OP, I was talking to a friend today who came up with two more college suggestions for your son to consider: Chapman University and Loyola Marymount (both in Los Angeles area). They award merit aid for high stats applicants and have good connections to the entertainment/music/business scene. If your son stays on his trajectory, he would be at the higher end of their applicant pool.
Edit: also, coming from Kansas, which I imagine is an underrepresented state at many universities, your son might be considered desirable due to geographic diversity - perhaps enough to be considered for merit aid at these types of colleges.
^^yes good suggestions, those do both have good entertainment biz connections. I know one girl who got the Presidential at Chapman, not super high test scores but IB program, GS Gold etc.
The USC Levine-Young Academy enrolled 31 students last year, it is highly selective to say the least. And just to say this again, the USC NMF 1/2 tuition is only if you are admitted as a NMF, then it is guaranteed. Every year there are zillions of NMFs that don’t get accepted, many newbs who are heartbroken because they misinterpret this to mean they were guaranteed admission and the scholarship. Chapman gives amazing money for high scoring students and has great connections in the entertainment arena, and is in a fabulous neighborhood; with Pres scholarship and departmental grants, a full ride or pretty darn close there is totally possible.
You might also look at Fordham. Business and music with lots of NYC internship opportunities. Can be very generous to high stats students.
99th percentile for the ACT is around 33 I think rather than 27. Unhooked his score would need to rise to qualify for admission at many of the schools mentioned, and even higher to qualify for significant merit aid. Of course since he last took as a freshman he would likely score higher now. One of the things I think would be helpful to the OP is to check out the 25th and 75th percentiles of ACT scores for colleges her son is interested in. Qualifying for significant merit aid is typically only going to be possible when scores are well above the 75th percentile.
So OP’s student is a rising junior - that gives time to explore various schools in different parts of the country, different sized schools. I didn’t catch what he wants to study - someone said something about blended music and business?, or if family wants to keep UG costs down for potential graduate school?
Nashville has a private school Belmont that may not be exactly what OP’s son is looking for, but it may be worthwhile to see a school that has a lot of music management curricula.
I would not overlook visiting schools where you suspect he would have a potential of good merit (automatic or a chance with scholarship application process).
There is a lot of good information on CC - you have to ask the right type of questions. OP and son have time to absorb and investigate. Son may develop more ideas on college choices as her finds out more and visits more campuses.
@loukydad, OP’s son’s ACT of 27 was achieved as a 9th grader, which puts the score in a higher percentile bracket as compared to other 9th graders. But yes, he will have to stay on his trajectory and increase that score to be hopeful for significant merit.
Just curious, does the ACT report scores by grade level? That would be interesting, but I have never seen it and can’t locate it. I know there are stats published on the Duke TIP results, but those are for seventh graders only plus a few eighth graders.
@LOUKYDAD, it’s been a long time, but I recall that the score report itself might report stats based on the test taker’s age group. If memory serves, ACT also offers something called PLAN (a kind of pre-ACT) that measures scores according to age group and then makes a prediction of what the ACT score is likely to be when taken as an older student. Perhaps that’s what OP’s son took.
Loukydad, the 27 score was, in fact, 99th percentile because it was the ninth grade PLAN scoring scale.
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I am another parent who would advise your son to apply to NYU. They have two very strong music business programs. The program through Steinhardt offers merit aid to strong candidates (with or without need.) So I do think it is worth applying to.
For us, NYU was more affordable than the Ivies. (D received merit aid without need. as a vocal performance major.) So you really shouldn’t listen to people’s rants and instead you should apply to see what happens. If NYU really wants you, they do come up with $ in certain programs (music being one of them.)
I do think it is important to explain to your son what you can and cannot afford. I’m not suggesting taking on ridiculous debt for NYU, but I would certainly keep it as an option. The program is strong and the internship possibilities are there even throughout the year.
Other strong programs for Music Business would be USC, Syracuse and Belmont.
DS goes to Columbia. FA is very generous and is certainly available to people with family incomes of 100K.
I want to say thank you, again for the many thoughtful, respectful, and informative replies I have seen on this thread! I went from overwhelmed to a quite a bit less so in two days and it is thanks to the generosity of this forum. One of the MOST valuable things that resulted was a conversation with my son about expectations. We were able to come to an agreement about dreams vs. reality in a way that let him know that as a family, we will reach for the stars but keep our collective feet on the ground during this process. We have a long way to go of course but it is an exciting journey and we thank each and every one of you for your help and your obvious devotion to your children’s futures, and the kindness of care about mine! I’ve been taking notes, for sure.
Those conversations are never easy to have. I know, we started having them about a year ago. Especially when you have a hard working, intelligent child who is very deserving of attending his dream
school . I also commend you for having them now, rather than later. As the mother of a rising senior, I can tell you that the next year is going to fly by, so the earlier you can prepare , the better. I’m not familiar with NYU admissions as we are from the South and our academic pursuits will be focused in this area, but you may want to look at scholarship specifics online. 2 of the LACs that my son will be applying to have specific scholarship opportunities that required recommendations from their GC by the spring of their junior year. Good luck to you.
@Sarajanine You might want to consider havin your son applying to this summer program next year.
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/summer/wmas#1
It is only a week long, but can give your son a real idea about what NYU’s Music Business program entails and a sample of what it would be like to go to NYU.
There are performance-based and need based scholarships for the summer program. I think these programs are beneficial and sometimes can lead to acceptances/ more merit aid if you stand out.
I would look to see if other schools run similar programs.
@Sarajanine I don’t want to be the one to overwhelm you now that you’re feeling a little better after all the great answers you’re getting on here, but I do strongly suggest that you hop on over to the music major forum ASAP. You may find that the answers you get over there are a bit different. An interest in music / business could mean the “right” answers will depend greatly on the school and degree he ends up seeking. I assume he plays an instrument or is a vocalist. What is his primary instrument?
My D is a rising senior and has spent her HS years very focused (at times I would say obsessed) with her “stats”. Many of the programs she will be applying to (commercial music / music business / music industry) will be much more concerned with her audition than those stats. We believed that she had to fall above the “middle 50” for ACT and such to have even a slight chance of getting into the schools she was looking at. Well, low and behold, we’ve found out fairly late in the game that the ACT and GPA threshold for the music departments or music schools within the college are often considerably lower. For example, I’ve been told ACT’s of 26 - 28 are “good enough” to get you in at some schools who have average ACTs in the 30-32 range and the merit money will be based on the audition. Now, that’s not to say some $ can’t come from outstanding stats, too. Certainly some schools would award merit on stats and additional $ on talent. So, it’s a bit of a balancing act. Unfortunately for my D, she has been so focused on her grades that she’s fallen behind on audition preparation and we may have been better off spending $$$$ on another summer music program than the $1k we spent on private ACT prep.
Additionally, if your son is mainly interested in non-classical music, the list of schools that offer those programs is quite small. For music business, there will be some non-audition options, but many still require audition and can have pretty low acceptance rates. You kind of have to go over each schools program very carefully. Again, the music major forum can be very helpful with that kind of info. The forum isn’t always as active as this one, but old threads can be very informative!
Good luck. I often feel very alone IRL with this process as we don’t know many others going down the music path and it is so much more complicated and stressful!