My daughter was invited to discuss scholarships by a prof at one school while still waiting to hear from her other preferred schools. Please weigh in if you have any tips on how to do this tactfully… Should she wait until after March 30 when she knows where she stands with all, or have the talk now and keep his interest without committing to anything?
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Here are “suggestions” but of course use your own good sense as you are closer to the details. You may also want to consult the private teacher.
I generally think any opportunity to engage with a teacher is good. Also note that negotiating “money” is a skill that all performers need. So not shying away is good.
Your D is young and should lean into that. Meaning she really doesn’t need to say much except listen and say “thank you for the information…I’ll be sure to keep that in mind as the other offers come in”. And…”I am going to wait until I have all the information and talk with my parents before I make any decisions”. You do have to decide if your kid is comfortable enough for this.
If she is comfortable, she could just view it as a learning opportunity…not a negotiation. She should keep away from giving any specific dollar amounts…and simply say “she’s excited to learn about scholarship opportunities”…NOT to make a decision.
The teacher may be feeling her out…seeing how serious she is. It may help to show interest and talk with the teacher. If she doesn’t know an answer, she can always say “with money issue, I need to talk with my parents and I can email you a reply on that”.
I doubt a teacher would be too specific on money. My guess is that there is high interest and the teacher may do a bit a “sales job” to sell the school and the opportunities to keep her interest. He/she may hint to keep in touch on money issues (meaning she/he’ll go to bat for her). So if she just focuses on listening to what he/she says about scholarships with no pressure to response besides “thank you I’ll keep that in mind” she should be fine.
And she may want to prepared with a couple of questions on the school/program/teachers (outside of money) to demonstrate interest…and learn more.
Again lots of speculation on my part. But I know that you are looking around for ideas/opinions…so that’s my 2 cents.
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We had one experience with this. I think this teacher wants to offer a scholarship before the other acceptances come in so she retains interest. In this context, she is the buyer and the teacher is the seller, and the onus is now on the teacher to try to convince her to attend.
If she is truly not interested, then she can say so. But otherwise this is good information for him to offer her and she can thank them, let them know she is interested and that the offer helps, and then wait for the rest.
Others may have more helpful things to say but that was our experience.
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Thank you so much - very helpful advice!
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Thank you!
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