Our survey participants (for the most part) have either earned or are in the process of earning an advanced degree in vocal performance and/or pedagogy. They range in age from teens to sexagenarians and in status from students to late-career professionals. Virtually all of them have accrued student loan debt, anywhere from a few thousand to many tens of thousands of dollars, and some have yet to begin paying the principal on these debts.
Though no one likes the idea of getting into a financial hole before setting out to earn a living, it is the only way for the majority of students to afford rising tuition and housing costs as the availability of grants and scholarships diminishes. And even those who receive “free” money for their education often need student loans to cover living expenses and allow them to avoid financial distractions while earning their degrees.
Survey results revealed a split in perspectives on the issue, with some seeing student loan debt as an investment in the future, a necessary evil, and others as a poor financial strategy for singers. Says one survey participant: “If one considers student loans and other school-related debt as professional development costs, it is easy to conclude that the investment now is worth the payoff later on. Of course, this payoff does depend upon the other factors of talent, luck, hard work, sacrifice, and commitment. However, if one is truly serious about becoming a full or part-time professional performer, these traits are already a part of the equation, and the assumption of student debt becomes a necessary expenditure”
Others in the survey took a less sanguine view. One male participant graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. When all was said and done, he had spent more than $100,000 on his education, about half of that paid for by student loans. “While my education shaped me into the artist I am today,” he says, “I am finding myself almost totally paralyzed by student debt. My student loan payments total over $1,000/month, and that’s AFTER a payment-reducing consolidation. As an emerging professional (28), I am spending more time working to pay my student loans and merely survive than I am able to spend studying, coaching, auditioning and otherwise pursuing my singing career….Looking back on my experience, I regret choosing to go into such considerable debt for a master’s in voice”
While 85 percent of our participants worked while going to school, 49 percent owed $20,000 or more in student debt at the time of the survey. (Nineteen singers owed between $75,000 and $100,000!) And though 80 percent had achieved a degree, this did not guarantee them a singing career. Forty percent of those surveyed felt that college debt was interfering with their ability to pursue professional singing opportunities. Twenty-eight percent said it was not.
Surprisingly, many of those who struggle with college debt still feel that their education was a good investment. Slightly more than a third of those surveyed held this view, with the remaining participants divided between uncertainty and thinking it was a poor investment.
Since in many cases debt is inevitable, one survey participant, Joshua Copeland, who serves as artistic director at Antioch Chamber Ensemble in New York City, advises: “Once you are in debt, manage it well. If you cannot pay it back right away, make sure that you contact your lender to find out about your eligibility for deferment or forbearance. Also, if you are in forbearance, you can still pay towards your principal, thus reducing the interest you pay overall”
You will find more advice and commentary from surveyed singers below.
Anonymous Survey Participants:
What They Say About College Debt
Debt can turn into a huge weight upon your shoulders if you are not careful. Realize that when you take on a loan, you are going to be in charge of repaying that loan again someday. I don’t think I understood completely just how much money I owed until I finished my bachelor’s degree and began paying back my loan. This past year when I started graduate school, I put my loans on deferment and had to take out more loans for living expenses. Even though I hate being in debt, I would rather take out a loan and have the opportunity to solely focus on school than to work my way through school and be distracted. If you are able to work a little bit, even 5-10 hours a week, it can be helpful to have some cash for smaller living expenses…Thinking of loans as an investment rather than a burden can be helpful. I think it is more important to have a good education and be paying it off for a while than it is to have a new house or a new car. Hopefully my education will begin paying me back financially someday! Even if I never earn a lot of money, my education has enriched my life in a way that I could not have been enriched otherwise.
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt $20,000 to $30,000
Remember that you are going to be paying this money back for years to come. Find programs with scholarships, assistantships and work-study arrangements. Don’t let anyone pressure you into borrowing too much. They aren’t going to be the ones paying it back. You are.
Male
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $1,000 to $5,000
Try to work as much as possible in or outside your field while going to school to keep your borrowing as low as possible. I wish that I had taken longer to get my master’s degree and taken advantage of some performing opportunities that came my way, but that conflicted with course work.
Female
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt: $30,000 to $40,000
Don’t sing! It’s too expensive.
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt: $0
Do not get too much in debt.
Male
Student
Total cost of education (to date): $5,000 to $10,000
Total debt: $1,000 to $5,000
Find a patron or marry a wealthy person.
Female
Performance Certificate
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $10,000 to $20,000
I just don’t get it. It’s incredibly hard to pay off, and the return wasn’t that great. Go to a state school and don’t waste your money on “brand names”
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $30,000 to $40,000
Total debt: $20,000 to $30,000
Pay it off as soon as you can. Debt is the inevitable evil in America…be on time with your payments and keep plugging away at the balance.
Female
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt: $5,000 to $10,000
I am a young singer (23) about to take on at least $50,000-$75,000 in loans. I received a small scholarship of $3,000, but school is at least $30,000 a year…I am extremely worried about the loans I will have to pay off (probably until I am at least 40), but I feel that it is an investment I must make. I am uncertain of my future or the reality of my potential for a career, but I feel that I must try or I will be terribly unhappy later in my lifetime. I am extremely fortunate because my mother paid off my student loans from my undergraduate experience, so at least I have a clean slate now!
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $50,000 to $75,000
My advice is do not go to an expensive, well known school for voice if it will put you into debt. My parents did not tell me until my junior year of college that I was going to be paying for my college loans—I had just signed whatever papers they gave me and assumed they would be paying for it. When I realized HOW far in debt I was going to be, I developed anxiety problems and acid reflux as a result, which caused me to develop swollen vocal folds when I attempted graduate school. I dropped out of grad school (at Northwestern) due to too many loans and the vocal problems that resulted from the stress of finances on my health. Now I am working as an administrative assistant and performing with opera companies (very small ones) in the evenings, because I have to have enough money to pay my loans off. If you get yourself in debt with school, once you get out you have to maintain a full-time steady job just to repay your debt. Doing so prevents you from being able to have the flexibility needed to make singing your profession.
Male
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt: $30,000 to $40,000
Don’t accumulate any [debt]. It is not a guaranteed job like a doctor, although we study even years after we leave school. After school, I worked for years trying to support myself as a waitress or bartender and sang on the side.
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $50,000 to $75,000
Total debt: $0
Make sure you have another source of income. I was an accomplished executive secretary (I BEGAN college at age 29). I was able to support myself but could not take advantage of special events such as the summer trip to Spoleto, Italy with the Westminster Choir. I made extra money singing and taught in the public schools (my major). I’m a corporate librarian now, earning a good living and active (past president-3 years) with my community chorus.
Male
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $30,000 to $40,000
Total debt: $10,000 to $20,000
Think of your student debt like a mortgage without the equity-you’ll have it for a LONG, LONG time.
Female
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $50,000 to $75,000
Total debt: $20,000 to $30,000
There are some state schools that have great music programs. Don’t go to a college for the name (which includes a hefty price tag). Go for the teacher. And at a smaller school you may get more individual attention.
Female
Performance Certificate
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $50,000 to $75,000
Don’t get into more than a few thousand dollars debt. It could really inhibit you from making those first crucial steps in a career. You will not be making a lot of money for a while, if ever. Going into a great amount of student loan debt only makes sense if your major insures a well paying job … Try to go to a smaller school or a state school where there is low tuition or a large scholarship offered. Or, major in something other than voice, maybe related, such as another language, business, etc., and then minor in music or vocal performance. The voice doesn’t develop significantly when you are young, anyway, so you might as well use this time to develop a career in which you CAN earn money while you are pursuing music.
Female
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $40,000 to $50,000
Total debt: $5,000 to $10,000
Really budget. This is a difficult thing, especially when student loans can look like a blank check to those of us who have been on a zero budget for so long. But not paying attention/not being careful about where those dollars go will come back to bite you. Also, far worse than student loan debt is credit card debt. Citibank starts everyone out (from what I’ve heard) with a credit card practically on their 18tßh birthday. I have been digging myself out from under a pile of $30,000 credit card debt and hope to be free of it by the time I’m 30 but, believe me, it is NOT WORTH IT. Stay at home, eat Ramen, and live within your means, because it may SAVE YOU FROM A DESK JOB LATER!
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $20,000 to $30,000
If you MUST sing, then you MUST pay. Once you’ve decided upon this career, don’t cut corners. It’s hard enough to get a career going. Allow yourself every possible advantage and if it means you spend years repaying debt … so be it.
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $50,000 to $75,000
Total debt: $5,000 to $10,000
Pay it off however you can. You’d be surprised by the things you can do without. Under no circumstances should you default on your loans. It will come back to haunt you later on.
Female
Bachelor’s degree
Total cost of education: $75,000 to $100,000
Total debt: $5,000 to $10,000
The amount of debt I took on for three years of grad school would pay for 20 years of weekly study with a top teacher. Looking back on my experience, I regret choosing to go into such considerable debt for a master’s in voice. It’s the total “singer package” that’s important, not the piece of paper. My advice, find a cheaper way to get the same package together!
Male
Master’s degree
Total cost of education: $100,000+
Total debt: $75,000 to $100,000
