Hello college confidential, my post may appear as a bragging one but I am not trying to be arrogant.
I come from a very poor family, in a tiny island where education quality is poor and with almost no opportunity to seriously study music. I was recognized as a prodigy at age 7 but my parents were too poor to afford lessons, let alone a piano. At age 14 I finally was in the possession of a piano but was confined to self-study. After I graduated high school with rather poor grades, I decided to enroll in the local community college, but dropped out in the middle of the semester because the education level was simply too low. The fine arts music professor (who did not major in piano) still continued to give me lessons, while I was working part-time and practicing privately.
I turn 19 at the end of this month, and I plan to apply to schools in the United States for the Fall semester, but I feel something is wrong with my abilities at the piano. I won’t go into detail but I have taught myself piano until now, and I have possibly accumulated bad habits with a mentor unable to correct them. I have already memorized my entire audition repertoire which consists of difficult pieces like Gaspard de la Nuit, which I can play up to speed, but there are quite some mistakes (both technically and musically) and I’m thinking admissions will consider me as a below-average student and will not grant a merit scholarship regardless of the pieces played.
I have no one to discuss this with; my parents and teacher do not care. I also won’t be able to travel abroad to audition because of finances, which shoehorns me to recorded auditions only. I have looked into schools such as NEC, Eastman, Oberlin, SFCM, Thornton, and a bunch of others but they are so expensive I would not even consider going to them unless I have a hefty sum of money through scholarships. At those rates I would starve to death in the US.
Unfortunately I believe I won’t be able to compete with the other extremely talented applicants who have studied piano at a healthy setting. Quite frankly, I’m uninformed and afraid.
Besides those schools, I have looked into UNT, University of the Pacific in stockton, University of Oregon, and CSUN that offer low tuition rates. I have poor grades, but I have a 1760 score in the old SAT, in 2016, which I very hope it counts. I would like to attend a school that is not lamentably incompetent in faculty and students, but not overly prestigious with ridiculous tuition fees. Thanks for all the recommendations.
The schools you have mentioned such as Oberlin, SFCM, etc are impossible to get into. Usually kids that finish their bachelors degrees in music go to those schools for their Master degrees. Getting into those schools at your young age is the same as someone your age getting in Harvard.
University of Pacific’s tuition is about $48,000 a year for LOCALS so that is no where close to cheap.
And because you are not local to the United States and not even in the same states as these schools, your tuition rate will be far higher than anybody else’s.
All I can say is to go back to your community college and finish your requirements there, then apply to all those schools and send in your video auditions cause honestly, music schools do not always care about grades. Only talent. ONLY TALENT.
Consider McGill in Canada. International tuition is about C$18,000. As @StressyJessy said, the audition/talent is what matters.
Consider CSUN, it’s $8,000 per year if you are local to CA. But it won’t be drastically high since you are coming from a different country. CSUN takes ONLY talent. I go there.
StressyJessy Oberlin is primarily an undergrad school. Not sure what you mean by your comments on age, since 19 is actually a year older than most undergrad applicants to those schools. They are not “impossible” to get into: people do get in! It was nice of you to try to help 
micnguyen, I think people understand about the bad habits from teaching yourself. I wish there was a really good teacher you could check yourself out with. You might as well try to apply to some BM programs (performance). For freestanding conservatories, grades don’t matter as much as talent- the audition is key. But freestanding conservatories are also the most expensive because although there is merit aid there often isn’t a lot of financial aid.
You could try to apply to a BM program(conservatory or school of music) that is part of a university or college (like Oberlin)- financial aid may be better but grades may matter more.
Why do you think your grades were low but your scores were high? It sounds like you get bored easily. Have you studied theory at all? Do you know what music school is like?
It sounds to me like you need a good teacher. A school may recognize your talent and want to work with you. Have you looked at Berklee? You could always consider attending a non-performance kind of college that appeals to you and study privately in music.
This is a tough situation.
University of the Pacific is a private school, so local or in state does not matter. The tuition is the same for everyone, and they do give merit (and I presume talent) awards. As an international student, form what I hear, your can’t expect too much need-based financial aid from any school. But I don’t know it that’s true of private colleges.
CSUN is a California state school, and would be very expensive for an international student.
A rule of thumb on these things, in case you don’t know: Public/State colleges/universities have in-state tuition for residents of the state, and usually much more expensive out-of-state tuition. Many (most?) are not known for giving great aid for out-of-state students, but some are. You’ll want to find the ones that are. You can find some lists by googling. Private colleges/universities offer one tuition rate for everyone; there is no lower rate for in-state students. While private colleges/universities are usually more expensive than publics, they often have more generous financial aid, so the sticker price may not be what you pay once aid is factored in. A trick to getting in and getting the best aid, is to find a school that really wants YOU, (I know that’s what you’re trying to find here.) so you need to be one of the better students applying. Since you probably won’t be among the better grade-wise, you want to aim to be among the better talent-wise. That then leaves you needing to go to a school that is kind of beneath you, if you will. Of course practically no school is really beneath people, because it will be the students job to thrive wherever they end up.
I’m sorry I can’t recommend any specific schools; I don’t know music schools, but thought some principles may help since there was already some misinformation posted here.
Can you afford anything for tuition, room and board, and other expenses?
Finding a full ride is going to be very difficult. Finding something that is much less expensive than the $60,000/year cost of many US schools should be possible (assuming that your academic and/or music talent is sufficient to get accepted).
There are a lot of smaller schools that might not be known for music but will still give you a good education. I don’t think your grades or SAT score are good enough to get you academic merit at the top schools, so look at smaller schools. It sounds like you have a lot of catching up to do in music too.
There aren’t many schools with incompetent faculty and students of all levels attend schools for many different reasons. Like you, many could have been admitted to higher ranked schools but just couldn’t afford them. Look with and open mind.
The California publics will not give you a lot of money. You might get a merit scholarship, but most likely not enough to cover your costs.
We don’t really know what your piano level is. If you were a prodigy, your playing may be brilliant but idiosyncratic in some ways due to lack of teaching. Nevertheless, it is hard to say what the reaction will be to your talent on the part of schools without hearing your playing