Did a bunch of decisions go out this week?
Anyone know the time line on fine arts decisions/scholarships?
Any current students want to share how it is going for them?
Commenting on my own thread! Saint Olaf has selected a new president and that was just announced this week.
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My son was accepted EA in December. We were supposed to visit yesterday, but our flight canceled due to the snowstorm. I just rescheduled to visit at the end of March.
He’s excited about the school and eager to get on campus see what it’s really like.
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My daughter was accepted; she’s excited about the school! We hope to visit in April. We saw St. Olaf in the summer (best tour of all she’s seen), but she wants to visit with the school in session.
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Congrats to both your students!
To be clear, my daughter was accepted. We’re still waiting on fine arts decisions. I think that can push us into potentially affordable range. Both my college senior and my daughter applied and were accepted, we have been on campus many times. LOVE it mostly. Everyone is generally super helpful, etc. Know many happy alum, etc.
BUT the music department is a bit of a black box. Neither of my kids were able to secure a sample lesson or talk to a music faculty member. Both got plenty of attention at higher profile programs too. I know other kids that were able to so maybe it’s a shot in the dark if someone is going to respond to an e-mail. Once we get full fine arts info, I hope maybe we can go back down to campus and have her do that.
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I bet that for music it really depends on who you would be working with - ie, my daughter, an instrumentalist, has had good luck communicating with the person who would be her mentor. But that is probably b/c of that faculty member, not a larger institutional factor.
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Also, curious about the “mostly” in your “Love it mostly” comment? 
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Oh - just mostly referring to frustration with music contacts since that is a big deal especially for my current kid. 
I really thought my oldest kid would end up at Saint Olaf but just lack of response and a lot of wooing from another school led him elsewhere. (no regrets at all he is having a great experience and graduating with a double degree this year!)
And I am absolutely sure this is a specific department/faculty glitch but I have to say both my kids tried multiple times to get response from people in one corner of music and both have failed thus far. Just fairly frustrating when the rest of our experience has been one of the best from all other corners. I am glad your daughter has had good communication! Congrats again! 
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One other thing is my kid auditioned in person in the last month at 6 programs. We had pretty great experiences everywhere. Saint Olaf just did video auditions this year. I actually wish they may have done like a zoom option to allow some back and forth. Their audition day prior to covid was pretty spectacular. So that is also a bit of a disappointment too. I haven’t looked but hopefully they have some music friendly options/exploration available for admitted student events.
I don’t mean to sound so negative, we may be singing a different tune later in the process! I really do love a ton about Saint Olaf.
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Yes, the video audition felt very strange … makes it even more important for the person on the other end to reach out after acceptance! Hope that your child gets some response soon. Maybe they’re busy snow-shoveling right now!!
My kid got in with $30K scholarship per year. Not sure they can handle the MN winters though.
Out of curiosity, wasn’t St Oalf where Rose from Golden girls was from? The name rings a
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Yes! I don’t remember if she directly would directly refer to the college? I feel like she would vaguely refer to Saint Olaf like it might be a town? “Back in Saint Olaf …”
Congrats to your kiddo! 
My kid has the all the joys of a midwestern winter at home so is used to the winters. We have done a lot of shoveling this week!
Yes, she was a professor of mine back at Carleton! We alums are all so pleased and excited. St. Olaf hired the very best!
My student’s music scholarship letter did not include a $ amount,
while the academic scholarship did include a specific amount.
I found the lack of information on the music side strange.
May I ask, was the $30k scholarship you refer to for music?
TIA!
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It looks like the music scholarships range from $2,000-$15,000. They are named, but the website does not connect each name to a dollar amount. Music Scholarships – Music Scholarships (stolaf.edu)
Further, it looks like all scholarships stack, but St. Olaf maxes them out at 50% of COA (or is it 50% of tuition, room and board? Not sure). I guess we’ll all find out more when the complete financial aid package comes out in mid-March.
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I believe merit will cap at 50% of COA. I also read somewhere, don’t (quote me I don’t have time to dig around on the website at the moment but worth looking into) that anything over 50% can be applied subsequent years should tuition increase (as it does).
So my student got awarded general merit in her acceptance letter. And she got a music letter saying a music scholarship was coming but we don’t have amount either. And she has a theater scholarship app still pending with no notification. I’m not expecting much they were pretty generous with general merit but a bit more could squeak us into range! 
We got our full financial aid letter today - hopefully they went out more broadly? If not, at least know that they’re working through things.
We’re happy with things - but kiddo is going to wait to make the “final decision” after an April visit.
We got full financial aid info today too. Getting closer!
But I am a little puzzled because we still have one arts scholarship pending yet? The music scholarship amount wasn’t shown in the music response but was in the financial aid info. I guess we will wait and see!
Regardless, because of music admissions and scholarships we will likely be riding it out for the duration to see how things shake out.
I had no idea St. Olaf has a cap on scholarships.
Now I wonder how many other schools
For St. Olaf, it doesn’t really “pay” to have great grades along with being a strong musician. The grades alone get you near the cap via academic scholarship, leaving a low merit offer for music. At least now we know why the music scholarship came in lower than we had hoped.