S’ experience with UM was interesting. For his instrument and grades at that time, they offered 15K per year academic for 4 years plus 25K per year music merit for the first 2 years. I am not sure why an award would be loaded into the first 2 years like that. Although, at S’ current college, he got 1K per year music merit for 4 years plus 6K per year academic for 2 years. So, this 2-year thing happened twice.
D’s experience with UM was unusual. She auditioned last year BM vocal performance (soprano) and received many accolades and correspondence from the faculty after the audition. It was the only auditioned school that accepted her w/ no merit money. She was offered need grant money but the gap was too much for consideration.
My D is at UMich. Many of her friends have no/small music merit-based aid, but she does know students who are full-ride. SMTD (school of music, theater and dance) scholarships are merit-based, need-informed. As noted above, UMich has really been working to increase need-based aid for OOS and now meets full need for OOS families with <$90k income (I believe there’s also a threshold on assets).
My D is dual-degree and received a large engineering merit scholarship. We did not qualify for need-based aid, and she did not receive any additional music merit scholarship on top of the engr one.
Mentioning College of Wooster again (a College that Changes Lives), which has BM, BA and music ed.
https://www.wooster.edu/academics/areas/music/major-minor/
Need based aid by itself won’t help in our situation. UM sounds like a great program, with some small chance of merit aid being enough to make the numbers work. Does anyone know how the other Michigan schools are for music ed? Son’s cello teacher went to school in Michigan, but I’m not sure which school. Will have to ask.
I’ll mention Wooster to him as well. One of my other kids is at a CTCL school and doing great there, so I’m on board with that type of choice.
I had another conversation with my son over the weekend about what he wants in a college. He said he wants to be able to be in choir and strings ensembles, even if he has to focus on one for his major. Surprisingly he mentioned jazz ensembles, even though I know he doesn’t want to focus on jazz voice, he must enjoy it enough to want to keep it around. He definitely wants less competition and more collaboration. He doesn’t mind not being the best, and said he prefers being around lots of very good musicians. He’s fresh off of his regional orchestra experience. We are in a very competitive region of our state, and he loved just playing with an entire ensemble at that higher level, as well as having the competition for first chair being spread amongst a large group rather than just a couple of kids. I think he’ll like college better than high school…
@Parentof2014grad - in reading your post, I was reminded of a group of my D’s friends at college. She’s a vocalist so they all had performance backgrounds. The first year a group of Freshman set up an improv club which stayed together for 4 years. They were serious about it. I got to go to one of their shows and it was good! They would rent a room in the school’s union, advertise on facebook and put on shows a couple times a year. So don’t forget when checking “ensembles” etc that many students start doing their own “things” on and off campus…and those are great experiences for the students. Also if Freshmen parents worry that their kid didn’t get into any shows the first year…this is probably what you’ll kid will start in…student-led productions/clubs. The upper classmen will be looking to fill out their experiments sometimes with new students. I think this is sometimes overlooked in the process…as it’s not detailed on school websites…and it kind of flies under the radar. But there is no way your kid will be bored or “left out” at a music school…the issue will be too many choices and too little time. Admittedly it can take until second semester of freshmen year sometimes but by sophomore year, they will be tooooo busy to spend much time with you during a visit…unless you are buying them something…
We’re thinking about UM too…but we are from NJ and don’t know anyone there. My son would want to do jazz saxophone as well as music education. Any thoughts about the program? How competitive is it, how do kids like it, how are facilities, etc? We’re looking mostly in the northeast but would take a detour!
My D auditioned for UMich SMTD this year (classical vocal performance), so what I can tell you is that there are high caliber musicians of all stripes at SMTD, it’s competitive, the facilities are nice, and they do offer a dual degree performance/education program. The current jazz program chair is a sax player, I believe.
Academically, UMich is the number one rated public university in the country, and is a tough admit, especially from out of state.
Definitely worth a look. You might also want to take a peek at Western Michigan University while you’re out there. Oberlin isn’t too far a drive from Ann Arbor either (relatively speaking).
Lawrence does not “stack” academic and talent scholarships, unfortunately. My daughter got nice offers for both, but since she could not combine them, Lawrences is not affordable. U of North Texas offers nice academic scholarships, talent scholarships are more competitive, and instate tuition with a $1k scholarship. It is an affordable option
another midwest possibility is Luther College in tiny Decorah Iowa. It has a BA in music, so double majors are common. My daughter loved the school, but (probably) wants a bachelor of music. At least today. She has about a month to figure it out.
One of the earlier posts mentions figuring things out senior year - in some ways, yes. Visiting the schools and auditioning definitely provides clarity about the types of programs kids like.
However, for a performance major - my D had her audition piece chosen a year ago, because they had to be perfected and recorded for pre-screening fall of senior year. It is a stressful process, and needs to be started early. We had to put off recording because of illness, and then one of the 3 pieces needed to be redone, and the accompanist was not available - can’t stress enough how important it is to start this EARLY!
Northwestern, Michigan, Eastman, Peabody are among the top music ed programs. Vanderbilt/Blair also has access to their highly regarded Peabody Ed School. They place people all over the country. Scholarship will be based on talent and need at the school. It’s very hard to get merit aid for music ed because they don’t have a need.