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Applying for Fall 2015


CP3

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Hello Everyone,

 

I figured I go ahead and start the Fall 2015 thread. 

 

Currently studying for the GRE, finishing my list of schools for applications. Now I need to email my rec letter writers, etc.

 

I applied in 2012/13 for Fall 2013, didn't get any acceptances. So I took time off, worked, composed. Now I feel I have a strong application package. Plus, I'm trying to be realistic and apply to programs that are suited better for me. 

 

Looking forward to hearing from my fellow music applicants.

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  • 3 weeks later...

rather quiet here.. I think I give up on PhD application for now. I may try again in maybe 10 years.. I'm still in my early 20s..

Instead, going for second masters in education with certification.. Applying to only 3 universities: Columbia-TC, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia. My first masters, in music theory would be useless now, but oh well. Somebody's gotta teach high school, right? I'm finishing up my masters at Temple University and they would probably be OK with me staying here for PhD but would Temple PhD worth anything? Columbia masters with certificate may be more useful..

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've curious about how people determine the relative strength of programs, or roughly how difficult each would be to get into. I've tried googling around a bit for music grad program rankings but didn't find anything that looks solid, but people here seem to know.

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Yea its a bit difficult to determine which program is good! I tried to talk to my professor. She told me a lot of schools that have relatively strong department for my potential major. It helped a lot!

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Hi everyone,
How important is contacting professors before applying? I have contacted many professors and they all answered me with different levels of encouragement.
Greetings from Latin America!
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Hi everyone,
How important is contacting professors before applying? I have contacted many professors and they all answered me with different levels of encouragement.
Greetings from Latin America!

 

 

It could be a good idea because at least that way they know your name when your application comes up!

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone!

 

I am currently finishing my MA at UConn and in the process of applying for Ph.D programs. After settling to the universities where I was going to apply, I am struggling with doubts about one of them - Stony Brook. They openly say in the online application to my program that they are not accepting applications for most programs in the department because of funding. Then, the submission of the materials has proven very troubling: they do not accept digital files of your transcripts, for example. You have to send the hard copy to them. All of this has made me think if SB is a good option. Does anyone know how things work in the Music department?

 

Thanks.

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Hi everyone!

 

I am currently finishing my MA at UConn and in the process of applying for Ph.D programs. After settling to the universities where I was going to apply, I am struggling with doubts about one of them - Stony Brook. They openly say in the online application to my program that they are not accepting applications for most programs in the department because of funding. Then, the submission of the materials has proven very troubling: they do not accept digital files of your transcripts, for example. You have to send the hard copy to them. All of this has made me think if SB is a good option. Does anyone know how things work in the Music department?

 

Thanks.

 

Hmm... Don't know much about Stony Brook, but the lack of funding sounds worrisome.  If you apply there, you should be prepared for the possibility of not getting funding (hopefully that won't happen though!).  Are you applying to other programs that do guarantee funding?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I am already obsessing over the "silent rejections," or whatever you want to call them, where they just update your status on the website. I check all of my applications daily! It's awful.

 

When I applied for my MM, I think I was too naive to know what a big deal the applications were. It was just a "hey, I should do musicology." Now I'm just thinking "I NEED TO DO THIS" so I'm 10000x more nervous.

 

So yeah, not really getting any work done on my thesis because I'm being neurotic about rejections.

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Anybody got interviews yet? I'm expecting an interview notice from Indiana soon..

 

If you requested for January audition at Indiana, you will probably get an interview notice this week, unless they decided to put you in February audition.

Indiana was my undergrad, now I'm in Philadelphia but I just applied for Indiana's teaching certificate program. I did an interview at Indiana for their music theory program 2 years ago, so any theorist/composer wants to know about the interview/audition, you can ask me. I think Indiana is probably one of the best schools to do terminal master's degree in comp/theory/history, because they offer pretty much full funding for theory and history, and about 50% of comp (people who auditioned for Theory TA OR comp TA and did well). Anybody that doesn't have a terminal master's degree should apply to Indiana--if you're looking at F16 admissions. A fully funded terminal master's is very rare.

 

Unless you're expecting an interview notice, I don't think any admission decisions will be announced until after at least January 1st.. Let's not be nervous until after January 1st. haha. So easy to waste a lot of time in front of the computer..

 

[edit] Congratulations to whoever got into Cambridge. That's gotta be exciting.

Edited by Counterpointer
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Does anyone know which universities interview? Regarding my applications, as far as I know, Michigan and Penn are the only ones that interview. I'm right?
 
Anyway, what should I expect from an interview? 
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Does anyone know which universities interview? Regarding my applications, as far as I know, Michigan and Penn are the only ones that interview. I'm right?
 
Anyway, what should I expect from an interview? 

 

I'm pretty sure that it depends on the department/major.. Some schools may interview composers but not theorists or musicologists, etc. I haven't seen too many ethno people here. 

You're applying for Pitt? If you do a result search here on Grad Cafe, apparently there was an interview for Ethno at Pitt for F14 admission.

There's also result for interview at Berkeley

It's possible that they changed their policy for F15 admissions, or the grad cafe results are lying, but probably expect Pitt and Berkeley interviews as well

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Does anyone know which universities interview? Regarding my applications, as far as I know, Michigan and Penn are the only ones that interview. I'm right?
 
Anyway, what should I expect from an interview? 

 

 

If the past is any indication, Penn will interview. 

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Thank you both Karajan and Counterpointer. I had considered an interview at Penn, but not at Pitt or Berkeley. I imagine that they will ask me why I want to pursue a Ph.D., my academic interests, and so on.

Edited by Lacho
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I had a skype interview for Penn last year. It was pretty fun, they asked much less vapid and more concrete questions than most interviews! Stuff like 'describe a couple of articles you've read recently' and 'if you could have written any article which you've read, which one would it be and why'.

 

From my list of apps, I had skype interviews for Cambridge, Stanford and Penn. I felt like Penn had already made their decision (they gave an extremely strong hint during the interview), Cambridge were extremely thorough (2 hours in total, partly bc I was up for funding though), Stanford seemed kind of like a pointless formality, I didn't get to share anything useful with them which wasn't already on my app. I wasn't sure what the purpose of it was - qs were stuff like 'what worries you most about when starting grad school'. It was also very short - 10 mins max.

 

Tbh, my experience made me wonder whether the interviews are more just to check you're not a fraud, that you really did write your own application materials.

Edited by music
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Does anyone know which universities interview? Regarding my applications, as far as I know, Michigan and Penn are the only ones that interview. I'm right?
 
Anyway, what should I expect from an interview? 

 

 

Berkeley typically does not interview for ethnomusicology, nor I believe for historical musicology for that matter. Good luck to you and everyone else applying this season! 

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Berkeley typically does not interview for ethnomusicology, nor I believe for historical musicology for that matter. Good luck to you and everyone else applying this season! 

 

That's right -- Berkeley doesn't interview.  Another one that does interview is Columbia. 

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