SDA MFA programs to be tuition-free
The two SDA MFA programs will become tuition-free in the 2024-25 academic year.
By SASHA RYU
Students pursuing a Master in Fine Arts degree in acting or dramatic writing at the School of Dramatic Arts will no longer have to pay tuition after the 2024-25 school year begins in August, SDA announced on its website June 12.
All 30 of the students who belong to SDA’s two MFA programs are currently scholarship or grant recipients. Both incoming and continuing MFA students in the programs will no longer have any tuition costs after the change goes into effect.
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“Removing the tuition burden for the MFA acting and writing programs is an important investment in the future of storytelling and the performing arts,” SDA Dean Emily Roxworthy said in the announcement. “So often we see exceptional talent unable to reach their potential because financial barriers keep them from accessing top-tier training … By offering free tuition, we can now give more of these promising students the artistic home they deserve.”
After the change goes into effect this fall, USC will join The Juilliard School and Yale University in offering a tuition-free program for MFA students studying acting and drama. Unlike Juilliard and Yale, however, who made their MFA programs tuition-free thanks to large contributions from a small number of donors, Roxworthy told the Daily Trojan that SDA was able to make its MFA programs tuition-free thanks to “steady support by scholarship donors who have created endowments that have matured in their value over time.”
“It really shows that you can make an impact even with what you think is a modest gift, as long as there’s a crowd of passionate people who all believe in the same thing,” Roxworthy said.
Roxworthy said she expected the change to lead to an increase in the number and diversity of people applying to the programs.
“I think it’s going to change the face of storytelling, both for stage and screen, because financial concerns are really not a barrier anymore to a student deciding to pursue this advanced training in writing or acting,” Roxworthy said.
Being able to offer a broader range of students the opportunity to participate in SDA’s unique MFA program is particularly exciting for Roxworthy.
“One of the things that we really emphasize in the School of Dramatic Arts that’s maybe different from a lot of our peers … is we want our students to feel empowered to be what we call multi-hyphenate artists, which means actors who also write, direct, produce [and] writers who write for both stage and screen,” Roxworthy said. “That’s the kind of students we’ve been producing all along, and this is only going to increase through this news.”
Devin Craig, who received his MFA in acting this past spring, said he wished the program was tuition-free when he enrolled as a graduate student three years ago, but said he thought it was a “blessing” for students to be able to join a program that gives their acting students “opportunities that no other school does.”
Because tuition was 75% free when Craig was a student, it was still “a lot cheaper” for him to pursue his MFA outside his home state of Texas.
Craig became one of the eight students accepted into the highly competitive acting program after completing his bachelor’s degree in 2021. He said one of the reasons he applied in the first place was because his father inspired him to continue his education.
“My dad told me that if I wanted to be the best at what I did, I had to do what the best actors in the world did,” Craig said. “He pointed at Denzel [Washington], Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, and they all had one common denominator — they all went to school in some capacity.”
This year, Craig will appear alongside Reneé Rapp and Pauline Chalamet in the third season of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s hit television series, “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” Craig landed the role while still a student in the MFA program. He said the opportunity came in large part thanks to the doors the program opened to him, as well as the quality of the training he received throughout his time as a student.
“I would not be a quarter of the actor that I am without USC … without all of these amazing teachers,” Craig said.
Outside of teaching him how to grow as an actor, Craig said the most meaningful thing he gained from the program was learning how to “maneuver the industry” and “how to overcome adversity.”
“There’s not a room in this industry that I walk into that I don’t think I’m prepared for, because I got an MFA from USC,” Craig said. “I mean, I was in acting class with Natsuko Ohama. If you can make it through an acting class with Natsuko Ohama, you can make it through anything.”
Eliza Kuperschmid, an MFA student who will begin her third year in the dramatic writing program this fall, also said her MFA program helped her grow significantly as an artist. Kuperschmid said hearing the program going tuition-free was “exciting and really relieving.”
“I’m still going to keep doing my jobs because the side hustles never end, but this definitely takes a lot of pressure off,” Kuperschmid said.
Outside of what the news meant for her personally, Kuperschmid said it was also exciting to know that future students would benefit from the change.
“For me as a playwright and theater artist, I’m really passionate about making theater more accessible,” Kuperschmid said. “This step, not only for me and my classmates now, but for the future, will make getting an education in theater much more accessible.”
Kuperschmid also hopes that making the writing program tuition-free might allow students to take more creative risks with their art by lifting the pressure to create a “profitable” piece of work.
“I hope for new students that [free tuition] will allow them to feel more able to go all-in on their dreams,” Kuperschmid said. “If you’re looking to make a lot of money, [playwriting] is not the field you go into. So, we’re all definitely doing this because we love it, but we might not be as risky with our work because there’s always the chance that we might not be able to support ourselves if we don’t create something that’s sellable.”
Helping students train as artists without shouldering the financial burden of tuition is only becoming more important in light of growing challenges to writers and actors in the entertainment industry, Roxworthy said.
“It’s always been a tenuous career path, and it’s just becoming more and more tenuous, so that’s why [offering free tuition] is so incredibly important,” Roxworthy said.
