions to work around scholarship displacement.
Trying to sift through the waitlist chatter. Unfortunately, we are dealing with two waitlists. Seems like this has been a crazy cycle with students applying to MANY schools. Our student did not go this route, so options are somewhat limited now. Both of the WL are from top choice schools. One school we thought was a “safety”… hoping that one will turn into an offer soon.
As far as I can tell, it’s acceptable to enroll at another school while remaining on a waitlist elsewhere. Is this true even if the school the enrollment includes accepting significant merit scholarship?
Also, is there any hope that the student coming off the waitlist to be granted merit scholarships? Our child won’t accept w/out merit, the other offer on the table would be too good to pass on.
I hate the idea of taking a spot for someone else’s dream school & then leaving. But, that just may be how it goes. We are trying to convince our child that the school that loves them is the dream school. It’s been a long journey that we hoped would be wrapped up by now!
I just thought he should write a thank you note. However, I can see how it could lead to complications.