u/ivyRarity

I want to be a music business major without any doubt about it.

I have been accepted to both on campus (study abroad program in Spain) and berklee online. I wasn’t awarded any scholarships for on campus and given no financial aid with an appeal so I’d be paying for it essentially with fully with student loans, I’ve heard of students being given good scholarships while inside other than the thrive that I heard doesn’t cover enough.

I’m looking on advice on what to do.

Should I go on campus and hope I’ll eventually get enough to pay for the school? Or should I just opt for berklee online?

I was very excited to go in person especially with the study abroad program. Is it worth it?

I have essentially a day to decide so any advice helps. Has anyone had any luck winning decent scholarships while already enrolled?

Does it also really matter if I go in person for my degree, will I really be missing out on much?

Hey! I’m a 20 year old who applied to the 2026 fall semester. I auditioned online with a marimba principal and made it very clear I wanted to be in music business. I have a pretty long and rich resume and history in the music world and I got into the first year abroad program and me and my family got so excited for it like it was a dream come true, we filmed me opening the acceptance letter and that video got some attraction.

After all of that, I looked at my awards. I wasn’t given anything… no merit based scholarship and I felt so disappointed, I thought I had a near perfect audition and my interview was absolutely killer. I then proceeded to email about my options for no real answers, after a while I got my financial package, I wasn’t given anything from fasfa and berklee didn’t give any need based awards, I did a multitude of things like putting in the appeal with lots of evidence of need, emailing my admissions officer, I even had my own interviewer guiding me through this since he really liked me and he gave me his number during the interview for this specific reason.

The appeal came back with them giving me no kind of assistance. At this point I was just getting desperate and emailing and messaging celebrities for assistance, starting a go fund me, and anything I could think of. I felt the sadness of the day that I told my parents that the only reason I couldn’t attend my dream school was solely for financial reasons even after all of the work beforehand. I’m not willing to take out that large of a student loan (the full tuition on top of the other expenses) because I would be in debt for an incredibly long time in my life while others get the same thing for significantly less.

I was also admitted into berklee online and right now I’m looking into that as we speak of just finishing my degree there. I already have about 21 credits that’ll transfer to both berklee on campus and online because I was aware of the high cost. I just feel a little betrayed and forgotten about. I know the value I can provide the school and exactly why Berklee was perfect for me.

I’m kind of in a hopeless position and looking for advice on what to do next. I was so excited to get into berklee especially when I heard I was gonna go to Spain. I feel like I have done everything in my power to attend with zero success.