By Erin Dostal The Daily Northwestern
Starting this fall, all incoming doctoral students in Northwestern’s School of Music will receive full tuition waivers.
The plan is funded by the president and provost’s offices and is meant to attract more applicants to the School of Music’s graduate programs, said Ellen Schantz, the School of Music’s director of communication and marketing.
“As you might imagine, it’s very, very competitive to get really high-quality students,” Schantz said. “In music it’s particularly difficult.”
The new policy will make NU one of three schools in the U.S. to provide full tuition to doctor of music students. The others are the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music.
Because of the high cost of NU’s tuition – $33,408 for the 2006-07 academic year for Music graduate students – administrators in the School of Music feared prospective students would be deterred by the cost, Schantz said.
“People who major in music and go out into music careers don’t make tons of money,” she said. “To take on huge debt is very difficult. Unlike if you’re going to be a doctor or lawyer, your income will be such that it’s more manageable. … For musicians it’s really a big thing.”
In addition to about 17 doctoral students per year, 15 of the 60 to 70 master of music students who will enroll at NU this fall will receive two years of full tuition. The 15 students will be chosen through the audition already used for the admissions process, Schantz said.
The School of Music differentiates between Ph.D. and doctoral students. According to Schantz, the school’s Ph.D. programs tend to be more academically based than its doctoral programs and include study in music education and musicology. The school’s doctoral programs tend to be performance based and include study in conducting, music composition and instrumental or vocal performance, she said.
All current Ph.D. students in all NU schools receive full tuition. Next year, NU and Yale will be the only schools in the country to provide full tuition for all Ph.D. and all doctor of music students.
None of the school’s current doctoral students will be eligible for the tuition waiver.
Patrick Liddell, a doctoral student in composition in his final year, said he has mixed feelings about the plan.
“My initial reaction is kind of upset, because this wasn’t around when I was applying to be a grad student,” Liddell said.
He added that he thinks the full tuition plan will make the school more competitive, which he sees as a positive change.
As a music student, there’s no guarantee of getting a job after graduation, he said.
“There’s no real financial incentive at all (to go to NU),” Liddell said. “I think it’ll help.”
Daniel Glynn, a first-year masters student in oboe performance, said he thinks the new policy will be good for the program.
“I know that we do lose a lot of students because the money is notoriously bad,” Glynn said. “I think it’s a great thing that people are getting more money.”
Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected].
