angesa01

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to say good luck. I went through this horrible process of applying and then waiting for decisions last year. After much agonizing, I decided on CUNY for PhD Ethno. For anyone who applied to CUNY, decisions come out really soon. They usually interview prospective students the first or second week of February and letters come out shortly afterwards. I found out unofficially from the professors who had interviewed me the second week of February. The one piece of advice that I do have to give is about funding. Whatever your acceptance letter is, it is a first offer. There is no reason why you can't negotiate for a better package: often, the funding offer might be from the university as a whole instead of the department or school of music. Call and talk to someone, whether it is the dean of your department or anyone at financial aid. If they want you to come, they will find a way to make the package more attractive. Trust me. No matter how the conversation goes, they probably can't take back your acceptance letter or lower whatever offer they have already made. I did this with each program that accepted me, and it worked out very, very well.

I just sent in my acceptance today! I'm in the doctoral program for ethnomusicology. So excited, yet starting to panic about finding a job and living expenses....any suggestions?

Anyone heard from Michigan? I had a contact last week tell me he would send me a decision by Friday, but nada. It's coming down to the end and I really need to make travel arrangements...

...it's a no from UCLA for me.

I just sat down and read this whole thread as my daily dose of drama. Wow. Good luck, EbolaZaire!

Has anyone heard back from UCLA yet, or does anyone expect when we should hear back?

You must be closer to a decision than I am...nothing new for me. Still only View Credentials and View App Daata....good luck!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you get in!

It's so nice to stumble on this thread! I'm from a performance background also, but made the switch earlier. My undergraduate degree is in music, where I concentrated on piano performance. I turned towards musicology and ethnomusicology the summer before my senior year. Fortunately, that gave me two short months to try to make myself an attractive candidate. I presented at two conferences and worked at an internship in community development, but I think the main thing was just working on those writing samples and essays. I guess I rewrote my SOP twelve times. Like mklish, I'll probably be pursuing my PhD in ethnomusicology at CUNY next fall. I love their program and the faculty are fantastic. I spoke with many current students and nearly all of them come from performance backgrounds.

Ouch. Columbia's rejection letter hit me hard too. Congratulations to anyone who got accepted and to everyone else, I"ll be drinking alone and raising a glass to the rest of you.

Wow, good luck to you too! Would you mind telling me where to find that info? The Michigan site is constantly freezing for me and it would be a huge comfort to read the actual words saying they will contact us soon. Thanks!

Thanks for the info, Vikkilynn. Funding everywhere seems like it's down this year. If you don't mind sharing, did you go right for your MA after undergrad?

It sounds good! At least he's taking a look at your file instead of "I will disregard your file after realizing we don't need anyone in your subfield." I emailed Mengozzi: he's historical musicology and I think theory also, but hopefully he has a soft spot for us ethnomusicologists. If accepted, do you think you would go to Michigan?

Good suggestion. I emailed my POI and will post any information he gives me. I hope Michigan only did acceptances for musicology. I think they have a great ethno department and would love for it to be an option.

I'm in the same position as you, troco: ethno phD and I haven't heard anything, positive or negative. No one else has posted an acceptance. I called the department, but the admin assistant I spoke to was really unhelpful. She told me I'll be notified "at some point" and if I want anything more specific, to contact the professor in charge of ethno admissions.