I remember my D wanted to go to an accepted students dinner event at a swanky restaurant held in our city for a school where she auditioned and was accepted (MT in this case). She wasn’t going to go there. But she really wanted to go to the event. She hadn’t accepted at her first choice school yet so she said it was still a possibility (which I knew was not true). I was slightly embarrassed to go and have them spend money on us (although we spent enough to audition right!). My D finally told me that she had worked hard for these results and wanted to enjoy them. We had a lovely time. My D thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Another note: My D did get into Lawrence for UG. When she finally declined them (they were seriously considered), they did offer her a spot the following year if she regretted her first choice (no auditions/no questions). That was nice to have in our back pocket. Also music is a small world so if you do go…you may meet teachers etc that you run into again down the road.
Of course, everything depends on timing…but I would have hesitated when my D went through the process. Now on highlight…I think any affordable interactions (even auditions with no spots discussed on this thread) can be good in the end.
@1OboeMom it looks like merit aid is okay in that regard. (My kids’ schools deducted local scholarships awarded at graduation for various kinds of academic or service merit, from overall financial aid, which is what made me think of it!)
I’ve been doing a bunch of reading about scholarship displacement and the things you can try for/ask for when bringing outside scholarships to the table. I have lots of questions saved in case this happens. (Not at Oberlin. S didn’t apply there. I mean overall.)
I see. Thanks for your post, and you @1OboeMom . I can see how these experiences and relationships can be important. My H and I were just talking about summer opportunities, too.
Awww! Thank you so much!!! I’m a chatty cathy online and am so glad all my chatter has added to the discussion on here! I love this community. Of the various ones I’m on, this is my absolute FAVE! Congrats and good luck to your kid on the final decisions
Regarding the scholarship displacement, there are five states where it’s illegal: California, Maryland, Penn, New Jersey, and Washington. Unfortunately, none of my kid’s schools (yet) are in these states.
Thinking about this today, and how far we have come. S has been accepted to six schools out of 8 that have responded so far!
I am amazed at his work on this, considering him coming out of nowhere with this idea of a music major. Besides his six acceptances, he has one waitlist (UNT) and one rejection (Williams College: accepted something like 1 in 25 applicants). He’s still waiting on Berklee, USC, and University of Memphis. I think that’s it. The last three are an odd lot, including one expensive, one tough admit, and one that is likely, as well as relatively inexpensive.
(The 6 acceptances translate into 3 good, affordable options, and he’ll probably end up with at least 4 or 5 to choose from. I think that’s an awesome result.)
Another data point - for UG the ‘runner up’ school was super gracious when kid finally turned them down and said “remember us when you are looking at graduate programs”. He did audition there (still waiting for results) and they definitely remembered my kid.
Same. We just turned down #2 after much communication and the auditioning professor was extremely gracious and said the same…hope to see you in 4 years!
Big weekend coming up! CMU, BU, and Northwestern are all posting between Friday - Sat. Fingers Crossed for some happy news! Are any other schools posting soon that people know of?
We call this one of our kid’s Whartons (because he had a friend going for Wharton as his dream school, and it’s also very hard to get into). I think it will be S’s last decision to come through. Whew.
ETA: I take that back about it being the last one. I don’t know how long Berklee takes. He auditioned 3/3.
They announced financial aid a week ago with none for my son, which was shocking as he should have scholarships. I called the office; apparently the music school hadn’t sent out scholarship info yet.
This weekend my son got an email from the studio prof wanting to talk about his other offers and his scholarship(which he hasn’t been awarded yet, remember). So I think anything they would offer is coming so late they have ended up out of the conversation. I don’t know what the max scholarship is, as that info isn’t publically available. I think they only wanted to offer the money if he agreed to matriculate there. I know they are losing one of their best cellists this year.
So a long-winded way of saying I’m not sure, but probably not.
Hi y’all! It’s been a while since I’ve posted here.
After many months, I have finally finished the music admissions process! I haven’t committed yet, but I hope to do so by mid-April at the latest. I’ll put my acceptances in the acceptance thread. Good luck to everyone else still waiting on decisions, it’s a tough process!
The last three are an odd lot, including one expensive, one tough admit, and one that is likely, as well as relatively inexpensive.
Congratulations.