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congrats to Berkeley admits!

This was from Yale University webpage. It was awhile ago that I had saved to my computer. Doesn't say musicology specifically. Yale PhD in music includes Ethno, Theory and Musicology.... am I correct? Comp at Yale is DMA through School of Music.

Simone Varadian, Assistant Director of Admission said to me the other day: Thank you for your email. We have waived your TOEFL requirement. Your application is now under review, and an admission decision will become available mid-March. Applying for M.A. with K-12 licence. Doubt I'll attend TC, due to the cost. Seems that it's not too hard to get into TC for my major. TC was my back up school---if I don't get into other schools I can at least pay a lot of money for the brand name. I just got my first acceptance letter from Indiana University, they said I will "most likely" get a TA position.. K-12 licence program with TA position is something almost unheard of.. If I get a TA position at Indiana, I have no reason to pay 40k/year to go to TC..

Yeah of course, me neither.. but it is important nevertheless.

I know that TA position comes with 96.5% tuition remission, but 3.5% is still over $1000/year that I'd have to pay out of my pocket. I'm just wondering what the monthly salary is like.. Meh. But yeah I'd think that it's not amazing. Outside of Ivy leagues+Berkeley+Stanford, I think it's rare to see more than 10k/year in salary after paying off fees and tuition

I applied to U of T and McGill.... I'm Canadian.. Canadian universities tend to announce admission decisions really late..... I think. even into April, in some cases. I'm still waiting for McGill to process the initial step so I can upload my personal statement and resume, etc.

Just came back from interview at IU... They said in most cases those who are accepted would be offered AI (TA,GA) position. The same person also said "there's no reason why you would not be accepted".... so waiting for a happy news from IU. Anyone know the financial package at IU? What the monthly salary is like?

Anyone have problem with McGill application? For past 3 weeks I've been logging into McGill's online application system (Minerva) to see if I can upload SoP I've uploaded all the transcripts but there's no option of uploading SoP.. the department says upload it on Minerva. Anyone else waiting for them to open the option of uploading SoP? I've also read that supporting materials are due in April.... Maybe that's why they are taking so long. If supporting materials are due in April, does that mean results come out in May? By May, don't we all have to make decision for other schools? Anyone applying to McGill?

Thanks for the replies.. the problem is not because I had to look up so many words. Time is not issue in this exam--I would be able to look up every single word and still have time left. I have no problem reading an everyday news article in German, though I have to look up a few words. I think that I'm not used to music vocabularies. It's easy to say "practice" it, but these were words that I don't even know after looking up in the dictionary. Anyhow, I got more practice done on JSTOR, I like their German and French article search. Some articles have both English+Ger/Fre to check my translation is correct. After spending quite some time on JSTOR, I'm pretty sure that my French reading comprehension is much, much better than German, even though my German is better in speaking. I grew up taking French in K-12, as I'm Canadian, but that was a long time ago, and I thought I forgot everything. I assumed that my German was better than my French.. Maybe I was wrong. Opting for French exam next... Feeling good about it.

You can try Canadian Universities as well.. Many Canadian universities have 3 year bachelors degree anyway, although many take 4 years to complete Bachelors with honours. For whatever reason, maybe you have to go to US, but wouldn't hurt to look into Canadian universities!

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

Thanks for the replies. I just had a phone call with my good friend who did TFA program. I think the problem was that I didn't really recognize as to what extent diversity plays. If diversity is an essential part of the program, I have no problem with it. This part, I'm not worried, I'm quite open-minded (I think I am), so if they tell me to go read about diversity and they would teach me, it would be ok. I think I just didn't know where to start without any previous readings and discussions on this topic--this was why I was frustrated. Diversity is also in the books that I choose, as well as the activities in the class. Until now, I was given a textbook, and a syllabus that I had to stick with (at university), it would be wrong for me to go off topic in my current teaching position. But in public schools, of course I will have a lot more freedom. I now think that the universities are looking for teaches who would choose books and novels that show a lot of different cultures, and do activities that promote and celebrate cultures. In this way, I agree that diversity is important. If I were to assign books to students, the students should be exposed to characters from many different backgrounds and cultures. Before I realized this, I kept thinking I have to physically say stuff about diversity in classroom. Rather, it's more of "do" than "say". Now that I'm more enlightened, I can finish this application and let the waiting game begin. TL;DR, I was just lost where to go in diversity, now I have better idea, got things to write about, and I'm not really scared even diversity is a big part of the program. Because I was frustrated when I was lost, but in the program I can probably have a discussions and get directions from the faculty members too.

Technically, yes, if I take one more year of German. but that is out of question right now, because that would take maybe 10k in tuition, not funded by anything. I'd rather not graduate than pay 10k at the moment. I'm currently applying for another Master's degree program in education (no language req. there), so even if I don't graduate from the current degree program, I'll go onto my next degree program and after that I'll have a BA+MA+Teaching licence.

Yup... I had sentences with like 5~6 commas, 50 words in total. I'll try French next. This is plain evil.. my thesis is actually on Italy, but they only accept French and German exams. Not that I know any Italian. My adviser says that I have one of the most creative thesis projects ever in my department, but if I don't graduate because of this language exam, that would be very, very sad. But I'm not too worried at the moment yet.. I think I'll pass with 4 more tries.

Thanks for the reply. Well, it was almost $300 just to apply to that school, $240 application fee and a few bucks to send my transcripts and test scores, so not applying is out of question. The process was that I had to pay the application fee, then they send me the essay Q's, so I had no idea before paying. Some Canadian schools are so expensive to apply to, both U of Toronto and U of Ottawa were over $200, each. I'll make some stuff up.. But I don't see how diversity is really important. I mean, of course any aspect in education is important. But if I had to rank them, diversity is to the low side for me. If I keep mentioning race and poverty stuff, students may think that I'm doing things differently because of their backgrounds, no? I'd be quite scared of my students accusing me of discrimination. I don't understand how one can be constantly doing stuff about diversity without sabotaging the class time and have the students go "why are you talking about this?" I see no reason to do anything about diversity, unless I see a conflict caused by it. I do think that it's very good to have a diverse classroom with many cultures represented, but I don't get to control who's in my classroom--that's beyond my control.

Been applying to schools lately... Although most of these were due Dec. 1, Some schools I'm applying to have flexible or later deadlines. OK. This one application that has been troubling me is due Dec 18. Only 3 days left. The application asks for the following: There is a broad range of diversity in our classrooms today. Describe your experiences in working with diverse populations. What would be your approach to creating an inclusive classroom? In your description, include three attitudes you would demonstrate as well as three particular strategies you would use to create the appropriate classroom climate. It's asking for 3 attitudes and 3 strategies for appropriate classroom climate? I have experiences teaching at university as well as working with younger kids at camps and the Salvation Army but I'm not constantly thinking about diversity and racism. I don't think anybody is. I would only mention if I see it being a problem. Other schools didn't ask for such specific details on diversity so I somehow did it, but 3 attitudes and 3 strategies? Not to mention the word limit (400) answering both 1. and 2. Diversity is such a hard topic to talk about, especially nowadays with all the Ferguson stuff.. And I don't think it's usually a serious problem in classrooms, at least in my classroms. How do you all approach the diversity question? 3 Attitudes and 3 Strategies... that's too much.. way too much to answer in 300 words too. This is for K-12 teaching certification. Any suggestions? Would an "international day" be a good idea, where students present about their family background? I have a pretty solid application, GPA and experiences, just the diversity Q's bother me so much. Anybody on the same boat?

Hi all..... one stressed out grad student here I'm finishing up my master's degree at Temple University. I need to pass a translation exam in either German or French in order to graduate. I took 1 year of German, which first semester was in Austria. I was pretty confident that I would pass the language translation exam in German, but now I highly doubt it. I took it couple days ago, and it was so hard. They allowed me to use the dictionary, so I did have time to look up every word I don't know, and it still didn't make sense. Some of it, was so "Germanic" that even though I knew what it meant, it was so weird to translate to English. I looked up all the words in the dictionary and I still think I failed. That's quite messed up. Now I know the format and the difficulty, I'll have a better chance at it next time, though. Anybody have experience in BOTH German and French? Although I'm a better German speaker than French, I think academic, written German is so confusing, that maybe it's better for me to take this in French. Is academic writing in French easier than German? I get one more semester to try.. I get 2 more tries in German and 2 more tries in French.. I need to pass either French or German. Out of 4 more tries, hopefully I will pass one.

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.

Being a Canadian, I applied to University of Toronto and McGill University.. They have good reputations but maybe not as competitive to get in compared to high-end American universities. I think they can be good back-up schools for some people. (actually university of toronto might have <10% acceptance rate) Other U.S. schools that I applied to: Columbia, Indiana, SIT graduate institute Good combination of high-end schools and back up schools, in my opinion. GL to everyone..

Lots of PhD and EdD applicants huh.. I applied for MA-TESOL but I think it's going to be too expensive. I assume that you doctoral applicants already finished a masters in relative fields? Masters in education is quite expensive, no?

Of course, Verbal is everything. And yeah those are some very fluctuating numbers.. Although, if these practice tests were not official tests from ETS, then they are just made up tests by prep companies and they are not very accurate. Usually GRE scores do not affect the application very much (given that you have reasonable scores for the program). Different from school to school but usually there's an unofficial cut-off line for GRE scores, and they automatically reject anything below that cut-off line. Good way for schools to eliminate some applicants when they have a lot of applications. That's a lot of essay pages they don't have to read. So, V score of 160 and 162 don't make a whole lot of difference, because they are both good scores and they probably are higher than cut-off line for most programs in the country. But your score, 165 in V, may even be considered for bonus points to the application. 95 percentile!!! If you have stats credits, that can be helpful. I'm sure you will get into some good PhD programs. It's very hard to get 165 in V. People with V score of 163 and up that I've met were all super-intellectuals. Just know that some schools may have cut-off line in Q and 150 may not be ok. But I'm sure that most schools won't have cut-off line in Q, because yeah, in Ed, V is everything. Also, if they have a similar applicant as you and he has a higher score in Q, they will probably pick him instead of you. If you're applying to a bunch of schools, be ready to get a few rejection letters but I think you'll get into some good schools. I suggested retaking because it would be such a pity to receive automatic rejections with 165 in V. But I doubt you'll get rejections across the board just because of Q score. Maybe you'll get into all the programs--because after all, V is where it is at, and 165 is probably so attractive to schools. Good luck!

It may still be ok because of very strong verbal, but yeah, quant is just too low, in my opinion. It might make them think that you do very well in what you like but you don't do so well in some other areas. Being all-round scholar is important at PhD level: not necessary that you are a strong mathematician but you don't want to make them think that you're picky when it comes to academics. If I were you, I would take it again. With this score, you can't even make into some MAT programs (Duke U comes to mind, I think they require 70 percentile in both V and Q even if you want to teach English or History). Too lazy to look it up, but I think HGSE's average Q score was 155? Although that's for both MEd and PhD, I think you'll be fine if you can get 155. Some even say that schools all know GRE is stupid. Schools all know that there are methods to study, it can be prepared and good scores simply do not guarantee good performance at grad school. But schools still care, to see who is willing to put effort into it. Also, mind that in the field of education, there have been quite a few number of quantitative/survey-based researches. You may need some basic math to understand them

Oh really, didn't know they abolished interviews all together. Yeah it's going to be really tough, but if you're able to get in, you're all set after graduation, in my opinion.

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news.htm?articleID=8150 "The College had offered admission to 56 percent of all applicants. “Admission rates vary greatly from program to program, but overall we were more selective than last year,” Rock said." (2011) http://www.yelp.com/biz/teachers-college-new-york "It seems like a veritable diploma mill".... This is why I consider TC as my safety school. I don't know about usually competitive professional degree programs such as IED or Higher Ed, but I know I will get into Initial Certification program with ease. Mind that the acceptance rate for PhD/Ed.D programs at Columbia are probably at around 10%-20% (or even lower), which means that masters program only acceptance rate is probably over 60%. It's very hard for me to imagine IED having much lower acceptance rate. IED and Higher Ed are probably harder to get in than most other programs but compare to other schools, like Harvard or Penn, it's probably a piece of cake. But I could be wrong though. If you have mediocre GRE scores, it shouldn't hurt your application. Usually, for other admissions, for PhD for example, there is an unofficial 'cut'. As long as you pass that 'cut', GRE doesn't matter. If it's exceptionally good, maybe 10% percentile, it's a bonus. With mediocre GRE scores, it's probably not going to affect your application.

M.A.T, initial certification in music education. With TC's acceptance rate over 50%, it probably isn't too hard for masters applicant to get in. For doctoral degrees it's still hard so I assume that they accept almost everyone at masters level. Indiana University (my undergrad) and University of Toronto are my top priorities. I know a friend who was FULLY FUNDED at Indiana for initial certification in music education. That's pretty unheard of at other schools, but the admission is hard. I'm expecting under 10% acceptance rate for university of Toronto program..