"And it's Yale pulling up behind Juilliard w/ Curtis...

[Ralph]

From The New York Times:

May 14, 2006
Connecticut
A Free Ride at Yale? Where Do I Sign Up?
By BRIAN WISE

IN the classical music world, where 100 instrumentalists audition for a single professional orchestra job, and just as many opera singers vie for a spot in a major opera company, the odds of getting into the Yale School of Music have been relatively good. About 15 percent of applicants were admitted in recent years.

But it became a lot more selective after the graduate-level institution announced an anonymous $100 million gift in November, enabling all of its students, beginning this fall, to attend for free. The increase in applications for the fall semester was dramatic: from 754 applicants last year to about 1,500 applicants this year. As a result, only about 8.5 percent of applicants were admitted this year.

"We had certainly anticipated a rise, but this surpassed our expectations," said Thomas Masse, associate dean of admissions. His office was so overrun with packages and mail from prospective students that it had to hire extra help. Acceptance letters were sent out in March.

Now as the school prepares for commencement on May 22 for the final graduating class to have paid the $23,750 annual tuition each year, many faculty members and students are wondering how the donation will affect Yale's reputation. Will subsidized tuition affect the type and quality of new students? Will the school claim a place alongside conservatories like the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia?

John Young Shik, 21, a violinist from Vanderbilt University who will be entering Yale's orchestral conducting program in the fall, said that many musicians are applying to Yale who otherwise would not have given it consideration because of the free tuition.

"Most students now think to themselves: 'How can I not apply to Yale?' he said. "You just have to put your name in the hat."

Frank Morelli, a professor of bassoon at Yale, said that the free tuition is a powerful recruiting tool.

"We know how expensive it is to go to school," he said. "To go out as a musician is not to step out into the corporate world. It's not a big money-making profession. Also, we want to try and recruit the best talent."

But whether the surge in applications reflects a more talented candidate pool is harder to determine. Lee Cioppa, the associate dean for admissions at Juilliard, where the acceptance rate is about 10 percent for graduate students, said that musicians who apply to graduate schools are very particular about where they want to study, often selecting a school foremost on the basis of an individual teacher. That applications doubled in the eight-week period from when the $100 million was announced to until the close of admissions in December suggested that at least some of those candidates applied as an afterthought.

"At the graduate level, most students have a focused idea of what they need," she said. "The idea of whom they want to study with is a determining factor. If Yale's applicants have doubled, then I'd have to ask myself why."

Jack Vees, a composer and director of Yale's Center for Studies in Music Technology, said that he received inquires from musicians who already have successful careers. "I have no idea why someone would want to go back to school unless that they see it's free," he said.

Nevertheless, he said, eliminating tuition may reduce a sense of entitlement that he has seen among some students.

"If someone has paid a lot of tuition, they pretty much feel like, 'I'm the customer and the customer's always right and I better get an A.' But if you've gotten in here because of your capabilities, not because of what you're paying, now instead of you being the customer who's ordering us the faculty around, we're all going to try and work together."

Yale, which estimated that it will spend $4.75 million a year to provide free tuition, has provided significant financial aid in the past. Historically, one student from every teaching studio (violins, trombones and so forth) would receive a full scholarship and others would also get financial aid. But by eliminating tuition, Yale can compete with schools like the University of Southern California, which has long offered full scholarships for its viola students, said Jesse Levine, a viola professor and head of the string department.

"In the music profession, acquiring debt in the form of loans and things you have to pay back is much more difficult for a practicing musician in the profession than in other fields," he said.

Without hefty student loans to pay back after graduation, he said, Yale students can afford better instruments and have more time to devote to practicing instead of holding down part-time jobs to pay back the loans.

Other teachers at Yale said the school would attract more students from countries where fully subsidized tuition is more common.

"We already see many students from Europe and Asia, but I think those numbers will increase," said Kikuei Ikeda, a violinist in the Tokyo String Quartet, which is in residence at Yale. "Many students, particularly from outside the country, really love to be in New York because they see it as the center of activity." Now, Mr. Ikeda hopes those students will instead come to Yale.

Thomas C. Duffy, the school of music's acting dean, was hesitant to identify other plans for the gift beyond the tuition waver. After last fall's announcement, he indicated some potential uses like acquiring technology for live Internet clinics and workshops with conservatories around the world, and expanding the school's presence in New Haven's public school system.

Robert Blocker, who was dean of the School of Music from 1995 to 2005, will be returning to the school in that role in July after a year as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He had worked with Richard C. Levin, the president of Yale, in attracting the gift over his previous decade at the music school.

"Part of the excitement in returning to Yale is the opportunity to plan what the best possible use of this gift will be," he said. "Tuition is one of the most obvious areas because of the challenges musicians have in supporting themselves in professional life, but the very nature of the gift is much bigger. It includes programming, faculty support and recruiting. Our ability to make distinguished appointments is enhanced."

Mr. Blocker said he would like to attract some of the world's finest musicians to the faculty and would not rule out special appointments or faculty chairs.

Administrators at other music schools said they are using Yale's donation as a fund-raising vehicle.

"Usually donations like this go to the so-called mainline, hard-core disciplines," said Robert Sirota, president of the Manhattan School of Music. "Now there seems to be recognition that music is something that's valuable.

"I keep telling people, if there is one $100 million donor there are three or four," he added. "It's a highly competitive environment for any school of music. For the first tier to maintain its position we are going to require funding at the highest level."

[jbuck919]

Yale has been the equivalent of "those other places" for a long, long time. I've been there done that many times before on this site so I'm not going to belabor it now. Were it not located in as obscure a town as New Haven, with which it has never had a good town-gown relationship, there would be no question of it being one of the half dozen finest universities in the United States, probably the world, and its remarkable dedication to music at both the undergraduate and graduate level would only enhance that cachet.

[jbuck919]

Psst. I imagine the 27 reads on this thread as opposed to the two posts are due to monitoring by members of Skull and Bones.