snozzberryjunkie

Hi all! I'm new to the forum, and as I've been reading, I have a question: What exactly is the role of the Person Of Interest (POI)? My field is Arts/Humanities (Musicology), & I get the feeling that there is a big difference in the role of a POI in my field versus others. Or, perhaps I'm terribly ignorant of a vital facet of the application/decision making process for grad. schools. Can anyone speak to the role of a/some POI(s) in Musicology &/or related fields? From the threads I've been reading, it appears that in many programs (mostly science/math) it's basically require that you to designate a POI, or someone you'd want to work with specifically. In fact, it seems that often times this is the go-to person for communications from the schools. However, the biggest area that I was unaware of was that the POI seems to play a very important role in whether or not you're accepted or rejected! Now, in retrospect, this makes sense to me for the science fields where you would be doing very specifc lab work with someone in their lab. Similarly, I know for my Music Performance colleagues, it's even more important. However, I wasn't/am not aware of it being such a big part of the process, if it as equally important in Musicology. Obviously, you look at who is where and doing what when you consider schools, but since Musicology professors don't really have studios or labs, I didn't think that taking on a graduate advisee was such a big deal in our field. Furthermore, in my experience with the graduate students during my undergraduate career, they really didn't have a singular advisor. Their committee was really the guiding force in their education. So basically, since I've been rambling on, what's the role and/or importance of a POI in the application/decision making process in the Arts (Musicology)?