San Francisco State University

Date: May 15 2008
Major: Music - Performance (This Major's Salary over time)
I cannot, in good conscience, recommend San Francisco State for its music department. The department is characterized by disorganization, a huge lack of communication, and rudeness.

The office staff claims how important it is to see one's advisor, but in my experience that was a waste of time since nobody seems to know what they are doing. My advisor simply read to me from the bulletin off the Internet and told me to go see someone else. At one point, Lisa Wielunski, the department secretary told me that the information in the bulletin abour recitals did not count. When I questioned further, Lisa became quite defensive and said she had only been working in her current position for a month and did not know. I later contacted a faculty member who told me that the bulletin was correct. How Lisa can think she is in a position to give directives is beyond me.

Dr. George DeGraffenreid, the department head, is known for being unresponsive to the concerns of both students and faculty. One of my professors actually announced this in a classroom setting. I once emailed Dr. DeGraffenreid for help on a crucial issue. His response was flippant, unnecessarily rude, and he pretty much fluffed me off. He has sought to eliminate the opportunity for students to perform junior recitals, robbing them of performance experience. This has set off complaints from professors and students alike. A music school taking away opportunities for students to gain experience…not good.

The orchestra and chamber music program had numerous issues as well. In orchestra, certain students often talked and laughed during rehearsals, showed up unprepared, and the conductor never called them on it. He, in fact, made excuses for their rude behavior. In other ensembles in which I have played, conductors confronted such people on the spot. The coaches in the chamber program, the Alexander String Quartet, often let similar flakey, low-caliber players into the chamber music program while keeping out numerous dedicated, high-level students who would've have loved to learn and perform. It is as if they are encouraging habits that will weed students out once they are in the professional world.

I wound up going to other schools in the Bay Area to get opportunites for ensemble experience and had a much richer experience that I would if I stuck to what SF State had to offer. My main teacher, the reason I looked into the school in the first place, turned out to be horrible. Consequently, I wound up studying privately with someone outside of SF State as well. Many students have expressed a lack of satisfaction with the d

I do not expect that the department will change in any way. When criticism has been offered, professors and staff typically respond with defensiveness, nastiness, and make up excuses. They do not have much concern with improving things for everyone and rarely accept responsibility.

Socially, it is a mixed bag. I've known many incredible individuals there. While there are many great people in the department with whom to be friends, quite a few are whiney, self-centered, and overly talkative. This applies especially to the voice majors, who act as though the entire world owes them a silver platter.

SF State has a beautiful campus on the outside, set in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. It is not a tolerant place for certain groups; one of its nicknames is Hate Jew U due to all of the anti-Semitism. In 2002, Pro-Israel students were attacked in a near riot by pro-Palestinian students yelling anti-Semitic slurs while campus security did nothing.

I'm sad to say that this school, although with its positive aspects, turned out to be a very disappointing experience.