It isn’t every year that artists are given license to work on an independent project of their choosing under the aegis of an institution. Well, actually, it is at Juilliard—thanks to a few progressive minds on the administrative second floor. A new program gives undergraduates the opportunity to spend their senior year engaged in such an undertaking, allowing those students who successfully complete their project to graduate with Scholastic Distinction.

I underwent the process in its inaugural year, graduating with the Class of 2000 alongside two other seniors who had survived the 15 months of meetings, proposals, counterproposals, and other necessary growing pains, while managing to keep their dedication to the project in the foreground. In its first year, this process was somewhat bumpy as students and faculty alike participated in fleshing out the Scholastic Distinction Program’s ambitions and opened the lines of communication.

The idea is actually quite simple. Interested juniors contact Bärli Nugent at extension 592 for further information, and submit a proposal for consideration. The Scholastic Distinction Committee—headed by the dean and comprised of choice faculty and administration—reviews the applicants and their proposals. Applicants are encouraged to find a Juilliard faculty member to serve as an advisor to their project (and a liaison to the committee on the project’s behalf, should the need arise). The committee meets with candidates and selects a handful of students they feel are up to the challenge.

Throughout their senior year, participants meet with their advisors and present their progress to the committee regularly, completing the project in the spring of the senior year. Two bits of advice: do not procrastinate, and leave plenty of time for revisions. Committees are good at having opinions, and their suggestions for revisions need to be taken into account (alongside those of your advisor). Also (and here comes the confession in the guise of an instruction), if you play the game, be sure to follow the rules. If your project has a written portion (and most do), be sure to familiarize yourself early on with how it should be formatted. This should allow you to spend your final revision time tightening your thoughts—not changing from parenthetical documentation to footnotes.

As for choosing a subject, proposals will surely reflect the diverse interests of our student body. My particular project focused on the relation of text and music as a progression in American musical theater in the late 20th century. Other projects have explored body kinesthetics and education, captured the elusive nature of serialism, and delved into Schubert. The possibilities are endless… and I know that this year’s batch of juniors have plenty of exciting ideas that might push the envelope.

It is a recurring theme that the best Juilliard students often start to feel the constraints of the conservatory environment by their senior year. The Scholastic Distinction program gives a healthy outlet to such students, while providing them the best guidance Juilliard has to offer.

Recognizing that students feel overloaded, the program also gives seniors a little room for air by allotting academic credit. The Scholastic Distinction Project is undertaken in lieu of a required academic class in the senior year. Depending on the nature of the proposal, the committee rewards credits for the senior music history or humanities electives, or some combination thereof.

With the program now in place, there is only one more vital ingredient needed to make next year’s program a success: your imagination. So, take advantage of this opportunity to make next year one of artistic—and scholastic—distinction.

Lance Horne is a master’s student in composition.