The Juilliard School

Juilliard is widely recognized as one of the most competitive conservatories in the world, with an overall acceptance rate hovering around 7% to 8%. For specific, highly elite programs like classical voice or drama, the acceptance rate can plummet to under 5%. The school strictly caps its total student body at around 850 undergraduate and graduate students to ensure highly personalized instruction.

The school is prominently located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Its iconic brutalist building, designed by architect Pietro Belluschi, sits directly on Broadway at 66th Street. This location places students directly adjacent to institutions like the Metropolitan Opera House and the New York Philharmonic.

Augustus D. Juilliard was a wealthy American textile merchant and philanthropist who died in 1919. In his will, he left a staggering $5 million to establish a fund dedicated to advancing musical education in the United States. This massive endowment was eventually merged with the Institute of Musical Art in 1924, officially forming The Juilliard School.

The school is strictly divided into three main academic divisions: Music, Dance, and Drama. The Music division is the oldest and largest, offering degrees in everything from classical piano to jazz studies. The Drama division, founded in 1968 by John Houseman, is famous for training elite stage and screen actors like Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver.