How generous is financial aid at top conservatories?

[gapoc459]

Is the financial aid offered by top conservatories remotely comparable to that of fantastic liberal arts institutions (with great music programs and a LOT of money) such as Yale? I am fairly confident I want to be a musician (still sophomore in high school), so on the one hand it might be good to focus fully on music, but my two fears are, first, that the atmosphere in a conservatory is narrow-minded and not necessarily having a strong intellectual focus, ultimately limiting my education (I'm not interested in just performance; more so in conducting, composition, management, advocateship, etc.) and second, that it would be much more difficult to afford than a school that offers great financial aid due to much more considerable resources.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

They don't give money to ANYONE!

Like that's a thing.  

Well of course some people, but not really.

They're like overly stingy with their money.  Because they're broke.

Yeah they're not really generous...

[cabbynum]

They don't give money to ANYONE!

Like that's a thing.  

Well of course some people, but not really.

They're like overly stingy with their money.  Because they're broke.

Yeah they're not really generous...

Any Ivy League school will be stingy with money because they can be. They can be stupidly selective too. Their ideal student changes yearly. They base it on ethnicity, hair color. All kinda of stupid stuff.

So just get a 36 on the act and have like 6.0 GPA and then you might get some help.

Also conservatories usually help out a bit but the bigger ones don't.

[iansinclair]

In my humble opinion a good place to look would be to one of the smaller very high level liberal arts colleges with strong music programs (Carleton, Swarthmore, Oberlin come to mind but there are many more).  They tend to be slightly more generous with the cash, and will give you an excellent music background as well as a broad liberal arts education.

At the same time, do not overlook the opportunities offered by summer music programs, such as Tanglewood's.  Pretty intense, but you would be rubbing shoulders and rehearsing with and learning from some of the really truly top end people.

Conservatories tend to be much more tightly focused on performing.

As Rach says, however, there is no free lunch at any of these places.  If it should happen that you are already a very high level performer, and academically strong, and you are your family are genuinely hard up, you do stand a good chance of getting some true scholarship money.  Otherwise, they'll help with loans and work-study and all that, but...

[Bob]

Does Yale have a good music program?  I haven't heard much about it.  Just Eastman and Julliard.  And then there are many for music ed.

[briannaspark]

I believe Yale is harder to get in than Juilliard-- They only offer graduate programs (MM, AD & DMA) and they are very, very selective.

And Yale offers full tuition

[iansinclair]

I might add, too, that the Yale music program is much more akin to a conservatory program, such as Julliard or Eastman, than it is to a liberal arts college.  Which is fine, if that's what you are looking for.

[gapoc459]

Yale School of Music offers the MM, AD, and DMA, and they provide full scholarship for all admitted students, but that is actually a conservatory. I'm talking about Yale College. Obviously, undergraduates do not have ALL the opportunities that YSM students do, but the community is still one of the strongest among non-conservatory institutions. If I can get in, that's my dream school, but 7% is not a number to rely on.

I might look into the small LACs. I do wish to be relatively close to New York, though.

I'm not sure, are there any other academic institutions that are famed for their music programs? And again, I'm talking about a lot of different sub-disciplines, not just piano teachers per se.

[Bob]

Thinking...  Oberlin... New England Conservatory of Music....  Others?

I've heard names mentioned more for performance and they are or lean toward being conservatory(like).

[iansinclair]

Before you break the family bank, have you even considered SUNY Purchase, or City College of New York?  They don't have the name recognition or sex appeal of the big shots, but they are good.  And inexpensive.