My daughter is graduating from NYU Steinhardt this year. She was a National Merit finalist. She received only $2,000 per year for that (and I believe they no longer are a part of NM) BUT they gave her a combination of $20,000 per year combined scholastic merit, financial (I am a teacher), and artistic. They roll them all into one, so there is no way of finding out how much each is. When she went part time this final term (due to lots of h.s. AP’s) they still gave her part of the scholarship, reducing our cost to $5,000! Originally, upon acceptance, their scholarship made her tuition less than UArts (which gave a smaller one) and much cheaper than Hartt, which doesn’t give merit money at all. So, don’t count out applying to NYU, they may surprise you!
Also, does anyone know if University of Arizona, (mentioned above as an option) still has their very nasty cut program in MT? Might want to look into that before applying. I know it was covered in earlier posts, but they might be hard to find on this board now . . .
Older D was a strong student and we were hoping for merit aid in an academically challenging school which would either allow for vocal performance/ MT opportunities and voice lessons, or would be an actual BM/ BFA or BA program in MT. We did not qualify for any financial aid.
She ended up attending NYU Steinhardt (MT) and rec’d an $11K a year merit scholarship. She also rec’d $23K from American (auditioned for a vocal performance merit scholarship), $15K from Brandeis, $19K from Muhlenberg (music, theatre and scholars) and $15K from GW (Presidential Arts Scholar in VP). This was a number of years ago (she was NYU Class of 2012.) But since younger D was also a MT kid and an artist, we looked into most of the same schools for her more recently (she is currently a junior at NYU). Some of these scholarships have gone up, some down, over the years…so I’d double check their availability and totals on your own.
Skidmore also has a $12K or $15K merit scholarship called the Filene’s music scholarship that younger D was going to apply for. (But did NYU ED1 instead.) Skidmore has a strong art, music and theatre community.
I think that Brandeis has some sort of MT concentration. D also applied and got into Barnard, but like Brown, does not give any merit money.
Musicals are constantly being performed and cast at Brown, but most are student directed and produced, however I would say the Brown students seem to have a very high level of technical competence and professionalism.
Brown does not offer merit aid, but I understand they’re fairly generous with need-based financial aid.
^^^ Excellent suggestion. We visited. It’s a fantastic program and an amazing campus at Lincoln Center. But I understand there’s not a lot of emphasis on MT there.
You’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions, so I just have a couple of general observations to add.
When D made her list we found that the schools USNWR ranks as Academically “Most Selective” (schools like Northwestern, Yale, Brown) are the least likely to offer Merit scholarships, since every admitted student is deserving. However, these same schools also tend to be the best endowed, which means they often offer extremely generous need-based grants to families that qualify, tend to have extremely high quality facilities and professors, very small class sizes and in our experience offer a wide range of amazing experiences (often including travel, paid internships, masterclasses, recording sessions, etc.) and contacts which are hard to put a price tag on. The programs also tend to be extremely flexible, allowing students to create a very personally-tailored degree so they don’t waste time in classes that are not of value to them.
Many students at academically selective schools turn down full-tuition offers versus a full-pay option, and while at first we found that choice hard to swallow we are all very glad we did. Our D specifically wanted strong academic challenges in addition to great theatre training, plus she wanted the option of completing a double major in four years (she was actually able to finish both majors in three years which represents a huge cost savings, plus it allowed her to spend a lot of time doing professional theatre work her senior year).
In the end we decided that not only were we making an investment of money in D’s tuition, but perhaps even more importantly she was also investing four very prime years of her life. As her college experience is drawing to a close, we are very glad she made the choice she did, and that we were able to support it. Looking back, although we are very middle class (those worst served by the fafsa and CSS Profile), the sacrifices were not nearly as hard as I’d feared and have already yielded many positive consequences.
Of course our choices would not be a good for everyone, but I wanted to add them to the discussion as food for thought.
Best of luck in his school search… exciting times!
If you fall in the right income sector, a free ivy education can be a great theatre education as well. In addition to Yale, Brown, and Northwestern, theatrical education and opportunities are fantastic at Harvard and Princeton.
As a parent, I wish my MT freshman S had been more interested in the route outlined by @MomCares, but alas, my NMF S was only interested in the theater/music related training he would get in a BFA environment. He would be happy if he never wrote another paper, learned another scientific concept, or opened a math book. He is in the “honors” program at his state school, but doesn’t have time to fit those classes into his schedule. He LOVES that he can focus all his “free” time on singing/dancing/acting/piano. We appreciate that b/c of NMF scholarship he will have no debt - and should an attractive pay-to-play internship/training/study abroad opportunity arise, he will be in a position to take advantage of it. But H and I have fingers crossed for a Yale/Harvard/Julliard/Northwestern/Brown MFA ; )
Brown/Trinity Rep. Harvard/ART. Yale/Yale Rep. Does Northwestern offer MFAs in areas other than Directing and Playwriting? I wonder what the Juilliard blend of BFA/MFA is like - probably a great idea, particularly with such a small group.
My kid too would prefer never to write another paper so grants that come with Honors invites are a bit tricky here. He will always be happy to have an intellectual debate but is quite over plunking out paragraphs.
I think Northwestern also offers an MFA in Stage Design in addition to Playwriting and Directing, but it doesn’t offer any MFA’s in theatrical performance, which D viewed as a plus since all professors and casting is focused on undergrads. I sometimes fantasize about D pursuing a Yale MFA, but I know she wants to continue working for awhile before even considering that.
I totally understand and appreciate kids who have no desire for college academics, since I was a high-stats kid who initially chose an acting conservatory, and I think it’s awesome that nice merit scholarships are out there in some programs – and especially for performing males. I am no fan of loans for MT training, and we obviously wouldn’t have complained if D had preferred one of her free options, but I did want to explain that we might not have been completely crazy for allowing her to chose the more costly option. I don’t, however, rule out the possibility that we are.
It’s interesting… My D would definitely have been in the “happy if she never had to have another academic class” category. But she confessed to me the other day that she really likes all her music theory… Even though she’s not sure how much of it will actually apply to her MT future… She said they are her most challenging classes… And surprise, surprise… My high stats kid actually needs/wants that in her education. I think she surprised herself! She has a math class this semester… But every time I ask about it, she just laughs. Evidently it is no challenge at all.
