<p>I just feel he is so close to getting some good merit aid but I don't want him to sacrifice time preparing for prescreens to get there. Thoughts? His score was a 29 with room for improvement in math and science.
He does have time management issues if that helps.</p>
<p>Depends on the schools he is applying to. Only a few allow you to “stack” academic and talent merit. Most schools make you take the larger offer. My D also had a good ACT, but her voice award was always higher than the academic. Only Florida St. let her stack the scholarships.</p>
<p>May I ask what her act was? Maybe I’m too worried. At this point, even 3k a year would save a lot in interest.</p>
<p>Also, conservatories generally do not care about the ACT. They may use it to distinguish between 2 equally musically talented students. Some don’t even require you send it.</p>
<p>My son is only applying to a few conservatories and mostly applying to universities with a conservatory or music school in it.</p>
<p>A few schools allow December act scores for scholarship consideration. That might be a good option.</p>
<p>I would check with the school you are interested in and see the difference is award amounts for academic and music. If D had made a 32, then the academic would have out weighed the music at several schools, but with a 29, the music was always higher. I wish school would stack, but that is rare.</p>
<p>I think my son and I will be emailing admissions tonight and see what they think. </p>
<p>Also, check on out of state tuition status. That is not a “done deal”. It can be negotiated. </p>
<p>What do you mean? I know fsu and unt offer instate status to music majors. Major reason why we’re applying besides good teachers.</p>
<p>FSU is a great deal with great teachers. It was one of our top choices.
We looked at a few other state schools and several said they could negotiate the music award to cover out of state. This is something that can be done after the offer of acceptance. There is a bit of negotiating room before you accept. </p>
<p>That’s comforting scubachick. Did you find a campus visit helpful beforehand for scholarships? Or did you notice less merit when they hadn’t met your daughter before?</p>
<p>We haven’t visited in or fsu yet. I don’t know if we can.</p>
<p>I would advise him to focus on prescreens.</p>
<p>I think we will wait to retake in December for those schools that allow it. I’m emailing a few admissions departments but will probably wait. I am proud of him though. He went from a 24 to a 33 in reading. I do think the first score was not truly reflective but happy for him.</p>
<p>Campus visits and lessons seemed to result in the best offers.</p>
<p>I think calling or e-mailing the schools is a wise thing, every school is different. I have heard the same things others have, that they won’t stack merit aid at many places, but that doesn’t mean that might not be true at another school. Admissions and financial aid people are generally pretty good about answering questions, so if you ask if with a music student about how merit aid operates they will I am sure answer.</p>
<p>A lot of the answer is going to be about how confident you kid is with his ability, though a pre screen is not as intense as a full audition, it is still an audition, and it is just as make or break. You don’t pass the pre screen, you don’t get to audition, you could have perfect academic stats and it won’t matter (nor would a scholarship, since if he doesn’t get into the music school, the academic aid wouldn’t do any good unless he decided to get an academic degree or a BA in music (assuming it wans’t auditioned…). I would say if there is any doubt, put the focus on the playing, there isn’t much time (most prescreens seem to be december 1st). The only caveat would be if his ACT score would not be high enough for academic admit, even assuming they give leeway to music performance kids, then obviously he would need to bring that up (so let’s say the school generally took kids, using the SAT, who were 2100+, but with music majors would go to a 1900, if he had a 1700, that would be a red flag). </p>
<p>Me personally, I would concentrate on the pre screen, and hope the aid came through, but that is me…</p>
<p>as far as campus visits increasing offers, I am a bit dubious of that correlation, at least in my experience. I could see doing a sample lesson with a teacher potentially influencing merit aid, but from the schools I know of I don’t know how much of a correlation with the visit they are. I have heard that doing a visit shows seriousness, intent, but I haven’t seen or heard much that makes me think that is true. It could be some schools do, but I think a visit versus a sample lesson, the sample lesson might have more impact. It obviously never hurts to check out a school, do a visit, but I would do it because it is important to see what the school looks like, its facilities, and get an idea of the environment, rather than it influencing merit aid and such.</p>
<p>I just attend a session last week with my daughter on getting into to music school. The evening turned out to be surprisingly “honest”. One of the things that ALL the panelist (major U’s and conservatories) admitted was that lessons, visiting, and in-person auditions all help with merit aid. One of the themes that kept coming up throughout the evening was, in one fashion or another, if you prove to them you want to attend their school you are more likely to be rewarded. Not just with merit aid, but some admitted it even affects your chances of admission. Like I said, surprisingly honest. I was probably sitting there with my mouth hanging open.</p>
<p>I just wanted to follow up from my previous post with an example of how the opposite works. My daughter took a lesson from a teacher at one of the schools she is considering, and he told us that he had a merit scholarship available and he knew exactly who he wanted to give it to. The student in question had already been admitted but just wasn’t making any effort to contact him. He said he was giving her one more week and then it was going to his second choice. Again, prove that you WANT to be there.</p>
<p>@DesignDad it’s true for many colleges, not only conservatories, that if you demonstrate strong interest you are more likely to be admitted and to receive merit money. That doesn’t mean you’ll be admitted if you’re not up to the school standards, but it will help in a highly competitive environment. in -person auditions are a must. </p>