I agree about not going into debt. S turned down opportunities at a lot of well-ranked conservatories and colleges for his MM because they only offered partial tuition scholarships. Also be careful with offers of scholarships at state universities that are not your home state. If you are not a resident of the state, in many cases you pay out of state tuition. A 20K scholarship with a 40K out of state tuition will leave you with 20K of tuition to pay for. S has several friends that got into great programs but couldn’t afford to go to them. Several used the past year to work and save for grad school living expenses.
@iluvpiano It’s a school nobody has heard of, so I won’t even bother mentioning its name. lol… I chose it because it gave me a full assistantship with stipends that covered all my expenses 
just want to bump this thread up and see if anyone has received the financial package yet. Thanks!
For graduate programs for my daughter all information has been received with the exception of her current school which will be receive this week (and she has a good idea of what she will receive based on friends in the graduate program). Based on what I’ve seen and heard in the last year (this is NOT based on my D’s results), MM students can get offers of merit aid, scholarships, assistantships and/or fellowships from 1/3 to 2/3 tuition. An offer of 1/2 tuition seems to be “popular” when aid is offered. And unfortunately no merit aid is common enough too. I have not heard of living stipends in MM programs. I hope this helps.
I agree with you that merit aid can be scarce, but the figures of 1/3 to 2/3 seem arbitrary. For example, Juilliard’s Kovner award covers everything, including living expenses (although not many students receive this fellowship.) They also offer up to full tuition in merit scholarships for MM students, although, again, some receive much less. MSM is known to give full tuition scholarships and a small living stipend to some students. At Colburn, all expenses are covered for all students. Rice is known to offer full tuition scholarships to many of its MM students. At Yale School of Music, students received full tuition scholarships plus a modest living stipend. I’m sure other school offer this kind of merit aid as well, but it’s true that scholarships are, unfortunately, much harder to come by these days than in the past.
Yes, it seems like “scholarships” are murky water. I was trying to add perspective based on what I have seen and heard. Of course, one never knows how accurate it all is. Plus it’s obviously dependent on the school, talent level, needs of the year? I haven’t heard of any full ride scholarships however I suspect that they are out there. I also haven’t heard of stipends; however one poster above got one and you have seen it. I have too often heard of NO merit aid. So my best comment was I’ve seen nothing up to 2/3 and it seems that full tuition with stipends are possible for MMs. I would also add that a student can get nothing from one school and a generous offer from another comparable school. And…we did visit Rice (but D didn’t apply) last spring, she was told that all accepted MM students get a full ride tuition.
I guess I contradict myself by saying Rice is a full rider and I knew that. I was separating (in my mind) full ride schools like Rice and Curtis from the ones you have to wait for their offer.
Monies for MM often depend on the level of degrees offered at a given school. For example some schools do not offer the DMA and are able to give the more generous scholarships and assistantships to MM students. This is the case of S’s school and the school he had the very generous offer from-only MM and Artist Diplomas offered at these two schools. I don’t think having DMA students at a school necessarily means better overall players. The AD students are often folks who are auditioning for orchestras; DMA students may be (but not always) more focused on obtaining positions with colleges and teaching academies. DMA is a very different progression from PhD where one enters a schools and picks up the master’s degree while working toward the doctorate. DMA students ofter earn a MM at one school and matriculate at another for the DMA.
Never knew there was a difference bx a PhD and DMA. Never heard of a DMA. Just looked it up. Interesting…
For future reference, son just received a scholarship letter in the mail today for a MM which was very generous without an assistant ship or ensemble playing responsibilities. Totally unexpected especially since a friend received an assistantship offer with an acceptance letter from the same school. Son was planning on working for a year to save some money but this is a game changer. Grad schools work on a different timetable than undergrad.
Just reporting for reference on the MM things- in mid April, I did receive an assistantship that includes a out of state full tuition waiver and living stipend. The living stipend is enough to cover my rent for almost the full 12 months, and I just have to pay for food, gas, flights home etc. This is for University of North Carolina- Greensboro for my MM in piano performance and I will be attending this fall! However I didn’t receive any aid from other schools so that is true like someone said about receiving a good offer from one school for the MM and then nothing from others!
iluvpiano, Congratulations! I’ve enjoyed reading your posts since you were applying to colleges for undergrad. Glad that you found a good home for grad school!
Congrats, iluvpiano!
Great news. Congratulations and best of luck, iluvpiano!
Thanks!
congrats iluvpiano!