I wish, back when I was applying to grad schools, I was able to sit down with other composers and talk about the ways that comp programs try to offer scholarship/TA packages. I had zero clue that I was running into a financial buzzsaw 90% of the time!

There are the straightforward schools who will tell you from the jump: Congrats, you're in, we want you, we are offering you a full ride in exchange for you doing this TA.

Under that, there are the schools that are say: We want you, and you are eligible for a full ride / TA, but first we need you to score amongst the top X% on our piano/musicianship skills test, because we don't have/don't offer TA jobs for just being here.

I had one school that I was only "meh" about offer me a full ride plus living stipend *before* any TA job I might do, just to go there! I (stupidly) assumed that if they wanted me so badly, they must not be any good. That...was a big mistake.

I had my #1 school call me and ask what other kinds of offers I had, and I, LIKE A GODDAMN FOOL, told them about the offer above, and they just said, "We can't match that, sorry," AND NEVER MADE ME ANY OFFER AT ALL. They allocated any offer I would've had to someone else.

Except for the straightforward schools, all offers open up with "Blah blah blah we have no budget blah blah blah." Which is half true. My thinking was that they don't have the budget *for me* to get a better offer.

My point is that I was not armed with much info and completely out of my depth as a negotiator, because I felt like I had no leverage (which, tbh, unless you're the voice of your generation, you don't have much of at all).

I *will* say that I felt much more prepared than the average grad student thanks to UO's comp department's process for applying to grad schools. I had my differences with the program, but how they handle that process is a HUGE plus.

Anyone have stories/tips/tricks/advice they want to shout into the void, for posterity and/or for some kids to stumble upon?