Timothy Vallier

I will post in code, that only those closest to me will understand or care about.

I would always assume the answer to that question is yes.

Dear All Schools, Rescue me from the midwest. -TV

2 Months here. All my apps were in Dec 10.

In my field (and missing from your poll) #1 is the portfolio, and it can more or less trump any other item on the list.

*Pops in my CD and presses play. Picks up score and lights a cigar. * Listens intently *Sits up slowly, removes cigar from mouth and exclaims: "Damn....". * Becomes wildly jealous and rips up all evidence of my existence.

It is starting to make me very nervous getting rejected from CUNY. Anyone else feeling the pressure from having received your first rejection? Also, the rest of my schools have been very quiet. Has anyone heard a peep from any of their other app schools? I received a very stern mass e-mail from one of my apps telling everyone to stop contacting them, and that "no, we will not accept late applications". It made me chuckle a little.

I just saw another CUNY rejection go up on the results page. Anyone here? Any thoughts on how many acceptances they take?

This is exactly how Yale does it. It seems like a frustratingly stressful situation. Best of luck on the exam. I have a sample exam from Yale that they give out freely to anyone who requests. Maybe northwestern will do the same?

That is really exciting! Congrats. Did they mention if the interview would be one on one or group style? Also, are they covering travel and boarding? I'm really curious what they ask you, since it seems interviews in the music composition only happen at a few schools. Keep us all posted.

I just recieved a rejection letter from CUNY. I noticed there was a third CUNY rejection posted in the results page. Was it anyone in this thread? The letter is Dated January 15, 2010. The contents essentially read, we cannot accept you for admissions. It is a very short and succinct letter. Some thoughts: I know this is a tough program, which receives an abundance of applications because of its location and reputation, so this was a reach for me. Also, I was expecting some sort of letter after seeing that the postal sent other rejections yesterday. Honestly, it is refreshing to get my first notification of decision from anywhere after what has felt like an excruciatingly long wait. I look forward to more decisions and hopefully an acceptance in one of them.

That's a bummer. How was the news delivered? Anyone else hear from CUNY?

No problem Gilad. I simply did a google search of your username and found your name, and then found your page. Is anyone else going to post any of their music?

1. Wife 2. Sister 3. Mother 4. Grad Cafe 5. Others

Gilad, Your comments have given me great peace. I keep spinning a thousand non musical elements about my application in my head. It is giving me great stress and I have forgotten that these departments just want to hear great, interesting, and exciting new music. Also I checked out your website G and I would like to say that I am a fan of your music. So much style and energy, I admire your choices. I think Princeton is probably a perfect fit for you.

Very specifically. I wish I would have applied to NYU GSAS instead of NYU Steinhardt. I guess I overlooked (even after visiting) that one was more geared towards my interests than the other. Also, GSAS offers full fellowship to all who are admitted. Needless to say, I am embarrassed.

Here is a link to four of the tunes that are in my portfolio: Please leave feedback, and I would be happy to listen to anyone else's portfolio and leave feedback. I have very few young composers in my area so I am dying to hear other PhD submissions in this field.

That really bums me out that I did not apply to GSAS. Also, those names you have mentioned ring no bells for me. They are obviously influential people, are they all worth checking out? How were you introduced to them? Sometimes I feel so sheltered being in Omaha, NE. What year did you graduate from NYU? You should post some from your portfolio! When did you begin to hear from your schools? What was in your portfolio? Did you ever do any interviews via phone or in person for any of those programs.

Tbone! I posted this thread quite a while ago, so I was very surprised/terrified when you showed up. I thought for just a moment that I was the only person on the planet applying for a PhD in anything related to music, so I am glad to have you to chat with! I chose Steinhardt because I was unaware of GSAS. Somehow I visited NYU, spoke with people there, and always had in my mind that Steinhardt was were to apply when aiming for a PhD. I felt very silly when I found old GradCafe posts and not a single composer had applied to Steinhardt but all of them GSAS. Now correct me if I am wrong, I found out after applying that GSAS is the same as Steinhardt, only that it guarantees funding through the McCracken (sp?) Fellowship. If that is the case, then there is a larger chance of getting to study at NYU, but an extremely low chance of funding, without a TA position, which I do hope to get. My first choice is Princeton. Great education, great location, and they offer full funding. Although, I would be equally happy with any other school on my list that accepted me with fellowship or teaching assistantship. CUNY is a little diamond that gets overlooked by most, and is actually very competitive. It is low tuition with high education, and offers some fellowships for PhD music students. I also know that people like John Corigliano and others who teach at bigger name NYC schools also teach there. I am very excited to share with you my portfolio, and I will describe it to you here, but I think we should swap scores and recordings, assuming that you have a way to distribute yours digitally. My portolio includes: Substance: A piece for 4 male voices, 4 male recorded voices, 2 vocoded voices, and electronics. With a setting of a selection of text from the Tao Te Tching. Foible: Solo flute. Two Stylized Dances for Sax Quartet and Percussion When the Pale Moon Floats: SSAATTBB Choir with a setting of a Sara Teasdale poem. Now, a few questions for you! Where are you currently studying, and where did you get you undergraduate degree? Why Harvard? I have heard some overwhelming and underwhelming feedback about composing there, but I have little insight. What is your portfolio like? Have you had any previous communication or visitations to any of your applied programs? Do you know anyone else applying for a PhD in music composition? How did you do on the GRE? I look forward to hearing back!

24.

This is such a huge update. Thank you!

This feed is amazing you goon! Thank you a bunch. Also, the owner of the site let me know that they would be trying to add this natively to the site over break, but perhaps you could post the files/instructions to give them a head start?

Hello all, Like most of you I enjoy the grad cafe immensely, but there is a major feature missing: An RSS feed of new posts from the results page. We could all save some time and anxiety by not refreshing 50-100x a day and instead simply wait for new postings to come to us. I have submitted an e-mail via the 'contact us' button which may yield results, but there may be a better/quicker way. Option A: Someone creates a a script, which visits the page, checks the results table for anything new, and automatically generates a short RSS of the new posting. This could be done via someone with some web skills and an active webserver. Option B: A human who is dedicated to checking the page with the same web server resources checks the page daily and creates a feed. This has some limitations since it is reliant upon a human, and could only mean 1 update per day. Option C: We create a donation pool to get the developers of this site some incentive to implement this feature natively and quickly and we all live happily ever after. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS! Let's make this happen!

Or you were equally matched with others but there were just not enough spots for you and you were unlucky.

I applied to 7 PhD music composition programs. I will probably get into 2 schools I will maybe get into 3 schools In a perfect world I would get into all of them!