<p>Thanks fiddlefrog!</p>
<p>Just to add one more piece to the discussion…college tuition and money. Merit and financial scholarships are available, however, brassbarimom, you should note that Rice is rated 4th as the best value in college education behind Princeton (I think I should renegotiate my son’s aid!), Yale and CalTech</p>
<p>[Kiplinger.com](<a href=“Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts”>Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts)=ALL&id=8299%20&sortby=rank&sortorder=ASC</a></p>
<p>It was announced on Friday that Susanne Mentzer is leaving at the end of the year. That leaves only one confirmed studio, Stephen King. They seem close to the decision on replacing the retiring Kathy Kaun, but no official announcement has been made yet. It bears watching since there appears to be a strong shift to the graduate program. Both Kathy Susanne worked with more undergraduate students. Stephen has never had many in his studio.</p>
<p>Singersmom07- did they say what she is going to do?/where she is going?</p>
<p>Singersmom07 - Are you sure this isn’t just a rumor? I am applying there this year for undergrad and received no email from the school and when I looked on their website and googled it I couldn’t find anything. One of my friends who is at Rice in Kathleen’s studio said that she was unaware of it too… </p>
<p>It is also funny you say that about the program moving towards grads because when we visited and met with Bob Yekovich and Geoffrey Scott they both said the program was moving to build up the undergrad program.</p>
<p>It was announced in studio by the administration on Friday. It is official. No announcement as to what she will be doing.</p>
<p>nyboundsoprano- you will get very used to realizing that school administrations tell you precisely what they think you want to hear, as unfortunate as that may be. Many schools have made the shift to graduate/post graduate based programs but the younger students are not informed of this either prior to application or while they are there. There isn’t much you can do about it other than to make your own performance opps (and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because young voices shouldn’t be performing in fully staged operas with orchestras) or transfer.
Sopranos are the “life blood” of VP programs everywhere, there are many more of them than there are spots available. Several well-known schools are/will be conducting searches for new faculty members and it usually isn’t made public until the departing teacher has a chance to inform her/his students in studio.</p>
<p>I would disagree with you there MezzoMama -</p>
<p>That may sometimes be the case with admissions departments; however I know for a fact that Rice is trying to pump more life and money into the voice program than any other instrument. The undergraduate voice program is actually slightly LARGER than the graduate program at present so I would be surprised if there were any shift towards the graduate program. Admissions has no intention of changing the ratio of grad-to-undergrad. (I just got off a very long phone call with a friend in admissions at Shepherd who gave me the low-down).</p>
<p>They are very close to choosing Kathleen’s replacement, which should be announced any day now. The names that have been visiting for master-classes recently, as the school decides who they want to fill the spot, are very impressive. </p>
<p>Let’s not jump to any personal conclusions about a program now 
Shouldn’t be long before the announcement is made.</p>
<p>Agreed violoncello -</p>
<p>Teachers leave schools all the time. Does this mean the school is totally reframing their goals for the program? No. Does the fact that Kantor and Weckstrom left CIM mean that CIM has plans to greatly shift who they cater to. I doubt it.</p>
<p>The masterclasses with the potential replacements are already well underway and there are some phenomenal teachers and some big names as that (many of them known for teaching primarily undergrad).</p>