@cgmndt great idea! Where else was on the list and did they come through with scholarships?
@akapiratequeen, in our experience Oberlin was very generous (although I know itâs not quite the Northeast!). My S had good academics so I wonder if that helped. Have you looked at Hartt? Also very generous.
I donât even think you can classify a school as generous or not, in my (limited) experience, it can differ greatly on the instrument/studio/program and even from year to year.
That being said, S has what I consider to be very generous offers from MSM and Stony Brook. He also got offered nearly half tuition from BOCO but considering the cost, thatâs still an expensive option. Not sure what heâll decide at this point.
full list for my daughter - coloratura soprano, studies with a teacher from Lyric Opera who wanted her to audition at Eastman (please note - teacher not footing the bill) We started with a list from the voice teacher, and narrowed based on price and daughterâs quirks:
non-audition safeties:
Simpson - offered more than $30K in scholarship package, too small for daughter
Luther - also around $30k in scholarships, daughter liked it but it is a BA program
schools without prescreen:
Lawrence- offered max talent scholarship of 1/2 tuition, does not stack with academic scholarship - too expensive
Baldwin Wallace- cheaper tuition for a private school, offered $17K academic scholarship only
Schools with a prescreen:
SUNY Purchase - no scholarship offer yet, high school neglected to send transcripts, but daughter did not like school anyway. For the bargain hunters - out of state tuition is only about $18K, Check Crane School of music at SUNY Potsdam too
DePauw - offered 2/3 tuition in talent scholarship, still expensive. Daughter is considering asking for more talent money. She loved the school. I think I will give her until Wednesday, and if she doesnât take any action, I will send a deposit toâŠ
U of North Texas - this is the bargain hunters music school! Any student who earns a $1k scholarship gets in state tuition of $10K/year. Daughter got a $6K academic scholarship - no word on talent scholarship, but I doubt it because of the academic scholarship. So, with room and board at about $10K - D can receive a world class music education, study with a principle soprano from The Met, and audition for 4 operas a year for the magic number of $14K/year, plus travel and books.
When making the list, daughter wanted more of a college experience than a conservatory experience. She will need grad school if she continues singing classically. This has been a stressful process. Prescreens were the absolute worst. IT is almost over - I am ready to shop for dorm supplies
Wow! Great info! And definitely gonna look at UNT! Howâs the campus?
Classical VP majors should check out Florida State. If you are admitted to music school you have an excellent chance of an OOS tuition waiver, bringing your total costs down to $17,000 or so a year. Additional academic or music scholarships can reduce it still further. And if you are a NMF, it will be free thanks to a new FL law.
UNT has a fairly ugly campus - but world class performance spaces. The operas have professional production values, the ensembles are first rate. There is a music dorm with practice rooms and a cafeteria⊠Town of Denton is cute, and the weather is pretty good. Sometimes the ensemble perform in nearby Dallas as well. .
I have told my daughter I will not bring up college at all this week, Unless she tells me otherwise - deposit will b sen to UNT next weekend.
@ccgmndt Iâm reading between the lines here but does your daughter seem more comfortable at DePauw than UNT? And would you consider appealing for more money there (versus your D, as many 18 year olds are not quite ready for those negotiations)? You might always wonder.
Oh, why is this SOOOO hard? Oh yeah, because we are dealing with an 18 year old mindset. If only my daughter could look at the big picture through my 40 year old perspective! UNT is a GREAT music school. It has a wonderful reputation in the music world. With her academic scholarship from them and other outside renewable scholarships, she could have a completely free ride. A FREE RIDE! What a blessing, right? But because we live quite near UNT, this school is considered a âcatch all schoolâ for her peers that donât have great academics. It is an affordable option with low entry requirements. My daughter has excellent academics and test scores and will graduate valedictorian, so she is not very open to this option. Why canât she see that NONE of that is going to matter 4 or 5 years down the road? Her father and I will not be taking out loans to pay for her college and I prefer that she not either. I hope in the next week she can see the benefit of graduating debt free and choose one of her options that will allow her to do so!
@cgmndt is right, the campus is not very attractive. And the practice room buildings across the street from the music building are a little scary in my opinion. (UNT does not have a good reputation for campus safety!)
@apoole I realized a while ago that I brought my own baggage to my kidsâ college process. I was your daughter 40 years ago and did go to the large, respected and âcatch allâ bargain school nearby. I appreciate that it was a great value but I wish I was less practical back then, and maybe more confident too.
@wcbandmom What is a generous offer at MSM? I know that MSM Letter stated only 50 percent receive a scholarship. I am afraid I did my FAFSA wrong and sent a letter of appeal because I think I messed up and making the corrections. My S received deanâs list scholarships to many conservatories but I wonder if the FAFSA might of hurt us because we got none to MSM. Is it based more on Talent or Financials? It sounded like both are taken into consideration at this school.
I do hear you, @drummergirl! And I do find myself going back and forth on this. I have a close family member that works as a professional musician-- trombone player with the Dallas Symphony. He did go to the expensive private school with the reputable music dept. (this is also an option for my daughter, with debt of course). And he went on to a very reputable grad school. But I know, and he will confirm, that success as a musician is based on the individualâs ability to be driven enough and aggressive enough to go for the opportunities that present themselves (that confidence you mentioned!).
Itâs a really difficult decision. I wish we had an option with no trade offs, but we donât. So we will just have to weigh the pros and cons and make the best decision we can. Thatâs all most of us can do! 
My .02 â @apoole and @drummergirl: factor in your kidâs personality.
This is my first music student, but my sixth (!) and final kid going to college. Most of them chose and did well at state schools, but one of my daughters desperately wanted to go to NYU. She researched programs and knew they had the one she wanted, and told us who she wanted to work with and why this program was her best chance of connecting with mentors in a highly competitive field. She was willing to take on some debt, but even with a big scholarship, we took on debt as well.
With great misgiving, we let her do it. Five years later, she has won fellowships, prizes and additional scholarships, plus worked summers to pay off her portion of the debt. She is working for a wonderful institution in Seattle thanks to direct connections by her mentors, and when she attends grad school, she has offers for funding. Net-net, it was the best money we could have spent, because this kid was a motivated, driven connector who was going to wring every dime of value out of that crazy tuition and the opportunities it offered.
The same was not true of any of my others. They are all happy with where they went, and equally happy not to have debt at this point in their lives. They werenât willing to work as hard, and they werenât driven to succeed in such a competitive field.
With S19, weâre finding that heâs both more academic than we thought, and less driven to succeed as a performer. He sees himself getting a doctorate, maybe teaching or going into music psychology, rather than backing up Beyonce or touring the world as a jazz sax player. Heâll always play, and he particularly loves to record, and he loves everything about music. But heâs not driven the way she was. With this in mind, weâve taken some schools off the table, required a certain level of scholarship at others, and added music education to the mix. Itâs a work in progress, but after some major fails weâve learned to let their hopes and dreams drive the process rather than ours.
@apoole if your D is interested in academics, and peers to whom reading books and discussing ideas is important - beyond those whose world centers solely on music - then you need to consider whether her fours years of undergraduate college will be missing something essential to her asides from her music instruction if sheâs in non music classes with students who donât share her interests. Donât discount the importance of other inspirations and passions in these crucial years of development even if the ultimate goal is music. Sometimes paying a little more will reap huge dividends in less tangible ways.
Update for us, Frost wins followed by Loyola NOLA and New school almost neck and neck then CCPA. The rest on our list were very low or zero.
@SpartanDrew amazing choices! Many, many congratulations! Is there a decision yet?
@akapiratequeen No I wish there were. UGH. She is literally neck and neck with 2 schools trying to decide. She has a list of plusses and minuses, and plans to attend some classes and an admitted students day at one of the schools that she has less info on. I suspect we wonât have a decision until the 11th hour although if our appeal for more money at the other school doesnât come through then we will have a decision. Honestly, we will appeal offers at her top 2 choices since the COA for both is still higher than we are willing to pay and also donât want any student loans.
@SpartanDrew Wish I could offer you a glass of wine right now! this too will passâŠeventually!
@SpartanDrew we may be fellow Cane parents
@akapiratequeen I hope my liver survives April⊠:-((