Colleges aren't even playing fair anymore!

[Magpie]

student rant: if you're six foot five could you not sit in the VERY FIRST ROW

Some people that height have bad eyesight and with learning disabilities you need all the help you can get. (My husband can't sit anywhere else, because he can't concentrate when people around him are talking).

As a music major my books were over $600 the first semester (and that included several used books!).

Music: where your books cost more, and your projected future earnings are less than everyone else.

[AdminAssistant]

Music: where your books cost more, and your projected future earnings are less than everyone else.

Except theatre. Oh man, undergrad, in addition to books it was $40 makeup kits, $80 tap shoes, $40 jazz sneakers, $70 character shoes, etc etc etc. Now it's just "Pay $100 for this brand new 250 page monograph!" Screw you, Palgrave and Routledge.

[Magpie]

"Pay $100 for this brand new 250 page monograph!"

My SIL had course notes for one of her courses run her $300. And aren't projected earnings in theatre slightly higher because you can normally work the technical side? Or is that offset by the fact that musicians all teach. (They won't actually let you stay in the program if you don't take a ped. course.)

[AdminAssistant]

And aren't projected earnings in theatre slightly higher because you can normally work the technical side? Or is that offset by the fact that musicians all teach. (They won't actually let you stay in the program if you don't take a ped. course.)

As the old saying goes, it all depends. I don't know much about the business side of music, to be honest. All I know is that their program is much better funded than ours. Also, generally speaking, opera companies tend to be better attended/funded than theatre companies. If anything, the market is wider for musicians than theatre folks. A town of 100,000 will only have the market for 3 or 4 private acting coaches,but there will be a much, much larger market for music or voice instructors, if the person is willing to teach high school band students. It's not a glamorous way to make a living, but it's a living.

Not all theatre people can or want to work technical theatre. Many people with theatre degrees also teach (and a pedagogy class makes perfect sense for a music program - depends on the program and specific degree, of course). Theatre professors are generally paid less than music professors. In fact, music profs are generally the best paid in the fine arts, outside of visual art history. (YMMV, depending on the institution.)

I will fully admit that I'm probably a bit biased. In the world of higher education, music is theatre's evil nemesis. Especially since the two are generally crammed into the same building. Music takes up the vast majority of our building, and they fight and whine and complain like mad anytime we try to get an office for a faculty member that infringes on their 'territory'.

[taxguykarl]

Whever you acquired your textbooks, save the receipts--just in case Congress extends the American opportunity credit.

[Becks]

get off my (artificial) lawn!!!!!!!!

That made me giggle.

[kokopuff3]

I usually buy my textbooks off of amazon.ca. Just last semester, I paid a total of $56 dollars, for a book the bookstore was selling for $140...