I will update this as I get more information from members of this board. Please remember that these are reported and anonymous so they may not be 100% accurate. (these are music and not academic scholarships)
–Music College Merit Scholarship Ranges
(depends on many factors: not only talent but how much a program needs your particular instrument and/or genre).
Berklee - $44k tuition. Merit Scholarships usually range from $10k to $20k. Some $30k (mainly from the Summer Program) and the rare full tuition and Presidential Award - tuition, room/board).
The New School - $46k tuition. Merit Scholarships range from $10k to $40k with most between $10k and $20k.
NEC -$48k tuition. Merit scholarships range anywhere from $5k to $34k.
Frost - $50k tuition. Offers anywhere from zero to full tuition. Most generous music school for scholarship. 5 Stamps Scholarships every year (full ride).
USC - $55k tuition. USC Thornton doesn’t give out much music merit, but I’ve seen them give $10,000 a year. Zero in Pop Music. Small potatoes in Jazz. Most money offered is for tippy top academics.
Thornton is given several merit packages to give out to students thru USC. If you apply by December 1st all apps are considered and each “school” at USC are given several to hand out. My son got a full tuition Trustee Scholarship. My son is pop music, performance major. So while technically the pop program doesn’t give merit scholarships, they actually do. But yes, based on academics.
Miami University offered me $4000 a year in “music talent” scholarships. I was also told at my Jacobs audition that every saxophone player accepted qualifies for a scholarship.
FYI . . . USC meets financial need at or near 100% of all admits to the university. Big emphasis in all communications with them. Not all of that will be merit scholarships from Thornton of course, but these days, only people without need pay sticker price at USC.
@WestOfPCH It’s the same as most other elite privates. Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Rice, among others. (Interestingly, CMU does not, which I found while searching for example for this post.)
Anyone have an idea about the relationship between instruments/specialties and merit aid? For example, is my D, a classical soprano who will major in VP, least likely to get merit because of oversupply of sopranos? Are certain instruments in high demand and more likely to get money? How about whether ability to play a secondary instrument helps? We have wondered if her French horn capability might translate into a small merit scholarship at some schools (obviously not at conservatories, but at universities with a music school or department where they might need an extra horn player in an orchestra or ensemble.)
@khill87 This is an email from the music school after my son’s audition on violin and viola. Usually there’s more demanding on the viola but in this school, they seemed really needed violin players. Violin is like soprano and viola is like alto.
The committee discussed your case for some length after your audition. We decided that it would be best for you to major in violin performance, at least in your first year. You are most welcome to also take viola lessons in the first year as well, in whatever way works for your schedule. We can reassess things after the first year. We feel this would be a great benefit for you, and the things you would work on could transfer to the viola. Although our program has not been given scholarship allocations yet, we also feel that it will be more likely that we can award you a bigger scholarship by having you as a violin performance major your first year. (We can only award one scholarship from Strings. What I mean is that we couldn’t award you a scholarship on viola and then another award on the violin.)
You would play violin in the orchestra, but you could play violin or viola in chamber music (or both - violin in a group and viola in a different ensemble).
@khill87 I don’t you’ll find that a secondary instrument will help at the conservatory level, but I think it very well may translate into more money at a LAC (but she may have to play that horn for the $). In VP I would say that the gentlemen are more likely to get really BIG money before the ladies (in undergrad), because schools need to lure the best talent. There is just no way to know about scholarship money! Maybe your D has a difficult to find Fach? If so…more $$. Maybe there are 10 sopranos similar to your D? A little less money… Is D also receiving academic scholarship money, or need based grants? The talent award may reflect this… Awards can be all over the place. (Sorry, this is probably not very helpful!)
@khill87 as the parent of a French Horn player… there is money there but it is competitive. I am not sure what your D’s skill level is and there is a whole audition repertoire for the horn that can be very very hard. Horns are always needed, but I would advise to you to have your D follow her passion… if it is voice… attack it full force and don’t split it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the horn… we just finished the whole audition process
We took off one of the above- mentioned schools from consideration because we were told that an extremely talented bassoonist, who is also a talented pianist, and who got into all the elite schools (including Curtis), only received $10k total. I know ultimately it’s the parents who have to pay for school, but at these sticker prices, it’s really too much of a sacrifice, esp with other kids and their futures to consider. I’ve been telling S this, but I don’t think he’ll understand until next year when present him with actual numbers.
@Busy_Momma I think I may know the bassoonist you’re referring to and if it is the same kiddo, 10K is kind of hard to believe and would be a real tragedy if true, as his talent is immense and like an anomaly! He and my D attended a camp together last summer and she said his playing almost brought tears to her eyes… But from my experience thus far, I would have to encourage you to apply anyway because you never know. While the merit or talent awards may present as lower than desired, there are other aspects of the financial package (not counting loans) which may make up a significant portion of the difference, making it doable, and of course depending on your financial situation. Many looked at me sideways when we applied to SMU (70K/year) and Baylor (62K/year), but we were able to tap into different pools of funding resulting in nearly 80% of costs being covered, without even receiving the music award yet. I truly think that if she ends up going to U.T., I will be paying more out of pocket.
Something else to consider is following the teacher and not the school. Many of the professors, particularly in the Northeast, teach at multiple schools, providing additional opportunities to work with the desired teacher at other schools which may not be as competitive or expensive. For example, Marc Goldberg is at NEC, but he is also at NYU, Bard and Mannes, and the four bassoonists at Juilliard are also at MSM. One of them is also at SUNY, Yale, and another school, in addition to Juilliard and MSM … If your son is a Junior, have him start researching who he’d like to study with and then apply to the different schools they teach at. Just a thought
Amount of “Music merit scholarhip” $$$ really depends on instruments in that particular year. So, there may be a case like, a genius musician or child prodigy gets only 50% tuition scholarship in previous year from one school but a little lower level musician in the same instrument may gets 100% tuition scholarship in next year from the same school. Also, all private schools require CSS-Profile for freshman applicants. If some schools see “ready-to-pay” $$ amount or income in parents’ financial records, schools may need to choose lesser musicians who are impossible to attend without institutional supports but schools need to fill program / ensembles. Another case is, let’s say, if one top musician in US applied to all elite music schools and gets accepted with the biggest amount of scholarship to all elite schools, others wouldn’t get a big offer or even admitted (waitlisted) first. Then, the top musician needs to choose only ONE school (one offer) by May 1st. He / she may set his/her mind in early April or late April or think through in April then May 1st comes…Music merit scholarship is like a huge money game or gamble… But what can we do without participating this game if we really need money support from institutions to send our musician there?
Thanks, @BassoonMom2019 . Yes, really hard to believe with that kind of talent. We are following the teacher as well although with that many schools to which a teacher is attached, I’ve wondered how much access the student would have to him/her. Interestingly, the NPCs had us paying at the higher end at UT as well. At any rate, looking forward to the schools that you and D as well as @leejay22 and child eventually choose. It’s been so nice to learn from everyone in the CC community, and especially from other parents of bassoonists.
This is a really tricky subject and good points above about needing various instruments or voices, etc. But consider:
Many music schools award scholarships that are “need-based” or “need-informed.” It could be that a student with fantastic talent is from a family with less or no financial need, which translates into a lower merit scholarship than another similarly talented student may have received. Eastman has a chart describing scholarship ranges across various categories of need and merit and it’s worth looking at to better understand the process. Don’t confuse scholarship awarded with talent level - it’s only part of the overall picture. I know we all feel very broke as parents of musicians. ? https://www.esm.rochester.edu/financialaid/cost-of-attendance-undergraduate/
I do think that certain instruments get more in terms of scholarships - it’s a supply and demand thing - the basis of Economics. I’m hoping there aren’t many jazz bassists out there this year…although I have no earthly idea.
@Busy_Momma - can you please share what school gave the brilliant Curtis admitted bassoonist $10k? Inquiring minds want to know… (could be that they had a legacy bassoonist that also applied that year? Those things happen - or perhaps they knew that he was very likely not going to go there? - that also happens).
So, as noted elsewhere, the Setnor Music Award at Syracuse U is full tuition – this year that is just over $52,000. I believe they give out 1-2 a year.
@akapiratequeen - a new record at $52k!!! I can’t imagine we’ll ever see anything that large again. (although Colburn and Curtis are right up there, too - although no definitive number).
