<p>MY son got into his dream school (Berklee) with some, but not much merit aid. He got twice as much merit aid from Hartt, which is also less expensive than Berklee. I made him a projected budget of what his life would be like after graduating from college if he had $80K in student loans versus $25K. We all cried about it, but he made the right decision, and he is very happy at Hartt. He will have many more options open to him when he graduates with a smaller debt load. </p>
<p>It might make sense for your son to opt for the less expensive school for undergrad, and splash out on grad school. </p>
<p>If you’re finishing up a graduate degree, did you also indicate that on the FAFSA? Because in a sense then you have two in your household in college…</p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m the one who seems to be advocating to try to make the more expensive school work–I’m always the financially conservative one in our household. But, I know how wonderful it is to see a child be ecstatic about something and follow his dream, especially when his own teacher is also cheering it on. </p>
<p>If you look at it realistically, the $57K over four years is about $14K per year. Many of us on here would love to ‘only’ pay that per year for school. (That’s less than the price of our state college here). If there’s a chance you could save some money over the next two years, it would bring that down further, meaning less in loans.</p>
<p>I know, I know–I’m crazy to be advocating for loans. That’s not the usual me. I’m sure UT would also have much to offer your son. So, either choice you make will be fine.</p>
<p>But, fingers crossed that Eastman comes through with more $!!!</p>
<p>I’m unsure of how much practice time percussion majors need, but it may be something to consider. If, for example he has to choose between working 10-15 hours per week while at Eastman or having an extra 2 hours a day for practice at UT. What will make the biggest difference in his musical growth? The teacher, program and connections at Eastman or the extra time at UT?</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, each family has a different circumstance and decisions will be different for as a result. Younger parents can risk retirements and mortgages. There is time to recoup. Someone my age (mid 50’s) won’t have the years to build back savings cashed in to finance a child’s dream. Several weeks ago, my son turned down Eastman, Peabody and CCM (all offered scholarships that cover 1/2 to 3/4 of the tuition and no assistantship). He was sad but realistic and seems comfortable with his/our decision. He will be attending Carnegie Mellon for his MM next year as he has a tuition waiver and an assistantship. He will still need help from us until he is able to patch together orchestra sub jobs as the assistantship does not cover many of his living expenses. </p>
<p>I worry about his being hurt musically by our decision to go with a financially prudent choice. He will have a good teacher and hopefully some connections. There is no way to forecast the future.</p>
<p>All students are different, different instruments (and voices) involve different factors. I can’t even begin to guess what would be a good choice for a percussionist. I do no Texas has a well-respected music school; it seems like a good starting point for an undergraduate.</p>
<p>Music studies require a lot of money. My son is a decent musician but obviously not at the top of the heap; the likelihood of free opportunities (grad schools, festivals) in the future is not great. The routine expenses of being a musician are huge. For example, my son will need 15-20K to upgrade to a professional level double bass, he will need to maintain a reliable automobile and insurance to drive to orchestra sub jobs in, there will be the expense of more instrument insurance for the better instrument and air fare, to more auditions in two years. The list goes on. Being a middle class family and helping a musician go after his dreams has its heartbreaks. However, the heartbreaks seem to be mine, not his. He has said goodbye to the conservatories and will work hard.</p>
<p>Best wishes to you and your son. If you choose the less debt route, your son will adjust to it. You are not “failing” him in any way. I found being very transparent with my son about family finances helpful. Creating a budget projection also helped in his decision (looking at housing costs on Craig’s list for the different cities, projecting food and travel expenses, etc). My son doesn’t want to be saddled with debt and neither do we. </p>
<p>I’m hoping that you’ll get some positive news from ESM very soon ! It sounds like your son has done his research and has decided that Eastman is at the top of his list for several reasons; he’s been enthusiastic about the teacher and I hope he’s found out where the prof’s students are attending grad school and the performance opps that would be available to him. I’d say to let your son go! He can take out loans, work during breaks and keep looking for grants and scholarships- loan repayment is tied to income and as long as he’s in school, payments are deferred. When you look at the big picture, this is a very “do-able” dream, and those don’t come along often enough in life.
Good luck and do let us know what happens.</p>
<p>@Clarimom,
I’m finding some confusion with the finances in your argument about $14K over four years. </p>
<p>As the OP said:
“The DIFFERENCE in our cost (tuition/fees/room/board less merit) for the last two years at Eastman versus the last two years at UT is about $57k”</p>
<p>I can make an assumption that there is possibly another $40K to cover the DIFFERENCE mentioned - meaning the cost of 2 years at UT minus merit. This is just an educated guess. </p>
<p>@WCbandmom, correct me if wrong, but I am reading and assuming that your cost for 2 years at Eastman looks more like 97K without additional merit? Vs $40K (again a guess) at UT? As I think it makes sense to be clear on this difference not being $14K spread across 4 years, but at least $24K. </p>
<p>lots2do, you’re right–I misread the OP I think. I got caught up in the 2-year free ride and was thinking the $57K was the cost of the second two years. My mistake. Boy, I sure hope Eastman comes through with a better package.</p>
<p>We have swapped messages, and I had a feeling you were going to be faced with this decision even before it presented itself. Congratulations to your S, and I am feeling very sorry for you and what you are going through!</p>
<p>A few things our family had to consider when making a decision - may or may not be relevant.</p>
<p>Our S is firstborn going to college, so we don’t know what we don’t know about all the unexpected expenses.
Younger siblings are definitely watching and we need to be able to treat siblings equitably as far as what we are willing and able to contribute to college.
DCI - and other expensive summer programs. He may say he is willing to give this up, but . . .
And for my S, if he gets disillusioned by music performance, he has lots of options to change his focus without changing schools.
It really bothers me that one of the suggestions on this thread is that the government is gonna have to step in at some point and forgive all the student loans. Our family does not operate that way. I mean no disrespect, I just vehemently disagree with that suggestion and I do not think it is helpful for your situation. And now I wonder if it was intended to be a joke? </p>
<p>@lots2do Dittos about the loans and the prospect of forgiveness and I too wondered if it was meant as a joke- surely must have been. The government doesn’t grow money and when forgiveness programs go into effect they are essentially funded by those who pay their loans, higher taxes or re-proportioning of budgets, which again comes from taxes. Besides the fact that you would be essentially defaulting on your good faith promise to repay, those kinds of programs have penalties affecting your credit score. Yes, repayment is tied to earnings, but it can still be prohibitive. My daughter had a three year fellowship at a repertory theatre. It was very low pay, with room and board. It did not qualify her for deferment of her loans and for some months her repayment was at half her salary, and yes, she had appealed…some could be reduced, some could not. Now that she is entering grad school, she can defer the remaining debt, but she intends to set a sum aside each month in a fund to have ready when repayment time starts again. That’s just the reality of it…she doesn’t complain and wouldn’t change any of it, but it’s important to make these decisions with your eyes open while you dream big.</p>
<p>I should add my son is a percussion major, graduating in three weeks from Baylor with a BM percussion performance and headed to grad school for Jazz drumset. He got a great undergrad education at Baylor, had amazing summer festival experiences and is seriously excited about what lies ahead. A friend with a child going off to Conservatory at the same time tried very hard to impress upon us how inferior his education would be to theirs ( yes, I know not really friends). It wasn’t true. What was true was that their choice was right for them, and our choice was the best for my son including financially…and once they each went off to their prospective educations, the rest was up to them to make of it what they would. This is what it will come down to for @wcbandmom 's son…what is the best choice given all the factors involved. Best wishes, truly!</p>
<p>I have to reiterate Lorelei’s comment as to how limiting debt is after graduation. Sure the payback is tied to your income and if you stay in school it’s deferred. But the idea is to leave school and make money. Not stay in school and “hopefully” stay broke. He plans on grad school. Save the debt for that adventure.</p>
<p>Our family does not assume the government will forgive education loans. We actually used our home equity to finance much of college–paying off those high-interest plus loans and remortgaging our almost-paid-off house, but borrowing at a lower interest rate. We are in our mid-50’s, too, with a new 30-year mortgage and now no home equity. But that’s our fault for having 4 kids. We’re still far better off than most humans on this planet.</p>
<p>Another piece to consider in the decision is summer experiences and the availability of orchestra sub work. This year we have a “free” festival summer for my son. The three previous summer festivals were not free and ran roughly 3K each summer (with scholarships covering 1/2 of the expenses). The very top festivals offer fellowships and are cost-free-S is not at that level yet. If your son is a performance major, the festivals will be so important in making connections, learning from different teachers, etc. The down side is he will earn little to no money in the summer.</p>
<p>By attending the state school, your son might have more opportunities to have paid sub jobs with regional and community orchestras than he would in a conservatory (less competition from classmates-also depends on where the school is located). My son subs for two regional and three community orchestras. Quite a few of the players are top conservatory graduates. S has learned so much from the professional musicians . He has attended the after performance gatherings and has met all kinds of politicians and wealthy donors at these affairs-what a life lesson! The earnings at these jobs provided him with monies for a really fine new bow, too. Caution-there were “hidden” expenses we had to front in the beginning-tails, white vest, white bow tie. The mileage and motel expenses were typically covered by the regional orchestras that were further away.S began doing these jobs as a junior in college.</p>
<p>Another positive for sub work is the support. Five professional musicians took the time to travel (one an hour and a half drive) to hear my son’s senior recital. Most of these people were adults in their 40’s and 50’s. It brought me to tears.The caring and support from these folks has been wonderful. Their insights have been helpful, too (much like this board)</p>
<p>S asked about sub work during his auditions. Of the three conservatories he was accepted to, only one spoke is positive terms about the opportunities that would be available. I don’t think he will have the abundance of opportunities in grad school that he has enjoyed as an undergrad-more good music schools and conservatories with students eager to have the sub jobs. However, the studio assured him that everyone got some work - depends on how hard you work and how good you get.</p>
<p>Other children watching was mentioned- another good point to consider. Educating the two children at the undergraduate level cost us well over 200K (and this was with generous scholarships). Giving our kids a debt free undergraduate education was all we could do and remain solvent.</p>
<p>I asked the kids if they wanted my husband and I to live with them after they retired if we exhausted our funds on them now. Neither seemed too interested in this possibility!</p>
<p>Sorry for the ramble but there are so many pieces to the decision. Perhaps drawing up a list of pros and cons would help along with budget projections?</p>
<p>I think it’s important to know what a typical career looks like for a recent graduate in your students particular instrument… Typically, how expensive are those first few years after school? It varies for every instrument or voice but, no matter what school you graduate from, the sort of cities that support musician jobs are very expensive. And it’s not like you leave school, have one or two “big auditions” and then your career is made. More often than not (especially for VP) it’s dozens and dozens of auditions that take place all over the globe. Are you going to have funds to support that first few years out? What opportunities are you going to have to turn down because you are tapped out? I would give the same advice to someone studying law, medicine, journalism or business. Be practical, know the difference between an opportunity and a rationalization and really look long and hard as to what those first few years out of school are like.</p>
<p>Excellent article introducing new timpanist with the Baltimore Symphony…gives a very good look at what the process of getting there was like for one person…</p>
<p>In the exact same boat. Fortunately d eliminated two top schools because they provided little merit award. For Numbers three and four D has a near full ride at a lesser known school and barely any at well known top school but I wouldnt consider it an elite program. She desperately wants to attend the latter. It’s a $66k overall difference and that’s with us contributing $20k per year (the others would have been over $160k) Fortunately I’m in my early 40s and at this time anticipate being able to pay her school loans after she graduates. That’s assuming things stay the same or get better but it’s a risk. Fortunately I only have two children strategically place 5 years apart. Her father wants me to talk her out of it but I think she’s already made a concession with the first two. And she is a vp major which makes it even more delicate a situation. I really like the idea of waiting on grad school till she turns 24 or with a full ride only. She will enter college as a 17 year old so that could be a good amount of time for her to accumulate funding for graduate school. She wants to perform and eventually wants to pursue her doctorate and become a professor. </p>
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