yehk

hey guys, I hope to work in the American music industry in the near future and have been exploring my options to get there! After doing a bit of internet research I've discovered that nearly all US internships available are during semester times and only for students enrolled at college, making it virtually impossible for overseas students (from England) such as myself to even consider! Would you suggest that doing an MA degree at a college (such as NYU Steinhardt) would be the best pathway to entering this industry? Thanks!

Just got rejected from my top choice - gutted as you can imagine but i'd like to find out more but not sure how to go about it. Basically, I went to visit the school in Easter and I spoke to the then Director of Graduate Studies at my department (Richard), who sounded enthusiastic about receiving an MA application (the school does have an MA course, but rarely receives applications for it, they normally do PhDs), and came across like he was impressed with my background/studies when i went to speak to him. Unfortunately this Richard guy isn't director of grad studies this year and is also on sabbatical, which meant that he probably couldnt have had any input when the Adcom were reviewing my application. As far as i can see, I am a good candidate for this degree (which is what Richard said as well), and especially since they don't receive that many applications for it, it seems as if it can't be mega competitive. I just want to find out what exactly it was that wasn't up to par and express my confusion - should I email Richard and cc the current director? Does anyone have any advice on how to word it, because I don't want to come across like a nagging applicant who can't get over the fact that i've just been rejected. It just seemed as if Richard was so enthusiastic about my application... i just don't understand.

bit of an update on Yale - called the Dept of Music up, they said that the decision should be on the website; if not, call the graduate office of admissions. (the results aren't up on the website yet.) called up graduate office - they said that results should be 'up in a few days time'. I assume from this that decisions have actually been made, but are being processed by the graduate office so i guess it just takes time to put decisions online. Cool.

bad luck, musico - at least you've got your Columbia place. Nice to hear that the results are coming through though - I don't expect I'll get mine till next week. And yes, Yale is being a bloomin' pain in the arse.... I've got a good mind to call them up later today just to shoo them on a bit 'check the status of decisions'.

I never wanted to tell anyone about my applications but i find it so hard to reply when people in my year at college ask me about my postgraduate plans. I tell them I'm applying to grad school then they say, "oh where?" And i always end up telling them. And because it's such a common question between everyone around my department (we're all graduating..), the whole place knows I've applied to XYZ schools, so when I get rejected i might as well walk around with a big FML postit stuck to my forehead.

looks like the Harvard snail mail is starting to trickle in... sorry to whoever got rejected.

sorry mate.

i always feel a bit bad calling them up to find out how far along they are with deciding results - i desperately need to hear back from yale because there's been a bit of a cock up regarding my Peabody application and i basically can't reply them/do anything about it until i find out whether i'm rejected/accepted from yale (my top choice). I just feel so bad calling them up and asking.....they wouldn't give decisions through the phone anyway....

yeah good luck Jason. Also congrats to whoever got into Ann Arbor.. Take it no one got Harvard snail mail today!

Haha your dad sounds awesome. I'm waiting for the same snail mail to arrive, but across the ocean in England. Feel my pain when you all get results and I'm alone in my country twiddling my thumbs.

Me? I'm a first study pianist, second study trumpet... and the two standards could NOT be further apart... get made fun of that all the time!

Sounds like ME PLAYING THE TRUMPET HAHAHAHA

maple syrup!!

Currently in the waiting game just like everyone else, but I just got off Skype with my uncle who was asking me about my applications. I totally forgot that he happens to be a Professor Emeritus at Umich - he was telling me about how he has been given a few applications to read this season, "but i don't read that many because they are boring!" Following this comment, he launched into a story about how the main thing for him is that students "catch [his] eye" in some way or another. He told me that he once had an applicant who had a GPA of 2.8 - and the department only accepts people with a 3.5 and above (or back in the day, anyway). He said that the one thing about this student was that he took the initiative and paid a visit to my uncle in Michigan to convince him of why he should be a candidate. He told my uncle that the reason why he had a bad GPA was because he hadn't got his act together for the first couple years in college, but snapped out of it in his final year and knuckled down, so his first years at college pulled his GPA down. (I'm not at a US college so I'm assuming that's how cumulative GPAs work...) Anyway despite his GPA, he was an "impressive candidate", and my uncle subsequently convinced the department to accept him, and gave him a fellowship. Randomly, my uncle also loves football and the student had the same name as a famous American quarterback...... go figure. (To me it actually does feel like sometimes an application depends on whether the person reading it had eggs for breakfast or not and is therefore having a good day.) Needless to say, the guy got in and turned out to be my uncle's top student, and is now head of a multi-million-dollar company. Just a nice little story to pass time.

just turned 22