@BeverlyWest, congrats on a stellar result for your son, especially knowing how he was self-taught, and got in everywhere! Such an accomplishment! As a parent, you have and are doing everything you can to make his dream of pursuing a music degree a reality—no small feat!!! Congratulations to your entire family! 
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We did the same thing: we let our son try for the big conservatories, knowing he would need a hefty scholarship to attend them. In his case, he suffered through challenges with ADHD in high school and wanted a school where music was the primary focus because it’s something he has always excelled in. He had fewer choices than most applicants because he didn’t have the academic record to be admitted to the programs at the big universities. He got into all but one of the standalone conservatories and got scholarships to two of them, but they aren’t nearly enough for him to attend. So he’ll likely go to one of the state schools that offered full scholarships. He’s honestly pretty crushed, but he did understand we might not be able to afford those schools. I hope he can adjust to a traditional liberal arts school and be happy there. The college search can be so individual for each student.
I’m so sorry. It is a very bittersweet thing for a kid to have their talent validated, but not be able to go. You can expect it, but it still hurts. My H and I still stand by letting him try, but it’s hard!
Is your son now planning to choose a Tennessee school? Is there one where the music school is most siloed? In his case, that could be a plus. Or smallest/most personal-feeling?
ETA: I hope my kiddo will still want to wear his Thornton sweatshirt when he gets home. He’s been really liking it.
He got into a UT bridge program (guaranteed transfer from UTC to UTK after a year), but I think it probably makes more sense to start at MTSU, which has a bigger music program than UTC. He did love UTK and was encouraged to apply for transfer, so that’s an option in the future, but he might end up really liking MTSU and wanting to stay, especially with the recording program there. I think he probably won’t go for ETSU, but they did offer him a nice piano scholarship. The other option is deferring a year for either Mannes or Berklee and seek out funding, but I’m not sure that would really help us get to where we need to be financially, not for all 4 years anyway.
Locally, MTSU and UTK are on the same level. No one thinks more or less about either. Tons love UTC for the charm of the city.
MTSU does make a lot of top schools lists for music and draws nationally in that niche. Not sure if that’s relative to your son’s strengths but nothing wrong with MTSU. I don’t recall seeing UTK on top music school lists.
So hopefully he loves the ‘boro if he goes that direction with no desire to transfer.
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Thanks for the feedback. I do think MTSU has a good music program, and they were very welcoming. We really love the piano faculty at UTK, and my son had a great audition there, but they had a huge increase in applicants to the university this year and were turning away some outstanding students. The piano chair appealed, but the general admissions people wouldn’t budge. MTSU might be a more comfortable place academically for him anyway. He would have preferred to go to a pure conservatory and never see another math or science course again, though!
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I totally get it. My son would prefer not to, either, as far as I know. Maybe your son could look up and compare–maybe he has–the actual core courses. It looks like at UTC the science courses can be things like Intro to Astronomy, Environmental Science, or Geology, as opposed to perhaps a more strict interpretation of a science core requirement like Biology or Anatomy at another school.
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[quote=“tsbna44, post:179, topic:3630913”]
They can go to community college, a public or a school with huge merit.
But they choose not to because they feel it’s beneath them.
[/quote]up
It’s more complex than this. Private schools that meet full financial need, or have generous aid or merit policies often can end up cheaper than state schools.
College prices are opaque. That’s why it is wise to cast a wide net and see how everything shakes out.
There are also studies that show every time federal loan limits are increased, tuition jumps up by just the right amount to match the increase. And the inability to discharge any student debt has historically been a huge problem; we have bankruptcy laws for a reason.
Not all colleges are created equal. When comparing prices it is also useful to think about what one is buying at each price. That’s why some schools are good values even if they aren’t the cheapest- they offer the best chance of students doing well given the price they paid.
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Good points.
I would recommend “Loan Wolves”…it’s a documentary style program aired on Peacock on student loans. It’s very eye opening and brings up some really timely and difficult questions about why student loan debt got to this point and the money behind it.
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I will check this out. Thanks.
I want to follow up on this to be clear…S is going to his first choice school (we’re almost there!) It’s amazing we can do this for him. It so happens it is not as difficult to get into as some of the others. he learned a ton and he knows exactly where he wants to be. We have two letters out, so he’ll wait to commit.
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Another follow up! S has committed to Loyola New Orleans. 
He’s withdrawing his app from USC/Thornton. I’ll put my notes here in case it helps anyone. This one hurt me because I was expecting so much from them, but my kid is on cloud 9 and totally isn’t thinking about it.
My advice would be to appeal if you have a significant discrepancy that is probably a mistake, but be prepared with lots of documentation.
For future reference, our FAFSA EFC is 22,500. This is not how USC determines need, but it provides context. They offered 7k aid on a 91k COA. We paid a consultant for one hour to help us figure out what happened and to review a 3 page appeal letter I wrote. Our best guess is that USC counted our home as a rental asset. When I appealed with my letter, they responded with a request for three more documents, totaling 11 documents thus far. We won’t know what might have happened after that.
A key takeaway that became clear to me is that with a school whose aid is almost 100% need based, there’s the risk of going through this every year, with the potential to have to transfer out if your need case falls apart. S is going to a school where his aid is heavy on renewable scholarships, which are safer to rely on in our situation. We’re lucky that’s the one he loves!
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Thank you for this great summary—I’m so glad you have arrived at the best answer for him and for your financial sanity! Quick question re: appeals—did you do all the communication with FA yourself or did you involve your son at all? The school we want to appeal to has made it pretty clear that merit is what it is and that’s that. So she has a bit but not enough,especially since other options are much less expensive, some via more need aid and some via more merit.
I had heard it is good to have the student first reach out to their AO since they know the student’s file and can advocate, but if merit isn’t flexible it feels like maybe we the parents need to take the case to FA and leave our kid and the AO out of it.
I’m trying to figure out how to give it a best (long) shot. She loves this school.
Is it a rental property ? You say they counted as such. Is it a 2nd property ?
In the end, he loves Loyola so that’s awesome but hopefully SC closes the loop with you after seeing more docs. Would be educational.
And most importantly to others - EFC isn’t always applicable.
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I have always heard that if you are discussing financial aid, then it’s appropriate for the parents to make the contact; if you want to discuss merit, then the student should be calling.
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Thank you so much for the reply. That makes sense. I think we will take them at their word that merit is non-negotiable.
It’s not a rental property, so that changes things completely. That whole value should not have been counted as an asset. I have a feeling S withdrew from USC, but even if not, I’m not sure if any good would come from finding out now. I’m curious.
Yes curious. Wonder how they came to the conclusion on rental ? Hopefully he’s not withdrawn but if he has and the math changes, seems a legitimate reason for them to let you un-withdraw. But if he has his heart in NO - it doesn’t matter. But it’s a bummer he potentially made a decision without all the facts.
We did as @CCName1 says. I did Southern California for financial aid. My son wrote to the admissions people at Loyola about merit, so he was able to share his heartfelt personal reasons for attending.
We talked about that last part, but for various reasons we let him make the call, since that’s what he wanted.