Jazz scholarships--Nevada-Reno, Berklee, USC-Thornton, Northwestern?

Hi, new poster here (longtime visitor). S is senior @ a Colorado HS. Excellent jazz trumpeter (all-state, etc). He’s going to apply to CU (which has the great Brad Goode teaching here) but also University of Nevada-Reno, USC Thornton, Northwestern, and Berkeley.
I’m trying to get an idea of comparative music department scholarships at these colleges. Anybody heard of full-tuition being awarded by music departments from these schools? I know Berkeley doesn’t usually give much merit aid; but, D, who goes to BU, said a friend who goes to Berkeley told her they’re short on trumpet players right now…
Thanks!

Northwestern gives minimal music merit - in the past less than 5K. Berkeley is UC Berkeley. You mean Berklee, yes?. USC does have full tuition scholarships - but they are generally tied to academic merit not music merit - Thornton itself is stingy with merit funds. But perhaps since he’s applying to Northwestern he’s got high academic stats, as well? Interesting about Nevada-Reno - I would imagine that would be quite cheap for you, yes? And if he’s a top academic student, there’s probably significant scholarship money available. I’d never heard anyone mention their music department. There must be a reason it’s on your list, which would be great to hear about.

Thanks for the reply! Nevada-Reno’s jazz program is apparently very, very good–and they just “stole” an amazing trumpet prof away from NYU. And, I did mean Berklee–I corrected the header but not the post :-/
Thanks for the info re Northwestern. If he got in there and liked it, we’d be tempted because they meet 100% of unmet need, and money is an issue. He’s got very good test scores and a so-so GPA, so it’s probably a reach in that aspect as well.
Nevada-Reno would be comparatively cheap to many others because it’s part of WUE.

Edit: I mean “Berklee”–dang auto-correct!

There are other jazz programs in WUE. Have you checked them out? Like Western Washington or Washington State (can never remember which one has the renowned jazz program) or Univ. of Oregon? And, yes, Northwestern definitely meets financial need. As does USC - although in the past they often included a number of loans. Good to know about Nevada-Reno.

Thanks for the suggestions of other WUE schools! We’ll check them out. With his older sister attending BU (even with 20k/yr scholarship), hoping we’ll get a good combo of need/merit aid for his first year, which’ll be her last.

Ah. And, unfortunately, University of Oregon has dropped WUE. Bummer.

From looking through this old thread (which I’d recommend you browse through) http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/154774-best-university-jazz-programs-p1.html about Western Washington:“If she’s willing to look way north, she should look at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. We just got back from a visit there, and were impressed with the level of musicianship, and the level of personal attention undergrads could expect to receive. Their admissions officer seemed as though they would work hard to make it happen for out-of-state students they wanted to have there.” However, with financial need, and possible merit too - there are so many options throughout the country.

I would check University Of North Texas. The campus isn’t beautiful, but the music department and facilities are excellent. They have a well regarded jazz program as well.

In addition, if you get a scholarship in excess of I think $1000, your tuition is dropped to the instate rate.

When my trumpet player was a junior in HS, he did some trial lessons with trumpet faculty from all of the schools he was considering. This helped him a LOT in terms of narrowing the field. The instructor could be the best on the planet, but if your kid doesn’t mess with him, it’s just not going to work.

Also, stealing ONE faculty member from NYU does not make a great music program. Is there only one trumpet teacher at this school? If there are more…there is no guarantee your kiddo will be assigned to that studio anyway.

And lastly, in addition to the private teacher, I would urge you to have your son listen to the ensembles. You can have a great trumpet teacher…but not so great ensembles.

Thanks again. His teacher also just recommended that he check out DePaul U, as it may be slightly less selective than, say, Northwestern. Any thoughts on DePaul?

If you go to Berklee’s 5 week summer performance program, they give you the opportunity to audition while you’re there, at which point they tend to be much more generous with merit scholarships then they are any other time. If he’s really a top trumpet player he could very possibly get a 3/4 or even full scholarship there, I don’t know how hard it is outside that program though

https://www.berklee.edu/summer/programs/five-week

Comparing music merit is tricky. Music departments only have so much merit money to give out, so they will rely on other sources first, like financial aid and academic merit, and then add music merit to make an attractive financial package for a student that they really want. So the amount of music merit you’re offered may very well depend on how much financial aid and/or academic merit you qualify for. The amount may very well be different if you don’t qualify for any financial aid. And it’s all in the context of what your final cost of attendance will be, i.e. your in-state school may offer less because your costs are less.

Full-rides are rare at the top/most popular music schools. Berklee awards 7 full-ride scholarships among its new students (1,000+). Thornton doesn’t offer any, as a rule, but I don’t know how solid that policy is.

With the above in mind, my son’s a jazz saxophonist. He’s solidly ‘good’ – made all-state jazz as a HS freshman, won a Downbeat student award as a senior, got in everywhere he applied to except for Juilliard. We do qualify for financial aid. His best music merit offers came from Berklee and Oberlin but when combined with financial aid grants, the cost of attendance for Oberlin, Berklee and Thornton were all within $2K. Taking subsidized federal loans and work-study into account, Oberlin was the most generous. Lowest cost of attendance was U of Michigan, which is in-state for us. All of these schools “meet need”.

Off the top of my head…

The “usual” list of schools for jazz - Oberlin, UNT, New School, Bard, Juilliard, Jacobs (IU), Frost (Miami), New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Steinhardt (NYU), Eastman (Rochester), University of Michigan, Bienen (Northwestern), Thornton (USC), Berklee

Others that you may not have thought of - Michigan State, Western Michigan, Columbia, William Patterson, Bard, NYU, Ithaca, SUNY Purchase, Ohio State

Thanks! I was not aware of Bard having a jazz program. My son’s into political science and philosophy, so if there’s the possibility of cross-pollinating or whatever at Bard, we gotta talk a look there.

Sadly, CU is a very expensive in-state school. But, he’d probably benefit greatly from going out-of-state.

Unfortunately too late for him, as he’s a senior. I think he’ll still apply, but I’m not holding my breath for major $$ from Berklee. Which is too bad, because when he visited his sister at BU this last spring, he toured Berklee and completely fell in love with it.

A few notes from our application process last year – and I say “our” because, regardless of the fact that the schools stress that the application process is the student’s responsibility, the bottom line is that, for most undergraduate students, the parents’ financial position can have as much impact on where they end up as their auditions. I personally don’t think it should be that way, but that’s the way it is – at least in our experience.

While music applicants are often painted as special cases that are impossible to predict, much like athletic recruits, we found that the NPC tools (“net price calculator”) at most of the schools with solid music programs to be pretty accurate, mostly because of the numbers “game” I mentioned above. In the end, it’s about the calculated “need” for you. From a financial point of view, the combination of grants/aid/scholarships that go to meet that need won’t matter that much. For schools that don’t meet need, the music and/or academic merit you get will matter much, much more.

We ran the NPC’s for all of the schools on my son’s list and when the final numbers came in, there really weren’t any big surprises. The NPC tool for the one school on my son’s list that doesn’t meet need gave us a range of music merit he was likely to get, and his merit offer was, in fact, in that range. Don’t assume a school is going to be too expensive based on hearsay.

Thanks for all who have responded–your information and advice has been very helpful

Does anyone have any thoughts on regional vs on-campus auditions? Berklee looks like it’s going to offer auditions in Denver, which would save a pile of money over flying to Boston to do it; but, IDK if they take a regional audition less seriously…

For Berklee, I don’t think it makes a big difference, if any. My son auditioned in campus, some of combo-mates did not. Process sounded exactly the same; a single person “proctored” the audition and it was video-taped. No faculty, no live rhythm section. He took a play-along track.

If anything, I think earlier will give you more of an advantage than on campus. My son did early action; applied by November 1st, auditioned in Boston in December. He had a decision, including merit offer, in 5 days.

That said, if your son hasn’t visited Boston and Berklee’s one of his top choices, I think it’s worth going to see the school. My son had a tough time deciding and went back again in April.

He fell in love with Berklee when he went out to Boston this last spring to visit his sister at BU. The tour wowed him; great facilities, lively vibe, friendly people (those we met, anyway). Price will kill us if he gets in and doesn’t get significant FA.

Have you visited other schools? It’s easy to fall in love with Berklee but it definitely has its drawbacks and you should know exactly what you’re getting into. It’s a BIG pond, and it definitely has a “system”. Did he have any sample lessons? Meet Sean Jones?

No, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, signing up for the tour. We’re going to visit UNR, Northwestern, and DePaul this fall. Maybe USC if we can make it work.