<p>I'm a junior in high school from a low-income family, but I really want to earn a B.Mus. from a more renowned university. I'm also looking for great academics, a place where a 32 ACT wouldn't feel completely out of place. My mother makes a bit less than $30,000 a year, so there's no way I can pay for college on my own. What are some colleges with great music programs, good academics, and high financial aid? I'm already looking at Northwestern, U of M (in-state), Oberlin, Rice, U of Rochester, and Indiana U. Any help is much appreciated.</p>
<p>There is a lot of great information on this site already, if you do a search.
If you want more specific information, it would be helpful to know more about your musical background.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to all my stats on a chance thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/928908-if-i-make-rocky-horror-reference-will-make-you-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/928908-if-i-make-rocky-horror-reference-will-make-you-chance-me.html</a></p>
<p>Consider a great music school that isn’t quite as well known for its academics. You will probably have more of a chance for merit money that way. Ithaca College, Mansfield University, Providence College, Syracuse University and Boston University are examples. </p>
<p>When you say U of R, do you mean Eastman? U of R has the Eastman SOM, but there is also a separate music program.</p>
<p>Both the University of Michigan and Michigan State have wonderful music programs. Sometimes you just need to consider your own backyard, especially when finances a concern. Both schools are top choices for some of my students.</p>
<p>A comment as an aside, the “chances” threads are not going to tell you anything.</p>
<p>The general CC population and more importantly, the type of poster that frequents the chances forum here and responds to the postings will have no inkling of the requirements and caveats for music admissions. They will have no clue as to the level of competition that you will encounter at any number of options, nor the weight of audition placement over stats and grades. </p>
<p>You may on the off chance get a decent read of how your stats may fall for a straight academic admit, but that is a crapshoot.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor… don’t waste your time posting there.</p>
<p>And do us a favor by keeping “chances” type threads out of THIS forum.</p>
<p>I had to get that off my chest.</p>
<p>Rant over.</p>
<p>I was only posting that because wel wanted more background info. And the only reason I put that thread up in the Chances section to begin with was to see how my academics stacked up, because I want to try and do a double-major in sciences if at all possible.</p>
<p>Your list is good, if perhaps lacking in matches/safeties. But you needn’t worry about merit money if you look at schools which promise to meet full need - with your low income (unless you have other unstated assets) the cost of attendance could be very low if you apply to such a school. In such a case, private colleges are generally more generous than public ones, except for your in-state public.</p>
<p>Saw USC on your list and want to give you a little scholarship and aid info. USC has very strong academic merit scholarships for their very top admits. They are not based solely on test scores and yours are good, but may or may not be good enough to get merit scholorships. You need to have your college app in by 12/1 at USC to be eligible for the merit scholarships. They also provide a lot of need based aid. As SpiritManager says, for many of these schools your need based aid will be significant and in USC’s case would probably be close to the merit aid. They are not part of the UC system, so are not excessively biased toward California residents or as impacted by the economy. The classical music program does have some merit scholarships I believe but son is not a classical major, so don’t really know much about them. Son is a midwest kid from a small town and very happy at USC. </p>
<p>I think you should not worry too much about the finances until you see where you are admitted and what the packages are. Nearer term figure out your budget for audition travel and prepare to choose where you can go once you hear back from your pre-audition submissions. You have a good list of schools and I am optimistic about your ability to get into one of these programs. The suggestion to have a couple safeties is probably a good idea if only to provide some peace of mind as you wait on the others and the music admissions decisions are not real predictable. The group of people in the cc music forum can provide a lot of insight about specific schools as you progress in your audition submissions through final decisions next year. Come back with specific questions and I think you will be happy you do. </p>
<p>Best Wishes!</p>