when i was in music school it was pretty clear that a lot of the composition majors shouldn't have been there. they couldn't do melodic dictation, they sucked in ensembles, and they were pretentious and arrogant. while jazz studies and classical performance majors were working our asses off to develop musicianship, they were fucking around on pianos in our practice rooms "exploring their voices". classical music will survive as a discipline, but modern composition in academia is just a pyramid scheme that separate the suckers from their money since they all think they're going to become famous film composers or at least fall back on a tenured professor position.
United States