<p>My son will audition for colleges in two years. He hopes to attend a conservatory as a percussion major. His top choices are Eastman and Manhattan with the list including Juilliard, Curtis, Boston University , Illinois Champaign Urbana and Ithaca all on the list. Does anyone know the amount of aid provided to students at most conservatory level programs? We aren't rich. I'm a public school teacher and my wife works for a bank. What can I expect? He is exceptional and studies with a professor of a 2 college as well as a professional symphony player. </p>
<p>I don’t have a lot of experience, but, from what I’ve read and seen - I think the kids have a better chance at getting money at a school that is below their playing level, than one that is at their level…</p>
<p>Also, make sure that he’d be very happy at a SUNY (I saw that you were looking at Purchase), since that is a more viable option financially.</p>
<p>Just as with regular admissions, you need to have reaches, targets and safeties - musically, academically and financially. Very tricky since there are no safeties for music that is audition-based…</p>
<p>You can always ask professors what they usually have to work with as far as funding for their studios; many of them are pretty up-front about how it tends to work out. I’ve worked with a professor at one school, for instance, who says that, unfortunately, he almost never has any money for grad students, but many of his undergrads get partial scholarship. One at a different school says he keeps the studio at a size where almost nobody, undergrad or grad, pays for tuition and he won’t admit grad students unless he has full tuition funding for them.</p>
<p>I’ll agree with what Tuba269 posted. We’ve only seen one complete financial aid package so far and Son’s cost of attendance is $12000 without loans ie free tuition he just needs to pay room and board(small regional private school). At SUNY’s Crane school in Potsdam, it is possible to get a full ride(room, board, tuition and $500 for extras) if your stats and extra curriculars are outstanding. Son wanted music ed so we limited our search to school’s that offered strong music ed programs which left out most of the upper tier schools.</p>
<p>D had a friend who last year applied to BU and Ithaca (among others) for percussion. The friend had stellar grades (perfect SAT scores)as well as musical abililty. He got into BU with their full ride “presidential scholarship”. Ithaca just gave him a token scholarship. The friend sent a copy of the scholarship letter along with his own, asking for more money from Ithaca. He is now at Ithaca on a full scholarship. Yes, they matched everything that BU was going to give him. </p>
<p>Bigd - Somewhere on here I believe the v-dads have been tracking “average” merit scholarships for music schools, with the “average” being about $15k. There is also a link to a spreadsheet they’re keeping this year in the hopes to help folks get a sense of costs. Of course, it’s player specific – and exceptional applicants can receive exceptional merit. However, you do want to have great in-state coverage in your son’s apps so that you have a financial safety, even if the music programs themselves are not safeties (no music program is!) Your list did not give me any indication of what your home state is.
At the same time, some of the privates can be quite generous, especially with high need families. Make sure you run your EFC just to see what kind of coverage (minimum) schools will expect on your part. There’s a calculator at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org)</p>
<p>Our son was lucky in that his first choice dream program happened to be at our flagship state U. (University of Michigan) and doubly fortunate in that he was selected for both an academic and talent scholarship so in essence, our only skin in the game is part of his living costs. But his 2nd and 3rd choices included NYU (not great aid, very expensive) and IU Jacobs (not bad OOS but still double Mich, but also automatic scholarships for high academic performers).</p>
<p>Pay attention to what flute1298 wrote. You can go back and ask the school to review a merit award, particularly if you have a larger award at a comparable school. But there really are no rules for predicting what will happen. mtpaper points out that you are likely to get more money at a school where your audition is above the general playing level. This makes perfect sense, however, this was not our experience last year. Tuba269 makes the point that some teachers have specific funding for their studios. True at some conservatories; not true at others. My daughter got her two highest awards at schools where she had not settled on a studio. She got her lowest award at a school where the teacher had de facto pre-admitted her. You just never know until you get there.</p>
<p>There are other factors to consider, as well. The school will give you a Cost of Attendance figure (COA) which will look something like $52K for a private college However, details such as transportation costs can add a lot to that figure, especially multiplied over many years. At some schools it is very difficult for upperclassmen to live without a car. (Cleveland.) Factor that in. At some schools there is readily available self-funded work-study and a lot of supplemental scholarships and fellowships to apply for in coming years (this is true of Juilliard, for example.) Some students can line their pocket easily with gigging income-- depends on instrument and location of the school. At some schools everyone moves off campus to much cheaper digs after freshman year. In other places, housing is expensive no matter where you live.</p>
<p>and, aren’t some schools known to meet the need as calculated by FAFSA, rather than using their own formula? I think Oberlin is one of those schools, but not sure of others. Granted, there’s no guarantee, but it increases your odds of knowing what’s in front of you.</p>
<p>When considering all of this, ask about the opportunity to increase the awards in out years. The 3-5% increase each year in COA really adds up and when the merit award does not increase it is felt.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica: sorry, I think what I said probably only applies to instruments where it’s a single studio (and I think percussion frequently falls into this category, even when there’s more than one teacher). I play tuba; at the very, very few schools where there is more than one tuba teacher, they’re still all in one studio. It seems like there are probably a lot fewer cut-and-dry answers before the official decisions for voice, piano, and strings, where there’s a little separation between auditioning and finding a studio. </p>
<p>And, of course, I’m sure many places don’t allocate funds by studio. However, I still think it’s worth a shot to ask a teacher how their students tend to do. They may be able to give you a rough estimate as far as money goes, even if they don’t allocate it themselves.</p>
<p>Oberlin uses both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile to calculate aid. They meet demonstrated need without “gapping” (i.e. giving less than 100% of what they calculate need to be) but it is still hard to predict what they are going to offer and how they are going to package scholarships vs. grants vs. work-study vs. loans ahead of time. There are some interesting but outdated numbers at [Oberlin</a> College | Office of Financial Aid | Can I Afford Oberlin?](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/office/financial-aid/overview/]Oberlin”>http://new.oberlin.edu/office/financial-aid/overview/) for the school as a whole. The Conservatory has some scholarship funds not available to those who are only in the College and vice versa.</p>
<p>If you receive a letter from a college stating that your S qualifies for a Merit Scholarship, should you call them, or do you wait for them to send you a package? Also, if you have received an acceptance letter, will there be an offer made following, or is it up to the parents to make the contact and ask if there will be an offer, and if so, what is the best way to approach that.</p>
<p>krich, there is no reason not to call them or email them. They may tell you that the letters are being prepared, and they may let you know how soon to expect a letter (e.g., in a few days, or after April 1.), and whether to expect the information by email pr postal mail. In our experience, sometimes the scholarship information came along with the acceptance letter; other times there was a lag. I know that EA admits often wait months to learn about scholarship.</p>
<p>Thank you. My other question…should an acceptance come in with no mention of Merit money, do we still ask if there is something they can do to ease costs? Who exactly is the best department to go to in order to get the best results. Obviously, our first child going to college, and we are not quite certain of how this works.</p>
<p>I’m sure others will weigh in on this, but it never hurts to ask. I didn’t really understand this concept until our third child. With our second child, I made the mistake of going to the Financial Aid office of her school instead of to the admissions department, so I got a recalculation and denial of more financial aid, which is a separate matter from merit aid. Merit aid is a more fluid concept than financial aid, which is generally a strict calculation. You can ask to be reconsidered if it is denied. Sometimes it works-- even a few extra thousand dollars is better than nothing.</p>
<p>Thanks, the college counseling office at the High School suggests that our S do all the communicating regarding scholarship awards. I wonder if anyone here would suggest the same, or suggest that we, the parents get a little involved in this process.</p>
<p>krich,
My kids have always done all of the communication regarding admissions and ongoing questions such as anything to do with academic credits, housing, etc. But for financial matters it’s always been the parents communicating with the FA office. Since these decisions are based partly on our tax records, and since we are footing the bill, that makes sense for us. I know that other families have kids doing the financial communications but for our household it just seems more direct for the parents to be talking to financial aid.</p>
<p>DD may mention in conversation with studio teachers that finances will be a factor when she makes her decision. Beyond that, we take care of the communication regarding finances.</p>
<p>Since I was paying the bill, I did the merit award negotiations after she had made her preferences decisions. I negotiated with the admissions director for the music school. Not something I wanted to turn over to her since the balance of age, experience etc may not have resulted in the same outcome. :)</p>