<p>S has finally bumped to earth quite hard after his euphoria on being accepted to Berklee. After all the financial aid information, he knows he really just can't go this year. BUT, he has looked into deferring his enrollment to Fall 2014 and reauditioning for scholarship purposes. Berklee was his first audition ever in his entire life (as we homeschool he didn't have ANY experience in that regard at all). He knows his playing has improved immeasurably since then as well --- it had to! Auditioning for Denver, etc and all the jazz... well, there's no way that couldn't help! </p>
<p>So, I know I read on another thread musictwins and electricbassmom had experience with the deferment at Berklee. Could you or anyone else tell us how this works? We are calling Monday to ask. But if you see this before then or have any more input..... Some of our major questions are: do we still send in a tuition deposit? Also, they told us he could still explore other schools and even attend community college, etc --- did your students do that?
You can't defer more than one place, too, right???
I guess this next year is about finding as many outside sources as possible and really really really nailing the scholarship audition.</p>
<p>Shellybean, my D applied her senior year in HS and did not receive scholarship $'s. She re-applied after freshman year somewhere else (not majoring in music), but had continued her music development (gigs, doing arrangements, taking music theory, continuing private lessons from a college level teacher, etc). On her re-application audition, she was far more confident in her readiness and received an acceptance with scholarship.</p>
<p>I don’t know that you can get add’l scholarship with a deferral, but you can get it if you decline this time and start again in the next admissions cycle assuming your S continues to improve and stand out. It is not a definite, of course, but it is possible.</p>
<p>According to their website, one can defer specifically to get scholarship or more scholarship. it says: “If I am accepted and I am not offered a scholarship or I am accepted and offered a partial scholarship, but I need more funding to attend, what can I do?
Accepted students may defer their enrollment to a future semester and request to re-audition for scholarship consideration in the next academic year. Students who were offered a partial scholarship may request to re-audition in an attempt to increase their scholarship level. Students are permitted to audition once per academic year so you should speak with a counselor in the Office of Scholarships to discuss your options for re-auditioning.”</p>
<p>And when he called that was the question he asked. But he didn’t ask about the tuition deposit. So we will have to ask them about that.
Congratulations to your daughter. Is that where she ended up going? It is comforting to know that she experienced something similar. I think, like your D, my S has gained so much since then with gigs and other auditions. The audition experience itself was so foreign to him… and everything went wrong. His glasses fell off ONTO the neck of his guitar while playing (he didn’t miss a beat, but he couldn’t see the page during the sight reading very well because of it!!!). They forgot to do his improv until they’d already had him pack up. One thing after another… I really think it will go so much better next time.</p>
<p>Shellybean, we did sent in tuition deposits for both kids to “hold their place” after early admission. One deferred and one did not. We got the deposit back right away for the child who did not defer. The one who did defer decided in December that she did not wish to audition again and withdrew from Berklee completely. We requested the deposit back and received it after a while. My understanding is that you can defer with or without a deposit and that you can re-audition for more scholarship money. </p>
<p>My S did audition twice, once during a summer course and again in December. His offer was increased however neither of the kids received enough to make attending Berklee even a possibility. </p>
<p>This thread has raised an interesting issue.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of a student who deferred, or re-auditioned at a school, and was offered far more money the second time? Say, a $20,000 or $30,000 difference? Or is it more likely something like a $5,000 difference?</p>
<p>Point being, is it worth waiting a year if the scholarship difference is not great? We wondered about this, since my daughter is graduating one year early.</p>
<p>I’m only concerned with scholarships and grants, money that does not have to be paid back. There are often threads about deferring for one year in order to get a better scholarship, and I’ve wondered how much more money the same student would be offered coming back a second year for an audition. It might be useful for prospective students and their parents to know that, on average, if they wait a year they could expect no more than say, on average, $5,000 additional dollars. That knowledge would help provide a realistic prospective.</p>
<p>Scholarships vary considerably by school, instruments and student talent, so giving you a number isn’t going to be a general assumption across the board.</p>
<p>Scholarships of 30K plus are unrealistic for any undergrad performance major (and now grad students as well), so I wouldn’t defer in the hope of getting that much more money. And consider that although the student may improve quite a bit by the next audition season, one has no way of knowing in advance the level of competition for that season. Some years have a much stronger talent pool than others and there may just be less money available for other reasons. It’s all a crap shoot…</p>
<p>My son did defer his Berklee admission. We did not have to pay a deposit to hold his spot. He was told he could make arrangements with the scholarship office to reaudition for scholarship consideration. In the end, he is happy where he ended up (Hartt), and opted not to re-audition.</p>