The Scholarship Fund

A seat should never depend on a parent’s balance sheet.

From the beginning, the only requirement for membership at COS has been a desire to learn music. As Music Director Michael Dadap puts it: we are very diverse, we are open to everybody, and all you have to do is walk in. The Scholarship Fund is what pays for it.

Fund a scholarship

A scholarship student mid-lesson · close, natural light

The arithmetic

Fees are set below cost on purpose. Scholarships go below that again.

COS keeps membership fees under what the program actually costs to run, and tuition and ticket sales only cover a portion of the annual budget. On top of that, a scholarship program supports students who show both financial need and musical commitment. Donors fund both layers.

Published tuition

Per season

Musicianship classes

from $485

Full orchestra membership

up to $1,400

Comparable programs elsewhere

significantly higher

What a place actually costs COS to deliver

FIGURE NEEDED

Music is a language, and very few children cannot learn a language. So music should be accessible rather than exclusive.

Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma, Executive Director since 1984

What a gift buys

Gift levels, once COS confirms the real numbers.

Donors give more readily when they can see what an amount actually buys: a term of musicianship, a season of orchestra, a full year for one child. Those figures have to come from COS’s own cost accounting. An estimate falls apart the first time somebody checks it.

SCHOLARSHIP COST DATA NEEDED

To finish this section COS needs to supply the true delivered cost per student per season, the average scholarship award, the number of students currently receiving aid, and the total awarded last season. From those four numbers a proper gift ladder can be built: part-season, full-season, and full-year sponsorship tiers. No amounts have been invented in the meantime.

Named funds

Some scholarships carry a name.

A named fund lets a family, a class year, or a company attach a name to a place at the stand, permanently.

The Richard He Scholarship Fund

An existing named scholarship fund at COS.

FUND STORY AND CRITERIA NEEDED

View the fund page

Name a fund

Establishing a named scholarship in honor or memory of someone, funded outright or built over several years.

MINIMUM AND NAMING TERMS NEEDED

For families

If you need help paying, ask.

Financial aid at COS is awarded on demonstrated need together with musical commitment. Asking for it does not affect a child’s audition or their placement.

Apply for financial aid

For families who need the fee reduced.

Financial aid form

Apply for a merit scholarship

For students whose playing and commitment warrant recognition.

Merit scholarship application

AID PROCESS DETAIL NEEDED

Families will want to know: the application deadline, what documentation is required, who reviews it, how long a decision takes, and whether aid renews automatically each season. None of that is currently stated anywhere on the site.

Wide · a full ensemble, no empty chairs

What the money produced

These are the outcomes of admitting children who wanted to play, whatever their family could pay.

COS tracked what happened to 673 students who came through the program between 1984 and 2025.

673

Students tracked between 1984 and 2025

100%

Of those graduates went on to college

25%

Earned admission to Ivy League institutions

1962

The year the doors first opened, in New York City