<p>I'm a senior in High School applying to music school as an voice/opera major for next year. It is important to me that I go to New York (or at least a couple of hours away). Are there any good schools that I'm missing? Recommendations? This is my list at the moment:</p>
<p>Manhattan School of Music (Top choice)
Mannes the New School For Music
The Juilliard School
Eastman School of Music
The Hartt School (CT)
Yale School of Music
Westminster Choir College (NJ)
Purchase College?
Hunter College?</p>
<p>I just don't want to apply to ALL extremely competitive places and end up nowhere. Anywhere I'm missing in New York?</p>
<p>FYI, the Yale SOM is a grad only program. The music concentrations are BA, not performance based within the undergrad program. Admission to Yale as an undergrad is an academic, not audition based admit. Would you be competitive academically to apply to Yale?</p>
<p>You’re right, thanks for letting me know! No, I don’t think I would be, but I was also thinking of Ithaca? </p>
<p>Also, I’m and international student (Australian living in Hong Kong). Do you think this would be an advantage or a disadvantage, in terms of scholarships and such?</p>
<p>I’ve been snooping through a lot of the threads here and there’s a lot of useful stuff! Comforting to know others have gone through the same stress and excitement!</p>
<p>As an international, you will need to look deeply into each institution’s policies and procedures for international students, including the requirements for financial assistance and documentation. There is a wide disparity. The good news is that at many of the private conservatory programs, talent based scholarships at least on the surface appear to be a bit more “border friendly” than academic merit monies. On the other hand, you will find the public schools far less generous, as there mandate is to first serve the residents of their particular state. </p>
<p>As far as specific experience within this forum, you may want to look into the experiences of RichardHK and Bassplayer08. (Matt87 also is Australian, but did not have any US based acceptances.) Should you encounter the experience of bratsche, realize those are MM acceptances, and the parameters are not the same as undergrad.</p>
<p>My son is an international student and applied to and was accepted at 5 U.S. schools last year (a variety of private schools including 2 conservatories (Juilliard and CIM), a LAC, and two comprehensive universities). Our experience was that his international status made no difference for talent-based or academic-based scholarships at these private schools (publics could be very different). He received major scholarships at all of them; at one the scholarship covered full board, room and tuition, at a second it covered full tuition and a bit, at two others around 65% of tuition was covered, and at one only about 35% of tuition was covered. Tuition ranged from about $30 000 to around $40 000 per year. </p>
<p>We did not expect any need-based aid from four of the schools and did not receive any (although I vaguely recall one school may have offered some student work for about $3000 per year). With the fifth school there was some miscommunication regarding their assurance that they met “full need of all admitted students” (did not apply to non-US). Advice: don’t rely on verbal representations even when you get them from more than one source; be certain that you get information from at least two sources that clearly understand that you are not from the US (one within music and at least one from the financial aid department) --ask specifically if they have different policies for students from outside the US. The people answering your questions may be unaware of policies that apply to only a small minority of applicants; they are very busy and get many questions related to information readily accessible on their websites or brochures and therefore often give stock responses without thinking or checking.</p>
<p>Curtis in Philadelphia might be considered: it is very selective; tuition is free for those who get in. I don’t know anything about their voice/opera major but you could look into it.</p>
<p>I’m an Australian studying at Juilliard. I concur with violindad’s experiences re. scholarships - at the schools I applied to (Juilliard, MSM and Yale) I don’t believe the financial aid is affected by immigration status.</p>
<p>Why do you want to study in NY in particular? To be honest, if you’re coming all this way, I’d choose by the teacher and possibly the reputation of the school, rather than the city. And NYC is expensive!</p>
<p>Oh, and the only other school that immediately sprung to mind was Queens College. No idea about the voice dept there, but I know of a few people studying there.</p>
<p>fisheee, as an MM candidate, the allocation of monies is different than the experience of those seeking an undergrad route. It’s important for all those looking to understand this.</p>
<p>Thank you so much everyone for your help and suggestions!</p>
<p>My concern with the CUNY and SUNY schools is with the financial aid, which is pretty important for me. My college councilor said that Purchase and Hunter don’t give it to international kids?</p>
<p>How is the merit based aid, versus the need-based aid (particularly at MSM)? How common is it for someone to be accepted but not be able to go because of the money?</p>
<p>The reason why I want to be in New York is because quite frankly I’m in love with it. I visited last January and checked out some schools, MSM, Juilliard, Mannes, etc., which I just loved. I had a lesson with Mr. Robert White from Juilliard which was extremely helpful. My decision is based on many things, not just the state :). What are you studying fisheee? And how did you go about deciding which one to go to?</p>
<p>My second-hand understanding of MSM financial aid is that it is not as good as Juilliard’s (but there are always exceptions and some will tell you that Juilliard is not very generous either). I believe that it is quite common for internationals and US citizens to not be able to attend schools due to inadequate financial aid packages. In your part of the world this is probably not the case (and is not in mine either). The US has the highest concentration of excellent schools of any place in the world, but they usually are expensive. Almost all of the top 15 music schools in the US on anyone’s list are private (and even the top publics that would make these lists are not cheap for anyone who is out-of-state). Most music students apply to several schools and $$ are very often a large part of the decision process when they are accepted. Getting accepted is one hurdle, but getting sufficient aid to make attendance possible is another hurdle. </p>
<p>Attendance at the New York privates tends to run around $50 000 per year (tuition, board and room, and other compulsory expenses). I think it is unusual for an international to get more than about $30 000 per year (and even that is a lot more than the norm). More typically I hear of internationals who are #1 on their instrument at the school getting around $25 000 per year. </p>
<p>I should mention that the two most generous schools for my son were not in NYC or major metropolitan areas.</p>
<p>violadad: No apologies necessary: your memory is astounding still and in Canada we often, at least subconsciously, think of ourselves as the 51st state :).</p>
<p>Hi, Rachel,
If it’s NYC that you are after, Ithaca, Syracuse, Eastman, Crane and Fredonia are all pretty far away (although they are all marvelous music schools and definitely worth a look).</p>
<p>The SUNYs and the CUNYs are all reasonably priced. Even if you don’t get any financial aid, my guess is that the bottom line would be competitive with the other schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>Another thought: did you get to Boston on your visit? It’s about 4 hours from NYC (about the same distance as Ithaca), and it’s a fantastic city for college kids. There are several excellent music schools there; including New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, and Boston University. Just think: you could be in school in one great city and be within a morning’s drive to NYC! </p>
<p>I love both cities, and visit one or the other about once a month. But if I were to choose one of them as a place to go to college, I’d choose Boston. JMHO…</p>
<p>The SUNYs and the CUNYs might not give a lot of aid, but the base price is far lower than the privates.</p>
<p>The tuition would be about $13,000 for you as an international student. For a private school, the tuition would be $25,000 +. Then you still have to pay room and board.</p>
<p>Getting enough financial aid as an international is not that likely, to be honest, to bridge that gap.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the New Jersey schools that are very close to Manhattan such as Rutgers and Montclair State though money for international students may be slim pickings at both. A lot of the Manhattan music school teachers also teach in NJ.</p>
<p>I think you must add SUNY Purchase to your list!</p>
<p>It’s in a great location, and only a 20 minute train ride away from the heart of Manhattan. It also have a stellar conservatory program, with is very reasonably priced. If you’re international, it will definitely be one of the cheapest schools you apply to.</p>
<p>Plus, we have an outstanding voice/opera program that has HUNDREDS of performance opportunities for freshman and undergrad in general. You might not get as much attention from the bigger schools. Purchase only accept about 10 freshman a year, so we all get a lot of individual attention and care.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to get into and really tough, but totally worth it. If you have any more questions about the program, let me know.</p>