How do you sift through everything to find out about scholarships for transfer students and affordability for a BM degree? Many schools don’t say how much scholarship they might give for music students; they just say that they have scholarships. Do your kids just apply and hope for the best or ?
My cello performance son has zero preference where he goes, but I think he needs to be a big fish in a little pond, so no cutthroat programs/conservatories. I’m looking mostly at state school in California and WUE schools, as well as small private Christian schools, but affordability is foremost on my mind.
My son will be coming from a California CC with 60+ units, but not all transferable towards a degree. He’ll likely spend 3 years wherever he goes since he’s had only one music class.
Our strategy at this point:
1.Contact schools to find out if they are accepting cello performance transfer students for fall, 2019.
2. His cello teacher is reaching out to a few cello professors he knows and asking on behalf of my son, but one is at a non-WUE school (U Utah), so without a significant scholarship, there’s no way we can afford it.
3. See if the school is NASM accredited (if it’s not on the NASM website, find out what’s up- for instance, SDSU’s not on the list)
4. Find out cello profs and audition requirements/dates (we’ve done that)
5. Find out about financing the education; this is where I’m lost
Any advice? First year, my son will be Pell Grant eligible. Second and third years, he won’t be.
I have read that a lack of NASM accreditation doesn’t mean it’s not a good music school. I had a book entitled “Creative Colleges” (music, art, theater, film, writing) which explained that a little. In fact, that book might be helpful to you. I got it online.
NASM accreditation is not particularly important. A music school in my area went bankrupt and had NASM accreditation. However it was not regionally accredited as an institution of higher learning so most of the “credits” would not transfer. Also kids who graduated from that school could not get into grad programs. The degree was not rigorous enough. That’s not to imply all NASM schools are the same. It simply shows you how little NASM matters. Call the schools and check that their credits can transfer to other institutions (public universities are a good test) and if a degree allows you to go to grad school. If yes, it’s a reputable music school. Then you can start asking about it’s reputation as a music school (such as where do alumni go after completing their degree).
My D applied to many of the state schools in California; however, as a first year VP major. I don’t know how VP compares to instrumentalists for scholarships. There seemed to be a lot of VP applicants on audition days. Some of the state schools did provide scholarships although not nearly as large as the private schools. However, given that the CSU tuition is about about 7K and UCs are about $14k, they are an in-state bargain. CSU Long Beach (Bob Cole) addressed this in their audition orientation. They admitted the could not provide the large scholarships that some well known private schools “down the road” can but asked that you “look at net cost of attendance” since they are much cheaper to begin with.
I think the largest state scholarship she received was from UC Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, she was not academically admitted to the university.
We also did not worry about accreditation. In fact, SDSU ended up being one of her favorite programs. Many of the CSUs have solid music programs. A few of the UCs do as well. Of course, it is also about finding the teacher…
It seems nearly impossible to find specific information about music scholarships. It’s easier with academic scholarships. If your son’s grades are good, look into academic scholarships for transfer students. Ask the music programs directly if they offer music scholarships to transfer students and what the range could be. Also determine what you can spend, and if there are any schools within commuting distance that have a program that would work for your son. If he is pell eligible maybe there’s a meets need school with a program at the right level? That seems less likely to me but maybe?
We are feeling the same frustration. Our son will be applying to a school he could commute to and we can afford tuition, and also a couple of schools we feel could likely meet our budget with some combination of music and academic merit. The list feels too short with auditions required at all, but we haven’t found much else that seems likely to be affordable for our particular budget and has the program he needs.
@compmom WUE is Western Undergraduate Exchange. Members offer tuition discounts to students from WUE states. I don’t know about the music program, but we considered university of Wyoming for my D14. They have very low in-state tuition and WUE plus additional department and honors college scholarships would have made it quite inexpensive for my daughter.
I have limited knowledge of these music programs, but music kids from son’s school have gotten admissions from Pacific Lutheran (a voice student) and Whitworth (WA) for strings. if you’re considering private Christian schools.
Thank you for the responses. It’s helpful to know that NASM isn’t really important. Someone had mentioned it to me, but I’d never heard of it before.
Definitely looking at Wyoming because of the low WUE tuition.
I noticed that vocal performance and violin performance require pre-screens at many schools since they’re more common. I guess cellists aren’t quite as common, which possibly could mean better shot at acceptance and scholarship, but who knows.
I don’t think my son can transfer to a UC because he won’t have 60 units that are UC transferable. He currently has 52.5; he’s taking a 3 unit course this semester (he’s had a lot of health problems and is just getting back into school), and will likely take 6-12 units in the intersession and spring. He’ll have 30 units of GEs, but courses like animation, trig and game design won’t transfer to UCs, so he couldn’t apply to UCSC.
His SAT way back when was 2230 and his current CC gpa is 3.68, but he got a C in a summer school UCSD class, so overall, it’s 3.54. He also has some Ws. I understood that for music majors, it’s all about the audition. Don’t know that his GPA is anything special.
And this finding a teacher— have no clue how to do this other than the ones his teacher knows. He doesn’t have the energy to be going and visiting schools around the SW; it’s enough that he’s taking a class and preparing his audition at the moment, tbh. He could have gone conservatory according to his teacher, and his teacher will totally go to bat for him.
Sounds like in-state publics with room & board could possibly be similar in cost as a private with an outstanding scholarship?
Is it ok to contact music departments and ask about scholarships?
My D used her auditions to “find her teacher.” I was stressed about this as well but it happened more organically than I imagined. No special trips required! Audition does seem to be key for admission. My D’s academics alone would not have gotten her into any UC (she was admitted to UCI and UCSB). Long Beach and SDSU would also have been academic reaches for her. Arizona State offered scholarships that put the total cost close to the in-state UC cost (music and merit) without even applying for financial aid.
I can’t say anything about cello but I think that Long Beach, Fullerton, Northridge, SDSU, Fresno State, Los Angeles, and SFSU all have good music programs. And there other CSUs that have some nice qualities as well. Google the Green Music Center at Sonoma State. Beautiful.
Gotcha, @BearHouse! That makes sense to find the right fit teacher via the audition.
We’re checking out CSULB, Fullerton, SDSU. Will add Fresno. Son doesn’t want to be in the heart of LA or SF. Might check out Sonoma, too.
Re. ASU: Music isn’t a WUE major from what I can tell, correct? So I’m thinking it’s unaffordable. When my son applied to colleges as a freshman back in 2014-15, he was admitted to UCSD and UCI (different major back then). With a small Pell Grant, UCSD was only about $7500 total a year due to the generous Blue Gold program, UCSD aid and Pell Grant. It’s hard to me to stomach how much more it’s going to cost for us if he doesn’t go to a local school (at this point, it’s only SDSU since he can’t transfer to UCSD). UCSD was cheaper by far than any CSU besides SDSU because of the cost of room & board.
I wouldn’t count ASU out. It is a large music program and their merit (music and academic) may bring it in-line with California state schools even without being in WUE. Of course, there are still room and board and travel costs to consider.
