I’m looking at colleges to apply to next year and I have USC as my top choice (reach) followed by UNT, Univ of Kansas, maybe St. Olaf, and University of St Thomas (Houston) as my only safety so far. My intended major is music education/choral/sacred music, and I would like to be able to double-major in math, if possible. I am fairly certain I will be able to get into all the schools I listed, but I am more considering the COA (upper-middle class family with many siblings, including one with special needs; may not be able to contribute more than $7-10k per year total) and possibility of getting into the music program. I am wondering if anyone has suggestions for good safeties where I am likely to be awarded full tuition or full cost of attendance.
Here are my stats:
Have not taken SAT; JR PSAT is 1470 (unlikely to make NMSF because of high cutoff in state) I project my SAT at least 1500
UW GPA: 4.0 (don’t know cumulative weighted)
AP’s: Latin (5), currently taking Calc AB/BC (one year) and Physics, will take English Lang & Comp, Spanish, Music Theory, Stats next year
Class rank: 1st
EC’s:
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (6 1/2 years by graduation), including special performances at Hollywood Bowl, Disney Hall, have sung under baton of Gustavo Dudamel, taken masterclasses from conductors and artists such as Anton Armstrong, Theresa Farrell,
CTK Chant Choir (founder and director): a choir I founded for young children, 5-12 years old, I teach weekly classes on theory through the lens of Gregorian chant and weekly rehearsals learning Gregorian chant pieces. I consider this my WOW factor EC because I have had to develop my own curriculum given the complete dearth of resources for teaching Gregorian chant to children
Voice lessons (1.5 years by time of graduation)
Took guitar for 3 years
Took piano for 6 years (still at low level of competency though; I can play Bach’s Prelude in C well and sightread four-part hymns)
Camp counselor for 3 years
Summer weeklong service project (last summer): helped run a free camp for girls in low-income families in the area
4 school plays, 1 school operetta
Academic/Other honors:
2-time National Latin Exam gold medalist (both years I took Latin in high school)
School winner, Shakespeare competition
3-time school finalist and 1-time second place, Poetry Out Loud competition
@txstella, thank you for your recommendation. Does Rice offer full merit scholarships? I really doubt I’d qualify for need-based aid anywhere. My brother is a freshman in college and his FAFSA estimated family contribution was over $80,000 per year. I can’t seem to find info on merit aid on Rice’s website.
Regarding instate schools, yes I’d be looking at California schools. I’m not too interested in the UCs (unless someone can direct me to an outstanding early/choral/music ed program) and both CSU Long Beach and CSUN won’t give me clear information on merit aid. If you know of any instate schools in which I could be pretty sure of a full merit scholarship, please let me know.
CSU’s give little to no merit aid but give good need-based aid if eligible in the way of Cal Grants.
For the Cal states you need to go onto each schools website and look for departmental scholarships. Many will require an additional application and are not automatic.
Yeah, merit at Rice is ultra-competitive and maxes out at half-tuition IIRC. Also, the Conservatory isn’t very double-major friendly and I don’t believe there’s a Music Ed program.
Not far from St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus also has a very strong choral music program and gives some generous merit scholarships, and some music-specific talent scholarships which can “stack” with the academic ones https://gustavus.edu/admission/financial-aid/scholarships.php I think you have to be NMF to get full tuition, but the max award is still higher than St. Olaf’s which peaks at 25K/year.
Lawrence U is terrific for choral music too (though probably has less in the early music/liturgical vein than the Lutheran LAC’s) - merit maxes out at half tuition though. Pacific Lutheran in Seattle has some full tuition scholarships, and has Early Music stuff going on. (There will be a livestream of this concert: https://calendar.plu.edu/event/early_music_concert#.XJL5Vrh7nb0 )
Among the WUE schools, U of Utah has substantial music offerings https://music.utah.edu/admissions/academic-programs/index.php#mused , many many ensembles including at least one early music ensemble, a great Honors College (including an Honors track in math for Honors College students only), and generous merit aid. (Also a path to residency that allows students to pay in-state rates starting in the second year, although you can’t pay the WUE rate the first year if you want to utilize this option.)
Have you run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of any of the places on your list? Do your parents own a business and/or property other than your family home? That can mess up the NPC results.
I don’t know specifics about Rice merit scholarships. Rice has a recently launched new financial aid policy. It would likely be too expensive, but run the NPC to see what numbers you get.
Is your brother able to live on campus and attend school with your same budget?
I looked at the University of North Texas website. The merit scholarships would give you instate tuition. You might qualify for the $10,000 per year scholarship. Your numbers would be tight but might work if you take the federal loans of up to $27,000 over 4 years. UNT has a great reputation for music and several of the music teachers at my local public schools studied there.
D of family friends majored in music ed at U Delaware, did well and enjoyed her time there. Math department is good, too. They do offer merit to OOS, including some full tuition and full rides for high stats students (they have a table to estimate merit $, although not guaranteed, and they have a scholarship competition weekend for the full tuition/ride scholarships).
I am in similar situation with both college major and finances. If you would consider the Southeast, look at Alabama and Georgia. I’m deciding between a couple of good offers for a competitive out of state student, too - PM me if you have any questions.
Wow, thank you all so much for the recommendations!
@aquapt thanks for your thoughtful and well-organized recommendations. I hadn’t looked at any of the schools you listed and Utah looks like a great match. I will do further research on it. Do you recommend based on reputation or do you know anyone who has gone there?
@happymomof1@txstella I’ve run NPCs but as stated I don’t get need-based aid. I come from a large family and FAFSA assumes that I can not only take money out of my own college fund, but all my younger sibs funds. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning that I’m interested in graduate conducting, so I really want zero debt and enough money to fund a grad program. Of my apply list so far UST Houston looks like a safety (I’m fairly certain I can get their full scholarship) and UNT looks like a good chance; fairly certain I can get the cost down to $12.5k a year based on stats.
@mamag2855 Delaware is another one I have not looked at. Is your friend’s daughter doing ok getting a job? I have not come across the school name before in the circles I run in. Aid looks good though to me.
For high stats students, U of Utah offers full tuition scholarships to OOS students … so COA is just room/board/fees. (They also make it easy to become and in-state student after first year)
We have a smart high stats friend from the midwest near kansas who looked at kansas; They gave him the cost of instate tuition. but between fees, R&B - and instate tuition the cost was still $25K+; and he turned it down. KU is pretty cool though. My own kid is interested.
Univ. of Kansas has great scholarships for OOS. So that is a good option for you. KU is underrated for their music program. I graduated from there years ago with a BFA, and my DS is considering KU as an option (we are currently OOS). Your GPA is very good…if you don’t get full tuition, their current OOS scholarships are decent (according to their website) KU Excellence: 30 ACT or 1360 SAT + 3.75 GPA, $64,840 ($16,210/yr) (Equivalent to paying in-state tuition) etc… They also have scholarship residence halls for excellent students.
The cutoff for the full four year OOS tuition scholarship at Utah this year was a 34 ACT (you still pay fees so total COA is about $18K including books, transportation and personal expenses) and it is fairly strictly ACT/SAT stats based. 36 ACT was needed for the OOS Presidential scholarship, but you can also apply for the competitive full ride (Eccles) scholarship (30 per year) which is not just based on test scores. 32 ACT should get a one year OOS tuition scholarship then you get residency after that.
They also have a strong math program and doing a double major is reasonably feasible since many math courses are offered in the summer. We really like it (my D is a BFA student).
Would you need to pay for a grad program in conducting, or are those programs usually funded? If the programs you will be targeting in a few years normally offer funding, you might not need to preserve your college money for grad school. How much money is in your college account? How much of it are you willing to use for undergrad costs?