To attract top talent, some Music(al) Theater programs offer merit-based scholarships; they don’t necessarily award it each year… just when they identify candidates who meet the criteria.
For those who have gone through (or follow) the application process, what are the top ones you have seen? If all you recall is the school / scholarship name that suffices; if you know the criteria that’s helpful too.
If there are any MT scholarships that are unaffiliated with any particular institution, I would be interested in learning about them too (although I don’t know if any such scholarships exist related to MT).
Just looking for your top one to five MT scholarships that you’ve seen and that most impressed you. Thanks for sharing for those new to the process!
When you say “merit scholarship”, I’m assuming you mean academic merit. Wright State in Ohio offers more than one terrific merit-based scholarship - based on National Merit standing and combinations of GPA/Test scores.
If you are talking about “attracting top talent” via "talent scholarships, that’s a different rubric. “Merit scholarships” generally come from the university at large and are often totally independent of the major/program applied for. “Talent scholarships” are awarded by the Music/Theater Department and can vary greatly from year to year - often utilizing “opaque” criteria. These are often (though, not always) significantly smaller than merit scholarships - a department may divide up their limited funds amongst several deserving applicants - or give the lion’s share to one or two applicants who have abilities or “type” that are highly desirable (gender, vocal range/talent, ethnicity, dance skill, etc.)
WSU for example. gives merit scholarships up to full in-state tuition, room and board, plus books - renewable for four years (See Financial Aid on website). The MT talent scholarships may range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand per year - the number varies from year to year and are not “advertised”, so the “top award” is an unknown.
As you described them, I meant both merit and talent … the top scholarship monies given to student / performers matriculating at the college / university / school / academy / conservatory. I figured that, as you note above, that merit would always dwarf talent awards although they could be combined. I’m asking because, as you note, it’s not always easy to find information about them.
Talent Awards are much more “ephemeral” than merit aid, which is pretty transparent (just check the website for the school and/or run their Net Price Calculator). Theatre departments generally have a pool of money that they can dole out at their discretion to attract specific students based on talent. The nature of the pool can result in a fairly wide disparity in the amounts doled out to students: one or two students may receive the bulk of the funds, or a somewhat more equitable amount could be given to a dozen or more students. Students from over-represented groups, i.e., petite blonde ingenues, may struggle to attract talent awards (said with tongue-in-cheek).
I would add that for Temple, merit aid is given out in extraordinary amounts to those who qualify (high GPA/rank/SAT) in the early stage of application but for those who apply late, like after a walk in, the merit awards, even for deserving kids are kind of lame. My S’s numbers didn’t match up to the Temple information. They were very very generous with merit (academic based), but S applied in October and auditioned in January.
Hartt students do not qualify for academic merit scholarships at all (big bummer for my high academic D), and their talent awards are all over the map. Some students got little to none, others up to full tuition. My D was an early action admit and got what we felt was a healthy award, especially given that she is female That may be because of the early audition, but we really have no way to be sure.
We found that they are seperate. Merit scholarships through the university and musical theatre scholarships are usually audition based. Sometimes a school will invite auditionees for a separate scholarship audition and sometimes they will have a date that you have to audition by in order to receive a musical theatre scholarship. ie UAB held auditions as late as April, but you had to audition before the February date (I think) in order to be considered for the scholarship.
I would recommend completing all of your applications as soon as possible in the Fall for any schools for which you wish to be considered for academic merit. As I recall, a number of schools required you apply by as early as November. You did not have to have your audition by then. You just had to have completed and submitted your application for consideration. As with all things, check with each school to which you apply as each has different deadlines. Also - be aware that often times, even at the same school, applications for and deadlines for academic scholarships will be completely different from those for talent scholarships. So make sure you are applying for everything you may qualify for. You don’t want to miss out on any $ for which you may be eligible.
D received an $11k per year talent merit scholarship from NYU Steinhardt as a VP major with a MT concentration. NYU still lists these scholarships on their website. We had a high EFC with no need. She also won talent or academic merit aid from American, GW, Brandeis and Muhlenberg in the $15k to 22k range per year. This was back several years ago, but when we looked at art scholarships for younger D 5 years ago these merit scholarships all still existed with either academic, portfolio or audition components.
Common data set info for each school will clearly show if merit scholarship money is given without need. Search each school.
That may be because of the early audition, but we really have no way to be sure.