A year ago, I escorted a wonderful singer to her audition for the Juilliard Opera Center. I said all the right words backstage and then watched her go onstage for what was the biggest audition—so far—of her life .
She sang so beautifully that she moved me to tears—and I’m sure the committee was similarly moved. Afterwards, I took her for a tour of the Met and introduced her to some people. One wonderful coach, Bob Deceunyck, took an interest and asked the singer about both the audition and her background. He told her not to get her hopes up. The committee, he explained, looks for singers who have a Master’s degree.
Sure enough, at the final cut, the committee asked the singer if she had her Master’s. She had to say no, and was turned down. (She’s now at Juilliard—getting her Master’s!)
In a professional opera audition, auditioners rarely ask about a singer’s education. When it comes to getting into an apprentice program or obtaining a teaching position, however, that degree can really matter—not to mention that the knowledge you obtain while your voice is maturing can make or break you.
Granted, successful singers flaunt these rules all the time—but no one can count on being the exception. You want to get the best education you can. Take notice, however, that the committee in the example above never asked the auditionee where she went to school! In countless auditions I have done concluding with a modestly successful career, I was not asked once where I went to school or what degree I held.
Priorities
A word of advice: Think very hard before you take on a lot of debt! It seems a small matter when you are 18 and choosing one college over another. Why shouldn’t you go the best school that accepts you? Surely, parents can co-sign the loan.
Besides, it’s very gratifying to one’s ego to have a name-brand school put up on that high school bulletin board with your name next to it! Glowing with pride—and burdened with debt—you’ll be off to college.
It seems to me that most singers think the name of a prestigious college at the top of their diplomas will guarantee their singing careers. Perhaps it’s the parents’ doing. Parents grew up thinking that success meant going to a school like Harvard, therefore success as a singer must mean going to a school like _____.
Newsflash! Yes, it’s great to go to a name-brand school, if you have money, scholarships and enough talent to guarantee that you won’t get lost amongst the prodigies but the most important decision is your voice teacher. The second most important decision is whether to take on a debt that could totally overwhelm you upon graduation.
Parents and singers need to know that the education of a singer doesn’t follow the rules for a business major, a doctor, a lawyer, or anything else. Taking on a huge debt does not make sense for our profession, since graduating at the top of your class will never lead you a lifelong, six-figure position with a No. 1 company in The Big Apple. Singers face years of sacrifice after graduation—and student debt often ruins their chances at a career.
Bruno Starts Calling
Six months or so after graduation, you are temping, studying voice, and trying to get into an apprentice program—and the phone calls start coming in. Someone named “Sallie Mae,” among others, wants you to start paying $100-$300 a month on EACH of the loans you took out. Rather quickly, you come to realize that your degree in voice doesn’t exactly translate into a job on Wall Street. Reality sets in: Getting work as a singer isn’t automatic!
Suddenly, you find yourself dancing to the relentless rhythm of the government loan minuet.
What can you do? Your education—the very thing you thought would launch your career—is now a ball and chain that makes it impossible for you to pursue your dreams, simply because it cost so much! You really don’t have time to practice now; you have to work two jobs just to keep one step ahead of your living expenses and Uncle Sam.
To be fair, a name-brand school offers something that a lower cost institution may not. Part of what your high tuition is paying for, hopefully, is the opportunity to associate with the best musicians of your generation. Competition to get into a school like Juilliard is fierce, therefore the students must be high achievers. The contacts you can forge during your time as a student can definitely prove to be valuable throughout the rest of your life; they are one of the biggest draws for a name school.
The Eastman School of Music, for example, admits only the cream of the crop. Singers spend their tenures at Eastman totally inundated with music making on the highest level, constantly performing chamber works, operas, master classes—learning not only from teachers but from peers. When students leave, the Eastman Alumni Association encourages them to keep in contact, which gives the former students access to incredible musicians all over the world. These contacts, and those formed with stellar faculty, can be a good reason for choosing a name-brand school. Sometimes one of those stellar faculty members can pick up the phone and make a call to someone in the profession, and… It’s always about who you know, isn’t it?
But if you go to a name school and you aren’t yet one of the best singers, you aren’t going to get good roles in the operas and you may end up studying with a grad student so it is a gamble—and the stakes are certainly high enough—so be aware of all your options before you decide to place an $80,000 bet on your education!
Avoiding Debt
Start to save up for college as soon as you can!
Try to get a promise of help from your parents.
Get your general education (those required courses, such as English 101 and Math 101) out of the way at a state-sponsored school, while studying privately with a great teacher. This one strategy can cut many thousands off of your education. (It only works if you’ve checked ahead with the school of your dreams to see which credits will transfer. Be particularly careful with conservatories that accept a limited number of transfer students.)
Establishing residency in your future school’s state can make a significant difference in your tuition. If you can, find out which school you want to attend, and whether establishing residency would save you money. Generally, you have to live in the state for one year—but the tuition difference can be thousands of dollars.
After high school, you might consider working for a year in your school’s state, giving your voice a chance to mature before applying and studying privately with the teacher of your choice. This can only help your chances for success in the opera department, since many singers are in too much of a rush to hurry off to school.
The voice takes time to mature. Slow down, and once you enter the school of your choice, you’ll do better against your younger peers.
Research and work hard to get scholarships and grants! They can make a huge difference. (Then, go to the school that gave you the scholarships!) Start researching in the 10th grade.
If you can, work at least part time in high school and save for college, then work during college, so you aren’t living off loan money. Don’t work if it means you can’t practice, however—otherwise, why be in school?
Learn to say “no” to yourself. You don’t need all those “things” you think you need.
Ask for help. Ask relatives if they would be willing to give you a monthly stipend while you are in school. Singers have to learn to be good at fund raising. You might as well start now. In return, offer to put on a small recital periodically for their friends.
Get out of the dorm as soon as possible. Most dorms are extremely expensive for both food and housing. Many colleges have rules that require you to stay in the dorms a certain number of years. There are “ways” around those rules! Here are some tried and true “Get Out of Jail Free” cards: (Honest, they actually worked!)
“My dad lost his job and can’t help me pay for school anymore, and I don’t have any money. And I’ll save a ton by moving into this apartment—and you have to help me. If not, I have to drop out.”
“I have ADD and can only do my class work in complete silence. My roommate‘s presence is causing me to fail all my classes.”
“My doctor says I’m allergic to the carpet.”
“The cafeteria food has given me chronic diarrhea.”
Myths That Create Debt
Sometimes singers get into debt when there is no need. Student loans are so easy to come by, and singers think they have to buy things they don’t really need. I know singers who had full scholarships but took out loans anyway, to cover “extra” purchases. When you’re at school there’s a feeling that:
“I should spend whatever it takes to have my career.”
“I can’t work to support myself at school because I have to practice, and singers need extra sleep to sing well.” (Only you know what you can handle.)
“I need to borrow more on this loan so I can buy a better computer, or a better gown for my next performance, or….”
“I need a car.” Student singers don’t have a lot of valid reasons to have a car, unless they are getting a lot of paying gigs out of town, or the car will help save money in other ways, such as housing.
“I’m a singer and I have to look like a diva/divo.” You are expected to look great—but you don’t have to wear Gucci.
How To Choose A College
The most important factor in the choice of a college isn’t the name, it’s the choice of a caring and nurturing voice teacher. You certainly want to go to a school that has a great voice teacher, but many, many colleges, large and small, have great voice teachers. Undiscovered treasures await throughout the country.
Don’t assume that only the most expensive schools have the best teachers. For example, internationally known soprano Carol Vaness found her life-long teacher, David Scott, at a state school: Cal State Fullerton. It was just a few hundred dollars per semester at the time.
Look at our first-place winners in the CS Competition last month: Florida State University and University of Nebraska. If you were there, you heard how wonderful their voices were. These are not schools that will break the bank, but Florida State, for instance, has Met star Stan Olsen on faculty, and I’ve heard raves about his teaching from old and young alike. Many inexpensive colleges have teachers like him.
Finding great teachers is the most difficult and important task singers do for their careers—and you’ve got to be smart about it from the very beginning. Ask great singers, competition winners, singers who are getting work. CS also interviews great teachers. Pay attention to what great teachers talk about, and when you are interviewing teachers, find the ones who talk the same way, who have competition winners and students singing in good houses. Good teachers should have a track record of some sort to show you.
Assessment
But suppose you didn’t know all that when you went to school. You’ve graduated and you’ve got $80,000 worth of debt staring you in the face, no job, a car payment, and these loan people calling you day and night. What do you do?
First, gather all your paperwork and figure out what kind of loans you have. If you have lost your paperwork, wait for your next phone call and start asking questions. Ask the caller to send the paperwork to you. You can also contact your school’s financial office for help on figuring out what you owe, and to whom you owe it.
Add it up and you’ll know your total. After you’ve finished panicking, it’s time to do some serious thinking. Do you have a job or job prospects? What do you think you can make in a month? Can you handle the payments those voices on the phone are demanding? Is there anything you can do to cut your expenses, such as moving home for a while? That’s hard after living on your own, but your goal must be to get yourself enough on your feet that you can both pursue your career and meet your obligations.
Change Your Loan Type
One thing you can do is to change the type of loan you have. “Bruno” will work with you, as long as you are demonstrating a good effort to pay off the loan. You can pay off the debt in four ways:
• Standard debt payment is for people with a good job. It has the highest payments, but you’ll pay off the debt more quickly, with less interest. In other words, you’ll pay less with this option over the life of the loan. Do this if you can.
• Graduated payments start off with lower payments that increase gradually.
• Income based payments are based on how much you make, and probably fit the life of a singer best, although it will take a long time to pay off most debts this way!
• Long-term payments have the lowest rates. The problem? By the time you’ve paid off the loan, you will have paid double the amount of the loan, because of all the interest that has accumulated over the years.
Don’t think you can do it? Well, you’re not alone. Here are a few other options.
Deferment and Forbearance
One thing you can do is to ask for a deferment. Interest will continue to accrue, but you won’t have to pay while you are, say, in that terrific apprentice program. The only way you’ll get a deferment is if you convince “Bruno” (OK…there is no one named Bruno but after awhile it begins to feel like the mob is after you!) that you are desperate and he agrees with your assessment. (Acting skills are an asset!)
One recent graduate from a top conservatory asked for a deferment because she was working in France for a year and barely squeaking by on only $1,000 a month. One of the loan establishments granted her deferment and the other denied her request. She had to pay $170 a month in addition to rent, food and everything else involved in living in France. These people are sometimes not easy to persuade.
Forbearance is another option, a three-month break from your loan repayment. Your reasons don’t have to be as dire, but you’ll still need to convince them.
Loan Forgiveness
I hesitate to mention this, because it doesn’t fit in with the plans most singers have, but perhaps you’d be interested if your debt feels like it’s crushing you. The government is willing to forgive part of your loans if you volunteer to work in a few tough jobs. Join the military, for example, and get $10,000 towards your loans. If you were at the Classical Singer Convention in Hartford, you met Ryan Dolan from Singing Sergeants. That’s a singing way to join the military and have a lot of debt forgiven. (You can reach Ryan at 202-767-5665.)
Also, you can teach at a low-income school and have up to $5,000 forgiven, for five years’ work. Visit http://studentaid.ed.gov for more info. Go into the Peace Corp, Vista or similar service and all your loans will be deferred while part of your loan may be forgiven. (For example, if you go into the Peace Corps and have a Perkins loan, you’ll receive 15 percent forgiveness for each year of service.) Go to www.peacecorps.gov for more info.
Running Away From Debt
The Peace Corps may sound extreme, but some people have been known to take it even farther. Some became so desperate to get away from student loans that they moved and changed their names, thinking to get away from the pressure. Bad move.
First, it’s illegal to change your name for fraudulent purposes, so you’ll have serious legal troubles once you’re found—and you will be found. Bruno knows all. These loan agencies take collections seriously. (Wouldn’t you, if someone owed you $80,000?) Second, if you default on paying your loan, you will be reported to the National Credit Bureau, which can stop you from having a credit card, or buying a car or a house—and the NCB can attach any paycheck you get. (That means your employer is told to give your paycheck to Bruno, which will definitely make an impression on your boss!)
Declaring bankruptcy is a route that is an option only in rare instances (most bankruptcy’s do not eliminate student loan debt)—but again, it destroys your credit for years to come. This can make it hard to find a job. Many employers are now running credit checks on prospective employees. (My son’s new job, for instance. They sent him a copy of the credit report. He wasn’t even aware they were going to do that!) Anyone who does a credit report on you will form opinions about your trustworthiness, based on your history regarding these financial obligations. Again, you won’t be able to buy a house, car, get a credit card, etc., for years to come. That’s a huge price to pay.
Consolidation
If you have a student debt, chances are the consolidators have been hounding you with solicitations to consolidate all your debts so you just have one big loan to pay off. Think about it before you do it. It will mean your one big debt will take longer to pay off, and you’re going to pay a lot more in interest. You could end up paying three times your loan amount. But if you’re interested, here’s some contact information:
Sallie Mae: 800.524.9100
USA Group, Inc 800.382.4506
Citibank 800.967.2400
Federal Director Consolidation Loan Info
Center 800.557.7392
If you would like more information in general about student loans, contact your school’s financial aid office, or:
Consumer Information Center
S. James Consumer Information Center – 6C
P.O. Box 100 Pueblo, CO 81002
Ask for the “Direct Student Loan Consolidation “and “Paying for College” booklets.
Federal Trade Commission’s Public Reference Branch
Room 130 6th Street and Pennsylvania Ave
NW Washington, DC 20580
Ask for a booklet called “Knee Deep in Debt.”
