<p>I'm a freshman currently enrolled in a state school as a classical guita major. After about half way through my first semester, I realized the school was not for me. The level of the guitar department is not that high and most of the other classical guitar majors would rather play the blues or metal and are just using the classical guitar major as an excuse to play the guitar in college without having to do too much real work.</p>
<p>Anyway, I applied to Oberlin Conservatory, CIM, San Francisco Conservatory, and Mannes and was accepted to Oberlin, SFCM and Mannes and waitlisted at CIM. I'm currently in the process of trying to decide where to go and I was hoping someone might have insight into these schools. I had lessons with Stephen Aron at Oberlin, David Tannenbaum at SFCM and Jason Vieaux at CIM and unfortunately was not able to have a lesson with anyone at Mannes while I was there because they had all the guitar auditions on one day this year.</p>
<p>At Mannes, I was accepted into the studio of Fred Hand and at SFCM I was accepted into the studio of Larry Ferrara. Oberlin and CIM only have one guitar studio each. I was really impressed with the feel of Oberlin and I was awarded like 35000 in free money (scholarship and grants) and like 2000 work study and 6000 loans. I only got like 8000 from Mannes (more on that later) and haven't heard finances from CIM (obviously) or SFCM yet. </p>
<p>I emailed the teachers at Mannes to let them know I probably wouldn't be attending because of the smaller financial aid package and they told me I could email admissions and basically ask for more money but they cautioned me to only do so if Mannes was where I really wanted to be. Does anyone have any experience bargaining with music schools? Would it be bad of me to try and boost my scholarship at Mannes in order to get more money from Oberlin? </p>
<p>Thanks for reading what turned out to be a very long post,</p>
<p>Classical guitar is HUGE at SFCM. Sometimes it feels like there is ONLY guitar there (which, of course, is not true.) But the guitar department gets a lot of attention. Lots of performances & ensembles - both official and independent. Lots of new pieces being written by the composers there for guitar, as well.</p>
<p>As for bargaining with music schools - there are a number of threads on here discussing that very thing. It’s very common - but, just like Mannes said - only do it if you’re telling them the truth and you will go to their program if they make you a better offer.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response! Does the size of the guitar department at SFCM mean that it is easy to be overlooked? Also, I haven’t even met the teacher to whom I was assigned. Do you happen to know anything about Larry Ferrara? I’ve checked out his website and his resume seems the least impressive of all the other teachers at SFCM (this is blunt but the other teachers are either GFA winners or acclaimed recording artists).</p>
<p>FYI, we generally do not include real names around here and you may want to contact one of the moderators and ask them to edit it out of your post.</p>
<p>If you care to tell us how much of the scholarship money was based on artistic talent and scholastic merit (as opposed to financial need), I could add that information to the list as well. If you would rather keep that information private, I understand.</p>
<p>Wow great choices in schools and teachers! Congratulations! (We have a family friend who did classical guitar at Oberlin for undergrad and then San Francisco for grad, very happy with both)</p>
<p>I don’t think it is right to bargain with Mannes to get the scholarship up, just to then make Oberlin consider upping theirs. It looks like Oberlin’s aid is pretty generous, but if you need more, I would talk to the music dept./ guitar chair there, up front, rather than using Mannes.</p>
<p>Go for Oberlin if the aid is better and you can afford it. I doesn’t make sense to borrow large amounts of money to get a degree in classical guitar.</p>
<p>BassDad: It was $12000 Conservatory Dean’s Scholarship and $20,782 Oberlin College Grant and $2500 work study. There was also $8500 in federal loans. </p>
<p>compmom: I agree in that I wouldn’t feel right misleading Mannes about my intentions. But on the other hand, I didn’t really get to know the teacher at all so I don’t know if it would be a top choice for me or not. It’s almost just that I don’t want the decision to be made for me on account of finances, I want to be able to choose the school/teacher that would be the best fit. Plus Fred Hand studied with Julian Bream, which is nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>When I said “huge” about the SFCM department - I didn’t necessarily mean there were lots of students, although there are - but that it is very very highly regarded as a department around here, and within the conservatory. I’ve sent you a PM.</p>
<p>It is one thing to go to Oberlin with a higher offer, it is entirely another to try and have Oberlin engage in a bidding war. My sense with Oberlin is that they give a very fair up front offer and they will only consider increasing it if there is better offer from a competitive school or there has been a drastic change in your finances. Compmom is right about the approach to the department first.</p>
<p>I’m sure you have looked at these sites, but I was interested so I looked. Do you have an interest in playing contemporary “new music” guitar pieces at all? Or in composition? There might be other questions that might help clarify. We love Oberlin! The teacher there, Stephen Aron, looks great, and there are so many exciting things going on at Oberlin Conservatory and College. I would, myself, also favor studying with Jason Vieaux at CIM. He is tops. Both these schools have only one studio, you said, so you know who will be your teacher. If you are interested in “new music,” Tannenbaum may set the tone for his dept. but you would be working with Ferrara, who is clearly a wonderful player but don’t know much about him (I’m on the other coast). You said Mannes is out. Oberlin’s offer is a good one. When will you hear from CIM financial aid?</p>
<p>Here is what I found on the sites. Again, great choices!:</p>
<p>Jason Vieaux (along with David Starobin) started a classical guitar dept. at Curtis in 2011, which is good news. My daughter did not apply to Curtis for composition because they had no guitar there at the time (nor did Bard). He seems to do some “new music” and is most certainly a star. [Jason</a> Vieaux, guitar](<a href=“http://jasonvieaux.com/]Jason”>http://jasonvieaux.com/)</p>
<p>Fred Hand teaches at Mannes, Purchase and Bennington and is, as you say, esteemed. He also composes for tv/film apparently. [Frederic</a> Hand - Guitarist and Composer](<a href=“http://www.frederichand.com/]Frederic”>http://www.frederichand.com/) Since he worked with Bream, he is in the Segovia lineage, so to speak.</p>