I was just wondering if anyone else has been UNpleasantly surprised regarding scholarships? I was in a 10th grade classroom last week, and I heard students talking about preparing for the ACT. “I just want a 32. That’s the cut off. If you get a 32, you get a full ride!” Several 15-year-olds all nodded their heads, sagely. Absolutely convinced. But that hasn’t been our experience at all.
My son has done just about everything right - 33 ACT, community involvement, 4.0 gpa, plays 2 instruments (clarinet and cello) that he qualified for All-State on both, all three years. He’s gotten several acceptances and a couple of decent offers. He’s also gotten acceptances with nothing more than the academic scholarship offered to everyone.
While we were visiting and auditioning for the OU school of music, he really fell in love with University of Oklahoma (which is out-of-state for us). They made the standard academic offer, based on ACT and gpa, but after an audition where the professor seemed very excited and shifted into high recruitment mode, we were not offered a single penny from the dept. ???
I was particularly hoping to hear from @3scoutsmom, who was writing last year about two kinds of scholarships offered by OU School of Music, including tuition waivers. We heard nothing at all about that. In fact, now someone in admissions is saying that the music school doesn’t really give out many scholarships for freshmen. Really? Then how do they recruit anyone?
I know this sounds like a mom who blindly thinks her kid is special - but by every criteria I’ve been given, my son is a great candidate. We could stay in-state and he’d have a full ride, but not a cello professor of the same caliber. With music, I’ve been told, it really DOES matter who you study with. I’m trying to find some way to make it work. Any thoughts.
Thanks for listening. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
There is no one test score cut-off for merit, as it depends on the applicant pool at a particular school. Schools also change their merit aid policies all the time, so you can’t assume based on previous years.
I’m sorry that your son didn’t get the scholarship he wanted. Competitive scholarships are very unpredictable versus the merit scholarships. At state schools, some may be reserved for state residents as well.
It’s pretty common for the “best” school among a student’s acceptances to have the “worst” merit aid. Merit is often used to lure a student to a slightly less selective school than he or she would have otherwise attended. It also depends on what the university recruiting needs are. If this is a well-known in-demand cello teacher, they may not need to offer merit to attract enough students to fill their studio. The merit budget might go towards filling the studio of the first-year brass teacher who hasn’t built their reputation yet. (Just guessing here, obviously.)
Full rides are often (not always*) at “lesser” schools (for the major, in prestige, whatever). It’s how those schools attract students. For my tippy top lad we didn’t even consider schools where he would get a full ride automatically (did consider a full tuition school) as I knew the level of rigor he craved would not be there.
*Some terrific schools offer full rides, but they are very competitive. I’m not talking about those.
OOS public schools can be very stingy with aid to those not in their territory. People still choose to go to them when they’re that much “better” (for what they want) than what they could get elsewhere. Ditto with private schools that offer less to students.
@CelloMom22 things have changed a lot in the past two years at OU. The budget for scholarships has been slashed the state is just not giving them the money they had in the past. You can look at the what they have done to the National Merit scholarship, it’s a fraction of what it once was in fact I’ve been told that the part that is supposed to be covered by the OK Scholars from the state is now being paid by the school because the state cut the funding.
You can try having your son write a letter explaining what amount of scholarship he’d need to attend OU but keep in mind that funding for education in OK is headline news at the moment and they can’t give money they don’t have.
Those 15 year olds are absolutely correct that with a 32 on the ACT a free-ride is possible - check the thread on automatic full rides in the Financial Aid Forum. But what must be remembered, is that a free-ride for a 32 is not available at every college and university in the country. Losing sight of that fact is what gets people into trouble.
Music majors can pose very special admissions challenges. “Where is the best instructor for my kid?” is not quite the same question as “Where is the best instructor for my kid’s instrument?”, and both of those are different from “Where is the best program for my kid’s probable professional goals?” Not to mention of course the whole affordability issue, and the back-up major issue. The process is much tougher and much les predictable.
A 32 does not guarantee a full ride, but it can get you some decent scholarships. It really depends on the school and your GPA. You’ll need to do research. The more “prestigious”, the more stingy they are with scholarships. Here’s a copy/paste below from the university of Alabama. The big schools in the deep south (Ole’ Miss, Miss State, Auburn) all offer similar programs simply because these states aren’t as densely populated. These aren’t second rate schools either.
UA Scholar
A student with a 30-32 ACT or 1390-1480 SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA, he or she will be named a UA Scholar and will receive $76,000 over four years ($19,000 per year).
Presidential Scholar
A student with a 33-36 ACT or 1490-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive $100,000 over four years ($25,000 per year). Students graduating with remaining scholarship semester(s) may use these monies toward graduate school and/or law school study at UA.
Presidential Elite Scholar
A student with a 4.0 GPA and a 36 ACT or 1600 SAT will be selected as a Presidential Elite Scholar and will receive:
Value of tuition for up to four years for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate or law studies
One year of on-campus housing at regular room rate
$1,000 per year stipend for four years
$2,000 one-time allowance for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
$2,000 book scholarship ($500 per year for four years)
One clarification that people should keep in mind is that a “full ride” is not the same thing as full tuition. It’s much more. A true full ride pays for tuition, fees, books, room, and dining plan - basically everything except pocket money.
Full tuition merit scholarships are fairly common at lower-ranked schools seeking to attract academic talent to their student body. Full rides are far less common and usually fall into one of two categories: 1. Need-based financial aid awarded by wealthy colleges to accepted students who come from families with very limited means, and 2. blue-chip recruited athletes in big revenue sports.
@CelloMom22 , the only other thing you might try at this point is for you or your son to actually call or email the cello professor and say he really wants to got to OU and join his studio but due to other offer he needs some music scholarship assistance. Ask the prof if there is anything he can do to advocate on your son’s behalf.
Music scholarships depend on the school and the amount of need. Some schools give all their instrumental majors a scholarship and others don’t. Then again some instruments are, as my flute player says, a dime a dozen. I do know someone who got a free ride to a private school because they needed a tuba player. Since he lived in the same town as the school, they knew his reputation and made him the offer. Academically, he wouldn’t have gotten near as much.
Looks like two different issues. First- the overall academic merit scholarship. That is addressed above- you can figure out if OU gives them. Second is the music scholarship. Above post #4 indicates that scholarship money is currently tight at OU. The professor may not have known this, he could have been excited about your son but funding out of his control.
The most you can do is have your son (it is his application et al) email the professor about possible financial help to be able to attend. Either they really want him and will look into possibilities (it may be that they can’t do anything) or someone else got whatever funding they have available. You and your son will know as much as possible was done and the music department will know why he may not attend.
Best case- have your parent(s) get the above and earn enough to not need the money- happened to my son. He ended up at my alma mater flagship- excellent one thank goodness as he would not apply to most elite schools. So many of us had to go where we could afford to go. In my day as well as now. And those with a Harvard undergrad or medical school degree can end up in the same city as the rest of us who went elsewhere- know two who did so.
The world will not end, your son will end up okay. Music is an extremely competitive field, even for those with scholarship money (niece had a music performance major with some money, after college a different direction). It hurts now but time will help.
Music admissions and scholarships tend to be very unpredictable. I don’t know anything about OU specifically but it sounds like they may not have as much money for scholarships as they have in the past. Just in general scholarships can vary widely from one year to the next based on departmental needs and certain professors may have more pull within a department. How much scholarship is awarded may depend partly on how much a particular professor wants a particular student or it may be decided more broadly within the department. Also, talent scholarships may not be completely decided on merit at certain schools but informed by need. My S heard things at auditions that didn’t materialize in admissions offers. It’s hard to know why- sometimes they may not have heard all other candidates at that point in the audition cycle. I wish they would not say anything at all because it can be so disappointing for a student who takes it to heart.
At this point your best bet is probably to have your son appeal for increased financial support as other posters have suggested and look at what his best 2nd option is if that doesn’t come through. Best of luck!
I wonder whether there is a reason to choose University of Oklahoma to major in Music since I believe the school is not well-known as a top notch. How about well-known top-notch music schools like Northwestern, Juilliard, Curtis, Rice, and Oberlin? Is the University of Oklahoma one of your “safety school”?
Full ride for athletics are very rare except for the 6 headcount sports at D1 schools: Football, basketball (m&w), gymnastics (w), tennis (w) volleyball (w). It is very rare for an athlete in another sport to get a full ride scholarship. Even full tuition is rare.
This student did not receive one nickel of music merit performance aid at Oklahoma.
What makes you think this student would be competitive for admissions to Oberlin, Juilliard, Curtis, Rice, NU?
You know…some students want to major in music in college…and you know what? That is OK. It doesn’t mean that they have to attend THE most competitive music conservatives in the country. Lots of music majors at many other colleges.
@CelloMom22 I would definitely repost this on the Music Major’s Forum! Music Performance (all Music, really) admissions and aid are quite a different animal to regular academic admissions, and I think you’ll get lots of good feedback there…
The ‘full ride’ might not be correct, but it sounds like your son did get a big award for his grades/scores, so those kids might not be that far off for your state. Kids sitting in Alabama might be correct that the 32 is the number to get to. The schools offering your son the ‘decent offers’ may not be the music experience he wants, but it’s an offer.
32 is indeed a pretty magic number at those schools giving full tuition or more based on the ACT test. You will NOT get a full-ride to a Top 50 or Top 100 college with that, and in fact most of these schools give no merit aid at all.
Alabama was for years considered the Holy Grail of merit scholarships, with automatic full tuition for those with a 32 ACT and a 3.5 weighted g.p.a. They have cut back and now require a 33 for their Presidential Scholarship (no longer full tuition), although they have sweetened the pot for those with a 36. This fall Ole Miss still has free tuition for ACTs of 33 or more, and almost full tuition for those with 32 or higher. They also provide extra money for those with a 3.5 gpa and stack scholarships, so it is possible to get a near-full-ride at Ole Miss with a 32.
If my son had chosen to go to Ole Miss he would have had very nearly a full ride. He took the Alabama free tuition instead. If faced with the prospect of the less generous Alabama scholarships of today his and our choices would likely have been different.