Thank you!
I can’t speak to the music program at McGill but my older son’s best friend is a sophomore there and says the academics are really intense. I believe it is a great value - said to be “Harvard in Canada” for what that is worth - because costs are low compared to US.
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Thanks for the insight. The lower cost is appealing, but an intense academic environment isn’t a good fit for my kid. I wonder if the music department is equally intense.
Lots of us are going to have to consider financial aid, and there’s really no transparency in what things cost. The calculators are all over the place and not necessarily accurate, and you never know about scholarships for those schools that use them. So applying many places, and in the end we will see what the options are and at what price.
My son did drop a couple applications based on what we know from the two EA schools.
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Mine also did not pass Blair prescreens. Out of the eight schools they applied to, they had four auditions; one of those auditions was ultimately a no. VP is competitive!
Eleven applications in. Three pre music acceptances, 7 auditions coming up. Wow. I’m proud of my kid.
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Wow, that’s impressive! Your kid will have a lot of options.
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The calculators are bonkers, even without trying to add in the variables of music!
I did some research on past scholarship threads on this forum, and some guesstimating, and the schools my son is applying to come out with several grouped around 10K to 20K above our EFC. Those are the low end. They include anything from public universities to private schools that “meet need”. Music scholarships are such a wild card, though. I get the impression that usually they are geared toward a school meeting need, but they can be so much bigger every once in a while. That’s where we’re hopeful and in the dark.
ETA: This includes the total cost of tuition, room and board, fees, and estimated expenses, which seem like low estimates. This does not include actual living expenses like going out with friends, nor does it include travel to and from home, even one time to move in and come home for summer.
@BeverlyWest Are you still hoping to meet up with students when you visit campuses for auditions? Did you receive the message I sent you about the USC Thornton Ambassadors program?
Some of the schools with the best financial aid, including LACs with large endowments, don’t give scholarships but may have a more inclusive definition of need. Williams, for example, wants their students to be able to go off and do internships and festivals rather than having to work for pay and includes such things in their calculations. Of course, getting into Williams is quite a hurdle.
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The official cost of attendance usually includes a (limited) travel allowance and a “personal expenses” category, which can be used for some limited going out with friends.
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Ah, yes! We live in an expensive city, where going out to breakfast is about $25 per person, so those all look so small to me. I have to remember that in most places, going out is not as expensive as it is here.
Having a girl, my monthly Target bill went done notably. I’ve heard boy parents say that their food bill went down significantly. Of course, that savings somehow made it back to my D to help with personal expenses. Still that was “found” money.
The first year was the most expensive (I had a spreadsheet) due to living in the dorm and having a meal plan. Year 2 went down in a decrepit house with roommates and questionable eating choices…and then the school froze tuition if you had a certain GPA. Again “found” money from my expectation…that went into a summer program (don’t forget to have money for summer programs!). We were cutting and pasting every year.
I think music majors have less in book costs compared to other majors…and by year 2 and 3, the coming home slows down…to your chagrin…
Edit…and no more money for school programs/music lessons etc…that a savings.
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Hi there! Thank you so much. I just wrote back. (I guess you know that 
)
Thank you for this. I had been thinking about the food bill, and my husband chuckled about that, but it really is significant. I hadn’t thought about the thousands we will not be paying to his private teachers, and all his school fees. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that. I’m going to add those to my guesstimating spreadsheet, but leaving room for college sweatshirts, because I’m looking forward to getting to that part of this process. 
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And also, especially if your son is living on campus, most meals will be at the dining hall which is already pre-paid and included as part of the financial aid package.
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Not all schools treat expenses like going to and from school, incidental as “above the line” when presenting cost of attendance offers. Some just list them as additional things one should be aware of, unfortunately!
True – you have to look at each school’s cost of attendance worksheet. I’m pretty sure that many of the schools that my kids applied to added some of these costs into their Cost of Attendance, but I totally understand that some/many may not.
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@sillinessforBschools @BeverlyWest Also, you have to pay attention to health insurance costs. All schools require that students have what they consider to be acceptable health insurance and can charge (sometimes a lot) for this. One of my kid’s schools charged $2k a year, and the other charged $4k. But, both waived the charge if your family health insurance covers the student in the city where the college is located (I think most schools do that). And the $4k school would provide an additional grant to cover the $4k cost if the student is on financial aid and their own health insurance didn’t cover them in that geographic area. But this is a school known for its very generous financial aid policy – I don’t know if other schools do anything similar.
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Onward to a couple of scholarship applications. Luckily, they mostly ask “what does music mean to you” or “describe a challenge and how you overcame it”. We have those! Whew!
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