Congratulations on the acceptance. I know it must be bittersweet, but it’s a great accomplishment and could maybe work out. The CSS will give room to describe special circumstances, but I might contact the school too, if you have any.
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UM requires it, and my husband helped me fill it out from his post surgery sick bed to get it in on time for EA. 
That said, it’s done! I think private schools tend to require it. I didn’t know about berklee and will add them now.
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That’s great! My husband will be there with our daughter. She did her audition by video, so this will be her first time seeing it in person. I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.
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We said to be honest, but honest doesn’t mean you have to list all the schools. I think they were trying to get a feel for how they ranked on my son’s list. Another prof said(at his safety), “I don’t care that we’re your safety,…” but I think still asked about other schools. The impression I get is that they want to give out their most coveted scholarships to those students who will go there without blinking if the money is there. This makes me a bit uncomfortable as the comparison between schools is somewhat dependent upon what it costs to attend each one, especially if you have a student who doesn’t have a strong first choice.
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appeal
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After you fill out the CSS Profile and get your new FA package, you can then appeal if you are still not happy. Some schools will take into account unusual medical expenses or a siblings special-needs care or financially supporting your own parents or sometimes even a sibling’s private school. These are all possible but completely school-dependent.
Wishing you luck.
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Thanks for the advice, everyone. We haven’t received a whole financial aid package yet (I guess they’re waiting for the CSS Profile). We just know the merit scholarship, which we’re thankful for, but it just isn’t nearly enough. I don’t think we have any special circumstances that will help us out with financial aid; we do have another kid in college, but he’s at a state school on scholarship. We’ll see. Maybe there is hidden support we’re not aware of, but I have heard that Berklee can be stingy with financial aid.
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Hello! I am taking my son to both the USC and UCLA audition this weekend (drums). Does anyone have a child auditioning for Popular music at USC or Jazz Studies at UCLA?
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We will be at CIM (Sunday) and Rice (Monday). Anyone else?
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Rice this weekend, Northwestern next.
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Have you filled out the Berklee Net Price Calculator yet to get a sense of what the need-based financial aid might be? With the standard caveat that if you own multiple properties, or a business, or parents are divorced then the NPC might not be particularly accurate.
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CIM Sunday! Rice was wonderful… and warm- at the time!
My daughter and I were also at Blair this weekend… Good luck everyone. She loved it.
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I haven’t done that, but I will now. Thanks for the reminder.
Good luck! I know Berklee can be financially challenging.
Does he have other admittances yet?
Also, make sure to separate out any retirement assets that are in official retirement accounts like a 401k or IRA. These usually get reported separately and for most schools do not “count against” you in terms of assets – although your contributions to these plans are added back into your income each year as “untaxed income”, which can really hurt if you save aggressively for retirement.
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Darn. We are at CIM 2/12
Lynn this weekend
DePaul 2/18
UK 2/20
Eastman 2/24
IU 3/4
Curtis 3/15
Anyone else??
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Also, if you have any one-time income colleges will sometimes let you appeal to not have it counted as income, on the basis that it was one-time and not an accurate reflection of your normal ability to pay.
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He has acceptances to state schools here in TN, but all the music department auditions are in February. He really wants to go to a pure conservatory, though, not a liberal arts university. He passed pre-screens for Eastman, Mannes, and Boston Conservatory and auditions for those live in February. We can’t afford any of the private conservatories unless he gets a decent scholarship, so the whole process is pretty stressful. But I work for a state college, so he gets a 50 percent discount off of state tuition in TN and stands a good chance of landing a performance scholarship at one of those schools. Financially, that makes the most sense, but he’s so much more excited about the Northeast conservatories.
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@erin_barrett we will also be at CIM 2/12. Maybe we can meetup. My older D is a Junior at Lynn Conservatory (violin). I hope you have a good experience there. My D is doing so well there.
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