<p>Am I to understand that they do not offer merit scholarships to undergraduate? Or am I missing something here?</p>
<p>I'll be. Just checked both the university and School of Music site and it is financial need based aid only. OUCH!</p>
<p>Zep- maybe there's conflicting info.</p>
<p>I'm assuming your asking about a music scholarship. From Northwestern's own webpage here <a href="http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/freshman/financing/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/freshman/financing/</a> I quote:</p>
<p><in the="" 2007-08="" academic="" year="" northwestern="" will="" provide="" more="" than="" $70="" million="" of="" its="" own="" funds="" for="" financial="" aid="" undergraduate="" students.="" ninety-nine="" percent="" this="" money="" is="" in="" form="" grants="" which="" are="" awarded="" solely="" on="" basis="" need="" as="" demonstrated="" through="" fafsa="" and="" css="" profile.="" other="" one="" scholarships="" to="" national="" merit="" scholars="" talent-based="" awards="" music=""></in></p>
<p>Doing the math, that's $700k for undergrad music talent awards and National Merit Scholars. Northwestern does not specify (in the quick read I did) as to whether the need based grants mentioned are mutually exclusive if awarded a music talent award. </p>
<p>Most music talent scholarships are awarded solely on the basis of the audition, the better audition=better award. It can also depend to a degree on the need for your instrument (or specific talent) to round out a studio or a performance ensemble.</p>
<p>I have no idea as to the dollar amounts or typical ranges of music talent awards at Northwestern, but it can be a fairly competitive audition process depending on the instrument the year you apply.</p>
<p>Just guessing... there could be a smaller number of fairly large awards to attract the really great prospects or a large amount of small awards to hold a small carrot in front of a lot of candidates. Anybody else have any experience?</p>
<p>Interesting. That's buried about 5 layers deep. Guess they like to keep it a secret...</p>
<p>Yep. Sometimes the info is hard to find. In this case, seemed like fine print.</p>
<p>HA! I guess it helps to know where to look huh? That still does not seem like a lot of $$ for all the music majors...jeez</p>
<p>It's not all for music awards either. If you read the parameters, the $700k is for Nat'l Merit Scholars AND music talent awards. Doesn't seem to be a large pool of capital.</p>
<p>For Fall 2007, my violist D was fortunate to be admitted to every school where she played an audition including Northwestern, Rice, Oberlin, Vanderbilt, and Furman. Every school, EXCEPT Northwestern, offered her a substantive merit scholarship.</p>
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Am I to understand that they do not offer merit scholarships to undergraduate? Or am I missing something here?
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</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, merit scholarships offered by any of the U.S. News top 15 are either incredibly rare or nonexistent (the major exceptions to this rule being WUSTL, and to a lesser extent, Duke).</p>
<p>Since they were the first to break the $50K barrier, WUSTL had better be a bit more on the generous side...</p>
<p>Not necessarily a valid comparison, but just an example from what I know of my son's Hartt experience:</p>
<p>The Hartt Performance 20/20 honors chamber program <a href="http://harttweb.hartford.edu/about-performing.asp?or_name=Performance+20+20%5B/url%5D">http://harttweb.hartford.edu/about-performing.asp?or_name=Performance+20+20</a> is a full tuition, audition based program. Extremely competitive, it had (has) a base of about 25 grad and undergrad students comprising the rotating mixed ensembles. The program is open to incoming freshmen, transfer students, and current students upon studio teacher's recommendation. At the current Hartt tuition of $25,800, that's funding of $645k just for this group alone.</p>
<p>In addition, Hartt offers music talent awards in varying amounts based on the strength of the audition. Additionally, there are a number of smaller endowed music exclusive scholarships for continuing students at Hartt. (Northwestern had a long list of these as well on one of their pages.)</p>
<p>I do know that University of Hartford policy prohibits a Hartt music talent award recipient being eligible for any university academic grade/stat based merit award. This policy tends to vary widely by institution.</p>
<p>This isn't presented as an endorsement of Hartt over Northwestern, but just an illustration as how talent/merit awards can be distributed, the confusing wordings, and the sometimes vague info provided online and in printed materials. </p>
<p>In a lot of instances, you have to really read through the info cover to cover and be ready to be clicking link after link. </p>
<p>And if you still can't find it, pick up the phone and call.</p>
<p>ImperialZeppelin, what is the $50K barrier?</p>
<p>A year attending Washington University in Saint Louis will set one back over $50,000. They are the first school in the country to break the "$50K barrier," a dubious distinction, IMHO.</p>
<p>Another barrier- I remember back when Wille Mays broke the $100k barrier in baseball salary. Things have changed considerably both tuition wise and the dollar value of sports talent.</p>
<p>For the newbies, there's a discussion of some past merit/talent award experiences here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=336764&highlight=merit+aid%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=336764&highlight=merit+aid</a></p>
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A year attending Washington University in Saint Louis will set one back over $50,000. They are the first school in the country to break the "$50K barrier," a dubious distinction, IMHO.
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<p>Wow, I did not know that. That is indeed quite a dubious distinction, and a surprising one too given WUSTLs fairly recent rise to national prominence. One might have expected that an Ivy or a more storied university would break that barrier first.</p>
<p>That is quite a large sum of money....It's sad that Northwestern would be crazy expensive to go to....Anybody know about the reputation of Ithaca and Hartt? I know Ithaca is good for music ed, but what about VP?? I will do not want to attend a stand alone conservatory because I feel liberal arts are important.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I do know that University of Hartford policy prohibits a Hartt music talent award recipient being eligible for any university academic grade/stat based merit award. This policy tends to vary widely by institution.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>The Hartt policy may go deeper than just merit aid from the University. We know a young lady (soprano)...family definitely had financial need. She was accepted to Hartt...was told that NO need based UNIVERSITY aid was available to her at all. She did not receive a music scholarship either. Her only finaid was the Stafford Loan (she did not qualify for other federal aid, but her EFC didn't even cover a third of the cost of attendance at Hartt).</p>
<p>I will concur with what thumper describes above about need based aid and my son's Hartt experience.</p>
<p>The only need based aid he received throughout his time there was the Stafford, and a small Perkins when my daughter entered college. EFC was a bit lower than what thumper cited in her example. He was also offered a very small work study amount in his second year, which he declined. It was never offered again.</p>
<p>We were able to swing it without overextending ourselves financially, but only based on the merit aid he received.</p>
<p>Northwestern started to give merit-based scholarships just last year. That's why there seems to be conflicting info.</p>