Juilliard announced that the Drama Division’s Master of Fine Arts in Acting will join the school’s growing list of tuition-free programs starting in the 2024-25 academic year, becoming funded through scholarships in perpetuity. This milestone achievement furthers the school’s ambition to continue to remove financial barriers and expand access to all who qualify to study at Juilliard.
To enable graduate students to attend all four years of the MFA in Acting program with no tuition cost, the school is combining existing scholarship funding that had been previously raised with a matching challenge grant from theater producer and Juilliard trustee Stephanie P. McClelland and her husband, Carter McClelland. The McClellands’ matching challenge was met through a major gift from producer John Gore as well as by gifts from the Jacques and Margot W. Kohn Foundation and several estates.
Juilliard programs that are either tuition-free or fully funded by scholarships include the Artist Diplomas in jazz, music performance, opera studies, playwriting, and string quartet studies; Doctor of Musical Arts; and Historical Performance. Additionally, the Music Advancement Program (MAP), which serves students ages 8-17 from the tristate area and is part of the Preparatory Division, is also tuition-free.