My daughter had a great audition at CIM several weeks ago and has had a couple of great lessons with the head of the voice department. We are pretty sure she will get a great offer from them, and while it isn’t at the top of her list, it’s a pretty strong contender if the financials end up in its favor.
BUT…
I’ve heard some concerning things about CIM’s general financial situation, and it makes me nervous. Googling gets me mixed results. I know there are rating systems for college financial health, but the few lists I’ve seen have not had CIM on them (they do usually have Case Western, which seems to be ok, but I don’t know how closely the finances are tied between the two schools).
I don’t want to send my daughter to a school that ends up cutting programs or even closing after a year or two. And with the general financial climate surrounding all universities right now, it’s especially scary to think about sending her to a school that was already struggling. Does anyone have any advice on how to find out more about the real financial situation there?
I actually have the same concerns and I can’t find any clear info on this. I’ve heard they are currently in a lawsuit or something? The main article I found about this was from Sept. 2023, so it’s been awhile since then.
We had a great experience at the CIM audition and my kid really likes the professor, but I too am worried about the fact that, overall, the amount of applicants in our instrument was very low considering there aren’t even that many “top” schools out there for it. I don’t know if they can give huge scholarships given their finances anyhow.
We’ve heard terms like “dumpster fire” from our son’s private teachers (low brass). Lots of faculty leaving, apparently not a good situation between a lot of the faculty and the administration.
Yes, I’ve looked all over the place for information. Most of what comes up is related to a SA charge against a violin professor several years ago that was handled badly by the school, though eventually the professor was fired and I believe convicted. And while that is terrible to hear, it’s sadly not that unusual for a school to have that type of scandal (I think music and theater are especially rife with that sort of thing because there is a lot of 1-on-1 time in private lessons, favoritism in casting, etc, based on relationships, etc), and I don’t think it necessarily defines a whole program.
But the financial thing is worrying. When we were there last month, I got a good vibe from the vocal faculty, and they seemed like a very supportive, cohesive unit. But if there is a big problem with the administration or the overall finances, I would be very reluctant to send my child there.
That is definitely sad to hear. We really liked the teacher and thought the voice faculty in general seemed very good. But a “dumpster fire” is definitely not what I want for my kid!
What I have heard is that it is less about the financial situation, and more about the current leadership and board. Faculty has said CIM is being run like a corporation with no input from staff. Faculty that spoke out got fired. This has led to a steady stream of faculty departing over the past few years.
I would definitely be concerned about attending there. They have some great teachers and amazing partnerships, but when the faculty is unhappy, that leads to a lot of instability and I know a lot of students simply are putting it lower on their lists as a result.
Since it seems CIM applicants are on this thread, did anyone get a result yet or know what day results are coming out? I see there is an admitted student day next week on the 26, so I would assume they would have to release decisions soon so people could potentially have time to make plans to attend that.
Off topic for this thread, but I don’t find Grok to be very accurate either. For example it thinks Johns Hopkins is a match school for my D26 and that she is likely to get a $30k merit scholarship… and UCSB is a “safety” school… and told me that if she wants a better chance at getting in to UC Berkeley she should try to get her SAT up to 1500.
CIM has been through rough waters. The Preucil case with sexually inappropriate behavior hurt them, there was a big legal case, it was settled, but Preucil was still teaching there (for free, to help pay off the debt)…and was accused again of inappropriate behavior and was finally fired. That was a while ago and I don’t think it has to do anything with CIM’s financal situation today.
What it looks like today is there is a battle between the faculty over the administration, that they claim doesn’t consult them and according to the faculty is making decisions not based on the teaching of music but trying to run the place as if it is a businesss. One of the claims is that CIM is using a lot of short term contract employees and adjuncts to teach and that faculty is leaving because pay has been crimped , they also say the leadership team has no experience with running an academic/music institute.
It sounds like it is pretty turbulent. There is also a title IX complaint against the head conductor there, and he has a counter suit against the school.
Reading between the lines it does sound like the school has some big financial issues to deal with, and there was quoted in the faculty allegations that the leadership of the school has basically said that there will be little to no aid of any kind (and note folks, I am not an insider, this was just reading articles).
CIM is a good school, but to be honest if my kid was thinking of going there I would be concerned. Obviously public tug of wars between faculty and administration are not uncommon, but this sounds like there is real turbulence there from what I read. I don’t think CIM is going under , but there are some real questions there, and if the claim about aid is true, then going there and paying full freight makes zero sense to me.
Hopefully it will be straightened out. Finance types running an art school has been tried before and usually it doesn’t work well.
That’s really frustrating…they are the only school well connected with Cleveland Orchestra for our instrument. The thing you said about “no aid,” isn’t that going to end up in “no students”? Like really, the only way they can recoup some of their enrollment lag is to offer better deals than similar schools or else there
when you have a mess like this, with faculty vs administration, what is the old expression, that in the fog of war the first victim is the truth? I think the truth lies in the middle of the fog between the sides. If the administration is truly saying no aid, it could lend credence to what the faculty is saying, that the administration are financial types that don’t understand the dynamics of music schools (among other things, CIM is a great school, but if the admin thinks it is the type of place where great music students will cough up 80k a year to go there, take out huge loans, it isn’t at the level of Juilliard where students will do just that IMO).
This fight becoming public certainly won’t help their reputation or get kids to apply there. I don’t think CIM is going away, but I would be careful to look at for example faculty in the department you want to study in, if all the faculty is new or they appear to be fill ins, I would be concerned.
Obviously this is all just my opinion, I don’t have any inside info, this was just from reading pieces about the school.
we got a CIM acceptance but portal still says financial awards “coming in following days” - does anyone know when or how long it took last year to get financial info?