<p>What a wonderful site this is and I just wish I would have found it about six months ago! Lots of wonderful people and information. </p>
<p>Question - My S has auditioned at and been accepted to four universities (because he is an IB candidate, he decided to go the university route for music performance and then hopes to go the conservatory route for masters, just an FYI), two in-state and two out of state. He is in the top 2% of his class (of 600 students), had 31 on his ACT, 4.6+ GPA, etc. He is also a three time all-state musician. Three of the universities he applied to gave him academic scholarships when they admitted him, before he had even auditioned for their music programs. All four universities have offered very nice music scholarships but as you can imagine, on the two that are out of state, there is still the out-of-state tuition which makes the cost higher. His "dream" school and #1 choice is an out-of-state school. When we received his F.A. "package", the music merit scholarship was listed, along with 3 or 4 small loans and a small work study but no academic scholarship. When inquiring to the F.A. office about an academic scholarship, this was the response:</p>
<p>"We can appreciate your inquiry regarding merit scholarships. Unfortunately, the Office of Financial Aid offers very few merit scholarships to our very high achieving students. _____, on being admitted was considered for our scholarships. And as stated, most of our excellent students are not offered scholarships." </p>
<p>We were quite surprised by this response and this came from a Big 10 university! Is this the norm? The music department is going to try to see if they can investigate further on his behalf as they really would like him to be there and if they can come up with just a little bit more, my son's dream will come true. Can someone tell me if this is usual/unusual or were we wrong to think that MOST colleges would offer some type (even a small one) of academic scholarship for "very high achieving students"? </p>
<p>Thank you for your insight!</p>
<p>The out of state public universities are all over the board in the way they dole out academic money to OOS students, regardless if they may meet the criteria. They are funded and chartered to serve the residents of their state first.</p>
<p>The economy stinks as well, and many state higher ed budgets are hurting very badly.</p>
<p>Some are very generous to OOS, some are not. And some are not generous even to their instate high achieving applicants.</p>
<p>There is no broad universal policy on how merit, academic, talent and even need based awards are doled out. Even within need based aid, the FAFSA is a qualifier, determining only the need for federally backed financial aid.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son. If you wish, we can add him to our Master List <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/817953-master-list-acceptances-fall-2010-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/817953-master-list-acceptances-fall-2010-a.html</a>. Just let us know the schools, the degree type, the major and the instrument and one of us “dads” will add it.</p>
<p>Every school seems to have its own policies and merit-based aid can vary substantially between schools. Some schools are disinclined to add an academic award on top of a talent/music award. Some schools even have a rule against “stacking” music with academic awards. As well, some government-supported schools reserve more money for in-state students.</p>
<p>Once again, thank you to EVERYONE for the valuable information on this site. When we started the college process last year, had I known about this site, it would have helped tremendously. I am telling all my friends about it!</p>
<p>In any event, I just wanted to update my S’s status - his #1 choice was (and has been from his first visit) the Big 10 school. The professor is top notch and will help him become a better musician. He loved the music rehearsals he sat in on, the university in general and the warmth/excitement from all the music students he met. After several emails/phone calls with financial aid and the music department, along with updating our FAFSA and sending in a copy of our income taxes for this year, our S was able to receive enough scholarships/grants to make his attending this wonderful school as an out-of-state student a reality for him! His dream has come true and the only thing that is bad for me is that he will be so far away. :)</p>
<p>Had we not read all the different topics/threads/helps and hints that so many before us had written, we would most likely not have been at this point. So again, many thanks to you all, especially the veterans, for all your wonderful information.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update and congrats. If by any chance the school to which you were referring is U Mich (because it SOUNDS like Umich), you should know that OOS scholarship is indeed pretty rare due to the very high OOS demand, and I’d suspect the SOM argued passionately on your behalf – so kudos either way, but if it was UMich, welcome and Go Blue!</p>