Berklee awards all merit scholarships automatically through the admissions audition/interview process — there is no separate application, no published GPA/test grid, and no way to reaudition for more money later.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
Is Berklee worth a closer look?
Berklee may be worth checking, but its awards do not follow a simple grades-and-scores chart. Start with the published scholarships below.
Merit tiers4See who qualifies
Research checkedJul 2026By our research team
Free Merit Check
See what Berklee's published rules mean for your student. Takes 30 seconds.
Published scholarships
These amounts and requirements come from the school’s own published pages. Open an award to see who qualifies and how to keep it.
Amount not published
Merit-Based Scholarships
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Strength of admissions application (audition, interview, academics, and/or original compositions); automatic consideration with admission application
How to keep it
Undergraduate scholarships are awarded for up to eight total semesters of enrollment to cover a single major, and are automatically renewed each semester provided students are meeting the terms and conditions of their scholarship. Per FAQ, standard scholarship recipients must at least meet SAP standards: CGPA of 2.0 and completion percentage of 70.
Notes
No dollar amounts or stat grid are published; awards are holistic/audition-based. Most awards are partial tuition.
Full tuition…Full tuition + on-campus housing, meal plan, laptop, software, major bundles, and comprehensive fee
Presidential Scholarship
Apply separatelyCan continue
See who qualifies+
Who qualifies
Automatically nominated and selected based on audition AND financial need; must have a FAFSA and/or CSS Profile on file
How to keep it
Renewed each year, for a total of eight semesters to cover a single major, and follows the standard scholarship policy.
Notes
Very limited number of top entering musicians. Does NOT cover off-campus housing, health insurance, travel, books, or miscellaneous fees — it is not a full cost-of-attendance ride.
Continuing undergraduates with demonstrated academic achievement, demonstrated financial need, and on track to graduate on time; CSS Profile (Boston campus) or FAFSA (Conservatory domestic) on file; automatic consideration, no application
How to keep it
Per FAQ: Students receiving the Thrive Scholarship are expected to maintain a CGPA of 3.0 and completion percentage of 94.
Notes
Not an entering-student award; detail page requires login. Renewal bar (3.0 CGPA / 94% completion) is much higher than the standard 2.0/70%.
These are the rules we would flag for your family. Each comes from Berklee's published information.
Aid capHard $85,817 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Berklee cannot push the package past $85,817. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.
What families often miss
Full-tuition awards cover tuition only. Even the Presidential Scholarship excludes health insurance, travel, books, miscellaneous fees, and off-campus housing — and 2026-27 total cost of attendance is $85,817 vs. $54,020 degree tuition.
Scholarship policy item 12 states 'Scholarships are not increased beyond the initial award amount,' so the award is flat while tuition can increase each year.
Scholarships cover up to eight semesters for a single major; the page warns 'Students who elect to declare a dual major should prepare to pay for semesters beyond the length of their scholarship.'
Part-time enrollment results in the scholarship being prorated, and the part-time semester still counts as one of the eight semesters of eligibility.
The FAQ states a change of principal instrument or failure to perform on it 'will result in a review of the award decision and may result in the loss of scholarships.'
Students cannot reaudition for scholarship consideration; to be reconsidered they would have to withdraw their acceptance and reapply for admission.
Standard scholarships require meeting SAP: CGPA 2.0 and 70% completion. Thrive Scholarship recipients must maintain a 3.0 CGPA and 94% completion — a renewal cliff that costs the award if missed.
Total financial aid (grants, scholarships, and loans) cannot exceed total cost of attendance, so large outside awards can force adjustments; Berklee does not publish which aid is reduced first — ask the aid office.
See costs and school data+
Who this school may work for
Strong performers and composers whose audition and interview stand out — merit money here is artistic, not stats-based. Students counting on a GPA/test-score grid will not find one.
Published yearly cost: Approximately $85,817 for 2026-2027. Source
Cost and graduation facts
Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Berklee, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.
Average annual net price by family income at Berklee, academic year 2021-22
Family income
Average net price paid
$0–$30,000
$42,734
$30,001–$48,000
$37,987
$48,001–$75,000
$47,799
$75,001–$110,000
$46,801
$110,001+
$54,676
All income levels (average)
$49,465
Sticker price vs. what students actually pay
Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23
$52,040
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22
$49,465
That works out to roughly a 32% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $72,700 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).
Outcomes for students who enrolled here
Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort
67%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort
89%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers
$25,000 (~$265/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21)
$33,647
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22
14%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22
34%
See other scholarships and cost examples+
If your student brings another scholarship
Berklee does not publish an outside-scholarship displacement order on its public pages. The cost-of-attendance page states that total aid from all sources (grants, scholarships, loans) cannot exceed cost of attendance, and the scholarship policy states institutional scholarships are never increased beyond the initial award.
COA page: total financial aid cannot exceed total cost of attendance. Scholarship policy item 12: scholarships are not increased beyond the initial award amount. Music Therapy interns: the Music Therapy Grant replaces any Berklee-funded scholarship for the internship — students cannot receive both. No public statement found on whether outside/private scholarships reduce institutional aid (loan-first vs grant-first).
These awards can be harder to find. Each one has its own rules.
Amount$500 to $5,000EligibilityHigh-achieving continuing students nearing graduation; nominated by faculty, chairs, and deans based on achievement in their major/instrumental department
No application; students are notified if selected. Small, partial-tuition merit awards.
AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityBerklee College of Music students demonstrating high academic and artistic achievement within their academic divisions
Described as 'relatively small awards,' generally decided in spring semester; automatic consideration; may not be eligible for renewal after a leave of absence.
Is there a separate scholarship application or deadline?
No. 'There is no application necessary to be considered for scholarships. All entering and continuing students are automatically considered' as part of the admissions process. There is no published merit-scholarship deadline separate from the admissions deadlines.
Which FAFSA do I file for fall 2026?
The site states: 'Applying for fall 2026? Submit the 2026–2027 FAFSA.' Domestic entering undergraduates who submit a CSS Profile by the posted deadlines are automatically considered for need-based institutional grants.
Does Berklee publish a GPA/SAT/ACT scholarship grid?
No. Awards are based on the strength of the admissions application (audition, interview, academics, and/or original compositions), and no dollar grid is published.
How long does the scholarship last?
Up to eight total semesters of enrollment to cover a single major, automatically renewed provided the student meets the scholarship terms and conditions (including SAP: 2.0 CGPA, 70% completion).
Are international students eligible for aid?
International students are eligible for merit scholarships, but 'Entering international students are not eligible to receive institutional need-based aid.'
See sources and other schools+
How Berklee compares
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Berklee is in a recognizable cluster (235 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Berklee is one of them. The cohort minority (84 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against Berklee’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
