<p>If you’re interested in Music Therapy, look into the Berklee College of Music Program. Sure it’s in Boston, but trust me Boston is a really great city and you can always move to NYC if you find a job in an institutional setting.
<a href=“Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy”>http://www.berklee.edu/majors/music-therapy</a>
<a href=“Audition and Interview Dates and Locations”>http://www.berklee.edu/admissions/audition-and-interview-dates-locations-and-invitations</a>
However, I’m not sure you realize that’s double the loan you could get to buy a house. Having that amount of debt will shackle you - because there’s a limit on how much credit you can have, that amount of debt means you won’t be able to have a loan to buy a car, to finance a house, to go to school, or for any unexpected catastrophe that befalls people.
If really to are meant to be in NYC and study at the New School, find jobs and save money; participate in the New School Competition for Full Tuition (there’s a quiz, you must make a video, etc) which takes place each year between November and February; plan to devote the next 10 years to this goal because you won’t get your I20 if you don’t have the resources <em>in the bank</em>, plus a salary, even before the loan. If you rely on a loan you won’t get your visa. If you can be certified teaching music and ESL in Italy, then work for 3 years, once you get to the US you’d be eligible to work as a teacher (if a school hires you, and they’d hire you for ESL more than for music but being able to direct band, choir, etc, might give you an edge.) Without the 3 years teaching for a recognized school in Italy you wouldn’t be eligible to teach in the US.
You can also start at a community college (Hostos, La Guardia… or even in Hoboken) then transfer, at least you’d have two years that would be cheaper, you could still be in NYC, etc.</p>
<p>
Do you have a source for this? As far as I know, loans are a perfectly good funding source if a student has one secured. More often, the catch-22 seems to stem from college policies: many colleges won’t admit international students without documented funding and banks won’t authorize a loan without an acceptance letter in hand. </p>
<p>
For what it’s worth, The New School’s average grant/scholarship to international students is around $8.000 per year. Of course that’s only an average and also for all colleges combined…</p>
<p>MommaJ had a good point about visas. Work visas in the US are notoriously inconvenient and difficult to obtain. (Because there’s a yearly cap on the number of work visas, your prospective employer has just one week each year to submit a visa petition for you. A lottery decides which of the applications received in that week will be processed. If all goes well, you may start work 6 months after your work visa application was submitted. Oh, and just filing a petition on your behalf will cost your employer several thousand dollars, which he is legally not allowed to pass on to you.) If you do have your heart set on staying in the US after college, add “marrying a US citizen” or “going to graduate school” to your list of priorities. (There are additional work visas for foreigners with a graduate degree from a US university.)</p>
<p>Great information, especially about the average grants to internationals, thanks very much!
You are all very knowledgeable, glad I asked.</p>
<p>b@r!um: loans are a perfectly good funding source if combined with other sources (ie., one or two among on campus work-study, personal savings, a sponsor, parents’ income, parents’ savings, a government scholarship…) but they’re considered suspicious if they’re supposed to provide $250,000 in funding as would be the case here.
More generally, my expression was a shortcut – the source is my experience with many students - and I didn’t mean “the Embassy systematically refuses visas to students who only secured a loan and have no other source of funding”, although that has happened, but rather than the combination of (not having money in the bank) + (needing admission to have loan/needing loan for admission results) means that in practicality students with this option don’t get a visa. What I meant earlier, except not in a nutshell 
It also depends on the country (Europeans and Canadians have an advantage - even with sufficient funding and admission, some African students can get turned down “not providing sufficient evidence they intend to return to their home country”. Loans do not count in that evidence if they’re not from your own bank since the bank indicates an obligation to return home whereas a foreign loan doesn’t - and only a banking account with money in it counts.)</p>
<p>Singerfromlondon: you should try to diversify a little. Look into the music programs that interest you, even if they’re not in NYC. Look into Eastman School of Music, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, New England Conservatory, Berklee, Ithaca, but also Oberlin’s or Lawrence’s conservatories. No idea whether those would meet your needs but look into each of them.
Then, see what CUNY can offer. Then look into the universities in/around NYC: Fordham, Hofstra, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you! Great list. </p>
<p>Fordham and Hofstra, although they’re in NYC, would probably be my last picks after all the others. There are great performance halls in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St Paul… if you’re serious about your music, let the schools be your first guide, and the city second.</p>
<p>Singerfromlondon: on the other hand if being in NYC is your 1st priority, one of the least expensive university systems in the US is CUNY, City University of NY. Tuition is $6000/yr for NYS residents and you’re considered a resident after a year in NY; the fisrt year as an international you would probably pay around $12000. <a href=“Tuition Calculator”>https://orapp.hunter.cuny.edu/tuition_calculator/</a>
<a href=“Student Resources, Services and Information | Hunter College”>Student Resources, Services and Information | Hunter College;
<p>They have many campuses all over the city; for music I think Hunter and City College would have the biggest programs.
<a href=“https://www.cuny.edu/about/colleges.html”>https://www.cuny.edu/about/colleges.html</a></p>
<p>^Hofstra is not in NYC; though they like to play up their proximity to the city, it takes around an hour to get into Manhattan from their campus. I work a few minutes away from Hofstra and while it’s true that we’re a few miles away from NYC, the full truth is that we’re a few miles from the border with Queens, an outer borough of NYC, and not at all close to what everyone considers “the city”.</p>
<p>
Not if you’re an international student. F-1 students are never eligible for in-state tuition.</p>
<p>
<a href=“Student Resources, Services and Information | Hunter College”>Student Resources, Services and Information | Hunter College;
<p>thanks! i’d not heard of cuny, good to know there are cheaper options out there. though the course at the new school is really my first choice.</p>
<p>Good info b@r!um</p>
<p>I found the Hunter page for International applicants. Tuition is still relatively affordable compared to other schools:
" Hunter College does not provide financial assistance to international students; they must be in a position to finance tuition, fees, room and board, insurance, books and incidental expenses. The estimated cost is $25,000 per year and is subject to change."<br>
Which must mean tuition of around $12000 a year?
<a href=“Admissions | Hunter College”>Admissions | Hunter College;
<p>They also have a page on loans for internationals but there’s a requirement that will make it difficult for many: “International students at CUNY Hunter College can apply for a student loan, with a US co-signer. The co-signer must be a US citizen or permanent resident, with good credit, who has lived in the US for the past two years.”
<a href=“http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/studentservices/is/loans-for-international-students”>http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/studentservices/is/loans-for-international-students</a></p>