Scholarships help you attend a school. The right teacher helps you build a career.
Every year around this time, I have the same conversations.
A student is deciding between schools. The offers come in. The numbers are laid out. And the question becomes:
“Where is it most affordable?”
It’s a completely fair question.
But it’s not the right one.
Because affordability and value are not the same thing.
A scholarship helps you attend a school.
The right teacher helps you build a career.
Those are two VERY different investments.
The short game vs. the long game
A scholarship is about access.
It gets you in the door. It makes something possible that might not have been otherwise.
But what happens once you’re there?
Who is guiding your technical development?
Who is helping you understand your instrument not just functionally, but artistically?
Who is shaping how you think, how you practice, how you prepare?
That’s the long game.
And the long game is what determines whether you leave school with:
• A voice that is coordinated and reliable
• A sense of artistic identity
• The tools to sustain a career beyond the degree
Or whether you leave still searching for answers.
Not all lessons are created equal
This is the part people don’t always want to say out loud.
Not every teacher is the right teacher for every student. And not every studio will move you forward.
A good teacher doesn’t just give you information. They help you learn how to process information.
They don’t just fix problems in the moment.
They help you understand why those problems exist and how to solve them on your own.
They don’t create dependency.
They build autonomy.
Because eventually, you won’t be in a lesson anymore.
What you’re actually investing in
When you choose a school, you’re not just choosing a campus or a brand.
You’re choosing:
• A way of thinking
• A technical foundation
• A set of habits that will follow you for years
You’re choosing the environment that will shape how you respond to pressure, to failure, to growth.
And most importantly, you’re choosing the person who will sit across from you every week and help you build your voice.
That relationship matters more than most people realize.
A difficult question
So here’s the question I often want students to ask themselves:
“If one option costs less, but leaves you uncertain about your development, and another costs more, but places you in the right environment with the right teacher…
which one is actually more expensive?”
The goal isn’t just to attend
This is not an argument against scholarships. They matter. They can make all the difference in access.
But access is the beginning, not the outcome.
The goal isn’t just to attend a great school.
The goal is to leave prepared for a life in this field.
And that depends, more than anything, on the work you do and who guides you through it.
If you’re in the middle of making this decision right now, take the time to look beyond the numbers.
Talk to the teacher.
Take a lesson if you can.
Pay attention to how you respond, how you learn, how you grow in that space.
Because two to four years goes quickly.
What you build during that time will stay with you much longer.
This essay is part of Studio Notes.
