I can only speak to our very recent experience! My son is a contemporary musician - vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, and was accepted at various schools for music and/or music combined with technology/industry etc.
He got great merit at many. At first glance, Frost at University of Miami has an insane COA. BUT they are a “meets-need” school, PLUS they do give out some very large scholarships to music students. Check our their scholarships online, in particular STAMPS for certain ensemble students (full ride). There are smaller ones, which are still very generous. My son has just committed to their MADE program and was awarded scholarships equalling full tuition (just under 60k a year). Our COA is around 30k, (we don’t qualify for Financial Aid).
The School has a great reputation for Jazz, so it might be worth a look!
Also, looking at our list, Loyola New Orleans ended up a low-ish COA - also around 30k.
Thanks for this info. Can I ask if those big scholarships from Bard and New School were primarily merit and not need-based? In our situation, we are hoping to get both need and merit aid. John’s Hopkins is a full-meets-need school, I believe; do you know if that also goes for Peabody?
Yes, we just went to see Purchase this week. There were things we really liked about it. The facility is kind of rough, though. We don’t need fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but the dorms and cafeteria in particular were tough to take in. It’s still on our list.
Great questions. Peabody’s admissions process and scholarship pool is completely separate from the rest of Johns Hopkins. The bad news about that is that you don’t get the benefit of JHU’s full-meets-need policy (we took out a Federal Parent Plus loan to meet the difference). The good news is that the academic requirements are, in general, less stringent for Peabody than they are of any other JHU school (i.e. Krieger, Bloomberg, Whiting, etc), particularly for performance majors. The Peabody jazz students who got better scholarships were the ones who had better resumes (i.e. YoungArts finalists, NYO Jazz members) and whom Sean Jones, the director, had more direct contact prior to applications and auditions.
With regards to Bard and The New School, my recollection, though not 100% confident, is that they were merit-based. I particularly remember having a conversation with another parent about New School since that offer came in after Bard and we were somewhat disappointed that it didn’t match; she told me that the number was slightly above average for New School jazz majors in general and much larger than any other jazz percussion major she had heard of; threads on this board at the time seemed to bear that out. (I should add that New School was his best audition and they had the absolute best reaction to him; the evaluators/judges initially thought he was applying to grad school based on his playing that day).
We actually used both of those offers to get a slight – VERY slight – bump in the Peabody scholarship offer. It was enough to push us over the top since my son liked the structure of the program at Peabody better (New School was more rigid), he really connected well with the whole faculty there, and he really wanted to take classes on the main Johns Hopkins campus (Homewood) and potentially get a minor there.
Note that he had developed a close connection with Alison Miller (New School drum faculty) from his summers at Stanford Jazz Camp and he would’ve loved to study with her, so it made the decision difficult; however, she told him that they probably wouldn’t have let him into her studio until he was a junior, whereas he could pick any of the awesome percussion faculty at Peabody (Warren Wolfe, Nasar Abady, and at the time Quincy Phillips) as a freshman and move back-and-forth across studios year to year if he wished. He ended up studying with all three: Quincy for the first 3 semesters, then moving to Warren’s studio for the remainder of the time, and even having one semester with Nasar (while Warren took a little time off of teaching to tour and perform) and being assigned to Nasar’s combo as a freshman.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Great info, thank you so much. Just the clarify, the 50% off COA merit he got at New School was - according to another parent so obviously pretty anecdotal - more than average merit for New School Jazz and particularly above average for percussion majors specifically?
New School’s program is more rigid than Peabody? Our impression of New School from our tour this past week was that it was known for being very open/chart your own course.
My son had an amazing meeting with Brian Marcella, jazz piano faculty at New School. They really just talked, but my son found it so inspiring and helpful, and he really appreciated Mr. Marcella taking the time. So I do see how those personal connections that are forged before the application process (my son is only a sophomore in high school) are significant. We were told on the tour that kids could choose their private instructor from freshman year on, but perhaps that just depends on availability and other factors. Also, I know they make things sound better on tours than they sometimes are in reality!
Last question, did your son consider Berklee, and what were your/his impressions if so? If not, why not?
Hi again. Great follow-up questions. Apologies for any lack of clarity previously. In response
Yes, 50% off COA merit (and I have a weird feeling it may have been 55% or 60%, it was too long ago) was as you described. And yes, that one conversation was anecdotal, but there were multiple other parents/students posting their New School scholarship offers that year, and those data points were consistent with that one parent’s anecdote
I was too vague and broad in my statement of New School v Peabody. Let me be more precise: the assignment of studios and private lessons was more rigid at New School. I think your statement and your own experience at New School is accurate regarding the program overall.
Very happy your son made that connection with Brian Marcella. Now that he’s been admitted, I’d suggest that your son reconnect with Brian and ask very directly what the chances are to get him as your son’s private teacher as a freshman, and if it’s low or zero, then dig deeper. Hopefully Brian will be as candid as Allison was with my son, and you’ll learn something along the lines of “Freshmen usually study with X or Y, and Sophomores with Ms. Purple or Mr. Yellow, etc.” New School’s faculty is consistently good to excellent, so it may or may not matter, but the personal connections are non-trivial IMHO, so do your best to go into any situation eyes wide open in that regard.
My son considered Berklee for a brief moment, but moved them out of his consideration set relatively quickly because he decided he only wanted to apply to music schools at prominent (preferably, dare I say, “highly ranked” or “prestigious”) universities. Even though he’d be getting a BM in performance, the non-musical academic opportunities were extremely important to him. So places like with awesome jazz programs like Berklee, MSM, SF Conservatory, Juilliard, among others, were nixed.
I’ll add that one of my son’s best friends and bandmates (jazz guitarist) went to Berklee as did others he knows, including a student who is doing a joint jazz/classical composition thing with Boston Conservatory. If you want/need any specific questions about Berklee answered and want to hear from graduating seniors, I’m happy to obtain the intel for you.
Amazing, thanks for clarifying! My son hasn’t been admitted anywhere; he’s only a sophomore in high school getting an early start at making connections per my insistence, which is he quickly learning is going to pay off. I hear you about Berklee and your son wanting a school that was reputable for non-music academics. I think my husband and I are a bit more interested in that perspective than my son is at the moment. We toured Berklee this week and felt that there were pros and cons for sure. With 7K music students, we figure there must be quite a bit of competition… for faculty attention, for spots in the best ensembles, etc. That’s a lot of kids vying for success and opportunities in a relatively narrow field. There are plenty of up-sides to being around a ton of musicians, as well.
Congratulations on deciding on Miami! It’s a beautiful school and place to live. Your kid is going to learn so much there.
My son was excited about the city of Miami and the jazz program, but–we’re guessing because of some income confusion–they calculated our need as $5,000. So, they met it. He talked with the professor and let it go, and he’s happy now. In fact, he will be very likely committing to Loyola soon! They came out just the same for us, around $30k, if you include $2000 for travel to and from home a few times.
100% agree, the Purchase College campus is terrible. However the jazz students and faculty are super plugged into the NYC jazz scene. The program director is the director of the bird land big band, other professors are session and working musicians. I was there twice this week for spring masters recitals which featured many of the other students in the combos. It’s a great sense of community it seems.
My hs sophomore son said “why would you want to go to Oberlin to study jazz when you can be here with all these NYC players?” I found it hard to disagree
Agree Purchase is dated big time but the conservatories are top notch. My kid in the end didn’t care as much about the campus because she got a great experience and education in her field. Basically everything is now an improvement from Purchase in terms of living space but I am pretty sure my kid would choose it again. It really depends on what your kid wants out of their college. @lilmelissa1
Not every school, city or campus is the right fit for everyone! Mine has said he would not be able to focus on his work if he had chosen a city like NY for undergrad. To each his/her/their own, and that’s why it’s great that there are many great options for many different students.
Oh there’s some rich little nuggets (of scary housing) at IU. Of course my little princess got the bad dorm…but it didn’t ruin her life, just mine for 8 months…. All the housing on or off campus seemed to need a real good scrubbing! The performance spaces can be quite special for opera however. So, enjoy!!
I have the housing discussion with many people. Back in the 80s the dorms and apartments at Ohio State were very basic. The current dorms at Purchase look just like them. We have seen some amazing places kids are living in now. It all perspective and what you are willing to pay for. Of course super nice dorms and endless food choices can make for an expensive diploma too. My kid figures her apartment at IU will be a step up from current place. I don’t see it as a bad situation as when they are struggling in the beginning their apartments will be small and very basic too, especially if they are training in NYC
It’s a beautiful school and place to live. Your kid is going to learn so much there.
He talked with the professor and let it go, and he’s happy now. In fact, he will be very likely committing to Loyola soon! They came out just the same for us, around $30k, if you include $2000 for travel to and from home a few times.
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