"People at Julliard for the most part are interested in being good at what they do, but they've spent so much of their lives refining and honing that one thing that they don't even know why they do it anymore," she says. "You know that the actual person isn't involved in what they're doing at all."

At Harvard, Savage and Darling say they have more of an opportunity to exchange ideas with their fellow students and create a real musical community.

"I'm very happy with the composition training I have had here. I really know my professors," Salvage says. "We have a student lounge, a student face book, student teas....Good relationships tend to happen. There's a high degree of departmental bonding."

Kelly says that though students likely feel the time crunch, the department does everything it can to foster their growth.

"We have made some adjustments in our concentration to allow students more flexibility than they used to have," Kelly says. "But most people who are music concentrators are in it because they love music."

Music Professor Robert Levin says that the department has no plans to establish a performance major, simply because of the logistical difficulties involved.

"It is our view that everything that we offer here gives an extraordinary education to performers who do and don't concentrate in music," Levin says.

The creation of a performance major, he says, would require quadrupling the music department faculty and tripling of the size of the music department.