My son, a transfer student, took his first trial lesson from a cello teacher at Chapman, and the teacher would love to have my son there. I ran the NPC and there’s a gap of, oh, about 37K after automatic merit and need-based aid. Our EFC is $8200. There’s no way my kid can go there unless that gap is closed.
He’s scheduled for 3 more trial lessons, two at Cal State schools and one at a private school.
So, how much are music scholarships really? I wonder if it’s a waste of time for him to apply to most schools with that kind of gap.
Can’t speak to those specific schools, but we saw music merit between $10,000 and $30,000 a year at several private schools, and I’ve heard of rare instances of full tuition. I think you just never know what money is going to free up in a music school budget year to year, and what their needs are. It is worth a shot, just have a solid back up plan for a school you can afford.
Those numbers sound representative, although S’ final choice of college was one with lower numbers than that, but also lower overall cost. I found it fun to track the overall ~4-year cost of each college as offers came in, so then you are comparing options such as college A will be $75,000, college B will be $127,000, and college C will be $92,000. This helped when looking at colleges that have scholarships that are only good for the first 2 years.
Question for @GoForth and @vistajay – was this on top of academic awards? Or total for all?
I can say D got merit money at nearly every school where she applied and everything was pretty much as expected based on others experiences. She got good academic and merit money at Loyola and everywhere else it was all talent merit money. She almost didn’t apply to New School because we had heard they are notoriously stingy with merit aid and based on most of the other kids she knows attending, that was true. Somehow she beat the odds and got WAY more than we would have ever expected, all talent merit, no FA. We had hoped for the same outcome at NEC but they were true to form with low merit amounts.
I think if a school is high on your kid’s list is worth a shot. You just never know.
@akapiratequeen - refer to this post: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20495264/#Comment_20495264
Some places only give academic or music, some stack, some (WP = William Paterson) may give three (academic, music, honors). Two places (UNT and Michigan) had an academic portion that was good for 2 years and a music portion good for 4 years.
@akapiratequeen , my post was in reference to music merit only, not academic merit. Many schools stack academic merit on music merit, but the two departments certainly are in touch and communicate. For example, in our process USCal, FSU, LoyolaNO. Miami(Frost) all stacked music and academic merit. Furman did not really, lessening what he would have generally received for academic merit in deference to a significant music merit award. And this is all completely separate from need based financial aid, which generally does not stack.
So the consensus seems to be, just apply and see what happens. I just find it hard to believe that schools can come up with 30-40K a year in music scholarships no matter how much the music teacher wants a student.
My son will likely be in school 3 more years after he transfers because of all the music requirements, so he’d need coverage for 3 years.
Thanks for the advice, all.
Well, some of our NPCs at more generous private schools come up with close to that number based on academic stats alone. So anything is possible. I did a lot of googling on this topic to glean info. Some schools definitely have generous reputations (frost?) and stingy reputations (NYU?).
We’ve had to build the list with my son’s special needs in mind. I’m not sure he’ll end up applying to far away schools which definitely limits what schools he applies to. He’s scheduled to apply to one school that meets need, but I’m not sure if he’ll end up applying.
Also, because he’s a transfer student, the money isn’t there like it is for freshmen. The NPC at Chapman had very different numbers for freshman vs. transfer.
Ex: merit for freshman was 32K. Merit for transfer was 10K. Need-based for freshman was 14,800; for transfer 16K.
Total aid for freshman was 46,800; for transfer 26K.
@sbjdorlo We found that the CSU’s and UC’s offered very small music scholarships. However, if you look at the total cost of attendance, it isn’t as much of an issue, as they were still significantly less expensive than private school options. ASU offered scholarships (music and merit) to be in-line with a UC cost. Many of the UCI music scholarships have financial need as part of the criteria and I suspect the CSU’s do as well. Keep in mind my D’s experience is for female voice. Your son’s results may be different.
My son, unfortunately, won’t have enough UC transferrable credits to apply to UCI. He’ll have 60 units, but not all are UC transferable, so he can only apply to the Cal States. Otherwise, UCI would be a top choice.
I agree that the Cal States, even if my son only get a Cal Grant, are more affordable at 15-20K than the privates are looking like.
UCI worked out well for my D as she really likes her voice professor. However, the CSU programs for music were really impressive. Generally speaking, more impressive than the UCs. I know that many of the CSU’s offer music scholarships. Just not familiar on the amounts.
CSUs have actual BM degrees, so in that regard, they’re better fits for my son. CSULB has a conservatory, of course, and that’s a better fit for him.
@GoForth thanks for that link, answered all my questions and more. Your s had an amazing journey! Is he happy at UNT?
@sbjdporlo , if I were you, I would recommend your son to apply to some colleges w/ music schools and/or conservatories within that meet 100% need to accepted students (if accepted, the COA would be your EFC). You can look which colleges are those by googling it. of the top of my head some of these schools are Northwestern, Oberlin, Rice, Vanderbilt, USC to name a few.
My son is complicated. He has a very checkered academic history, with 6-7 Ws on his transcripts over 3 colleges, so I don’t think he’d get in based on his academics. His college GPA is 3.54. His SAT was good at 2230 four years ago, but I’m concerned about the academics at these schools. At the moment, he does have Vanderbilt on the list, as the cello professor there said he would likely pass the pre-screen, but it’s doubtful that even if the cello teacher wanted him, admissions would admit him.
Believe me, we’ve looked at some of these over and over, but Vanderbilt is the only one that seems at all possible. USC isn’t the right fit (per his cello teacher, and he knows the school well because his bassist son went there), Oberlin isn’t the right fit for sure, and Northwestern and Rice are likely too academically rigorous.
Too bad because my son would get a lot of need-based aid. Oh well! If he can get into the local Cal State, that might be the best option. He’s particularly interested in ASU, but I haven’t told him how expensive it would be… :-/
St. Olaf meets 100% need. It’s still a selective program but not to the extent Vandy and Northwestern are. It’s a beautiful school. We recently visited and opted to apply. Check out their website.
I’ve looked at it over and over; I’m not sure about the cello professor. I’ll ask my son about it. Our daughter-in-law’s family is nearby, which could be a plus. Thanks for the reminder.
I can’t speak to the professor but we sat in on orchestra rehearsal and they were amazing.