Juilliard’s Master of Fine Arts in Acting program will become tuition free for students starting in fall 2024.
The four-year program will then be free in perpetuity thanks to $15 million in existing scholarship funding, as well as a matching challenge grant from theater producer and Juilliard trustee Stephanie P. McClelland and her husband, Carter McClelland, a major gift from theater producer John Gore and gifts from the Jacques and Margot W. Kohn Foundation and several estates. This follows other acting programs that have stopped charging tuition, including the Yale School of Drama, which became tuition free for all students in the school starting in 2021 after a $150 million gift from David Geffen.
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Juilliard’s four-year MFA program was founded by Jim Houghton in 2012, with the goal of broadening employment opportunities for students, and has always had its fourth year of the acting program tuition free, alongside a living stipend. That stipend will remain in place. As part of the conservatory-style program, undergraduate and graduate students at Juilliard study together, and tuition for both programs had been $53,300 annually, with more than 90 percent of students qualifying for financial aid. The program, which currently totals 35 students, accepts about 8 to 10 students per year.
The tuition free status will apply to all new and returning students in the program. With the new funding, the first-year MFA class will be known as John Gore/Broadway.com Fellows and the third-year MFA class will be known as McClelland Fellows.
“We are grateful to Stephanie and Carter for their vision and generosity in crafting this challenge, to John for his matching gift, and to all who have contributed to this important step for graduate education in drama at Juilliard,” said Juilliard President Damian Woetzel. “We believe that talent has always been greater than opportunity, and with this milestone and other existing and future tuition-free programs, Juilliard is committed to attacking barriers of access to the highest level of artistic education in drama, dance, and music.”
“The impact of these gifts on our students’ futures—and the field—cannot be overstated,” said Evan Yionoulis, the Richard Rodgers dean and director of the Drama Division. “Entering the profession without additional debt will allow these gifted artists the opportunity to take the kind of work, especially in the theater, that will allow them to develop their craft and provide a stable foundation for a lifelong career.”
Existing Juilliard programs that are already 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. When the MFA program goes tuition-free, about 26 percent of all Juilliard students will pay no tuition to attend the school.
“Under Jim Houghton’s inspirational leadership as director of the Drama Division, the MFA in acting degree was established; it was also his wish for this extraordinary program to become tuition-free,” Stephanie P. McClelland said. “By creating this challenge grant, Carter and I hoped to honor Jim’s legacy by achieving this goal for the MFA actors. We could not be more thrilled that our challenge was both embraced and met by Juilliard, leading to this beautiful result that will support these talented students for years to come.”
