What a friend would tell you
What Juilliard is looking for
The audition is everything. For music, you perform live for faculty who may become your primary teachers. For drama, the audition process includes multiple callbacks. For dance, it is a class-format audition. Academics are reviewed but carry minimal weight compared to your artistic ability. Preparation and repertoire selection are the strategic decisions that matter. Research the faculty in your discipline and prepare accordingly.
What students wish they'd known
This is a conservatory, not a college. Academic coursework exists but is secondary to performance training. The pressure to perform at the highest level every day is intense, and the environment can be psychologically grueling. At 600 students, the social world is tiny and almost entirely artists. There is no campus life in the traditional sense. Students who want a broad education or a conventional college experience should look elsewhere.
Juilliard might be a fit if...
- You are ready to train as a professional musician, dancer, or actor at the highest level and nothing else will satisfy you
- You want to study in the same complex as the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic, with NYC's performance world as your daily context
- You have the emotional resilience to handle constant evaluation and intense competition from the most talented peers in the world
Juilliard Admissions Strategy
Application Info
Plans: RD only (audition-based)
Deadlines: RD December 1
Deadlines: RD December 1
Test Policy
Test-optional
About 75% of admitted students submitted test scores. A strong score still helps your case; a weak one is better left off.
Demonstrated Interest
Not Tracked
Not tracked. Skip the info-session circuit and put those hours into the application itself.
Interview
Audition-Based
Yield Rate
84%
84% of admitted students enroll. Almost nobody turns this school down, so waitlist movement is rare.
Want to boost your odds at Juilliard and every reach on your list, so admissions stops feeling like a coin flip?
Join the free one-hour workshop from two Harvard grads who have helped 3,000+ students get in. Parents welcome.
Cost & Financial Aid at Juilliard
$81,900
Sticker Price
Need-blind admissions. Meets 100% of demonstrated need. 100% receive financial aid.
What you get for it: Juilliard spends about $95,000 per student per year on instruction and student resources, roughly 6x the $15K national average. You see it in class sizes, faculty access, and research budgets.
What Juilliard Graduates Get
$68,000
Avg Starting Salary
98%
Employed or in Grad School
88%
Graduate in 4 Years
The 4-year number is the on-time rate; the 6-year rate (92%) is the one schools usually advertise. A wide gap means many students pay for extra semesters.
Juilliard Campus & Culture
The Campus
Juilliard occupies a single building in Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, sharing the 16-acre performing arts complex with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and the New York Philharmonic. The main building (1969, travertine and glass, designed by Pietro Belluschi) houses performance halls, studios, and practice rooms across six floors. Alice Tully Hall, renovated in 2009 with a folded glass facade, serves as the primary concert venue. There is no campus beyond the building and Lincoln Center's plaza.
The Social Scene
Intense peer group, NYC access, performance-driven culture
Juilliard Traditions & Trivia
Wednesdays at One
Every Wednesday during the school year, students perform free lunchtime concerts in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, open to anyone who walks in off the street.
Marathon Concerts
First-year undergraduate string quartets perform complete Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven marathon concerts as part of their chamber music training, playing through whole bodies of work in single sittings.
Academics at Juilliard
What Juilliard is known for
Elite music and drama training, full scholarship for all students, NYC location
Most popular majors at Juilliard
Standout programs
Music Performance, Drama, Dance, Orchestral Studies
How the curriculum works
Private instruction, ensemble work, academic seminars
Recommended high school courses
4 years English, 3 Math, 3 Science, 2 Social Studies, Audition required
Notable Juilliard Alumni
Robin Williams
Attended Juilliard's drama division, class of 1976 (did not graduate)
Yo-Yo Ma
Attended Juilliard Pre-College before studying at Harvard
Itzhak Perlman
Violin virtuoso, Juilliard class of 1969
Kevin Spacey
Juilliard drama division, class of 1981
Wynton Marsalis
Jazz trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize winner, Juilliard class of 1981
Pina Bausch
Legendary choreographer, studied at Juilliard in the early 1960s
If you like Juilliard, also consider
Curtis Institute of Music
Even more selective, full scholarship, Philadelphia, instrumental focus
New England Conservatory
Strong orchestral and jazz programs in Boston
Yale School of Music
Tuition-free graduate program with university resources
Manhattan School of Music
NYC conservatory with more accessible admissions
Tisch School of the Arts (NYU)
Broader performing arts training with a university degree attached