The Juilliard School in New York City.
In Friday’s (4/25) New York Times, Javier C. Hernández writes, “The Juilliard School, one of the world’s most prestigious conservatories, plans to go tuition free for all of its students, the school announced on Thursday, and has begun a $550 million fund-raising drive to finance the effort. The tuition-free policy is meant to make Juilliard accessible to a broader range of students and to ease the burden on graduates hoping to pursue careers in the arts, where salaries can be meager. The fund-raising campaign will be one of the largest in Juilliard’s 120-year history…. Juilliard officials [said] it would be a multiyear effort. The school said it has received about $180 million in early commitments, including a pledge of $130 million from Juilliard’s board…. More than 95 percent of [Juilliard] students receive some financial aid. This school year, 29 percent of all Juilliard students pay no tuition…. Juilliard already offers some tuition-free programs … School officials said they now want to extend that policy across Juilliard’s music, dance and drama divisions, which collectively serve some 900 students…. Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which is much smaller than Juilliard, with about 160 students, has not charged tuition since 1928.”
