School asking about committment before music scholarship offer?

Hello all. I first want to say thank you for the advice I’ve gleaned from reading the forums. I’ve never felt I had anything to add so far, but today I have a question.

My daughter plans to major in vocal performance, and has applied and been accepted to three schools, and the fourth she is admitted to the university but doesn’t yet know about the music school specifically. One of the schools has disclosed their complete financial package, including the talent scholarship amount. For the other three, we anticipate learning about the whole package (and for the one, whether she is admitted to the music school) anywhere from mid-March to the 1st week of April.

Yesterday the director of choirs at one of the schools called my daughter to get a sense of which school she feels most committed to attending, telling her that the department has their decision meeting this week for awarding scholarships. He told her that once awarded, if the student chooses not to attend, they won’t get that scholarship money back to award to a different student who will attend. She was not able to tell him that she will commit, as she is truly undecided. Part of her decision will be based on the talent awards and her total cost of attendance. This morning, she got a text message from a voice faculty member from the same school (they know each other well, as she has taken private voice lessons for a couple of years from that individual). The text requested that my daughter give the voice teacher a call today regarding the phone call from the night before.

My question is this: is it common for music schools to request commitment to determine talent scholarships? (I don’t want to give the name of the school, by the way.) I know that students have until May 1st to declare their decision, but I didn’t know if there are intricacies regarding “informal” commitment for scholarship consideration.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Yes that happens. And the correct response is an honest one–“money plays into our decision and all the offers are not yet in”

Yes, the best response is something like “Thank you for calling me and talking to me about your offer. I really appreciate it. And I AM considering your school. Still money is a big consideration so I do need to wait on the other school offers before I can decide. I will definite let you know as soon as all offers are in.” She shouldn’t feel pushed to say anything more.

My D did drop one school from the running when she got repeated emails - it was an acting program. She had already sent in an acceptance elsewhere but wanted to see what she would get. She decide to stop playing the game as she started to feel guilty. So note that they may only be looking to weed out people like that…and it’s OK not to be decided yet.

Musica and bridgenail are quite correct, and that is all your daughter needs to say to whomever contacts her- say it once, and that’s it. In point of fact, it is against NASM regulations for representatives of member schools to press students or their parents for commitments until May 1st (for undergrads), so they should really know better and back off.

Thank you all for the feedback. I really appreciate it! She has spoken with two faculty members and maintained that she won’t be able to make a decision until all offers are in. Now we continue the waiting period!

It’s a fair question - the issue is that each professor/instrument gets a set scholarship fund amount they can divvy up and offer. However once they offer money, based on timing if the candidate rejects the offer, it’s too late to re-offer it to other deserving candidates so they potentially lose out on not only your student, but another who would have accepted if offered.

So the Department/Professor wants to get a sense that your student is strongly considering them and they have a legit shot. They obviously know there is some risk, but it’s to their benefit to minimize them and get kids who are truly interested.