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Congrats to the Eastman Musicology PhD!

Is this the whole music department or for a specific concentration?

I seriously doubt that those who haven't heard from UChicago are out. The Graduate Humanities page says their decisions will be complete by mid-March. I would read that as several rounds, as some people may decline a UC offer. Composition has similar requirements in addition to Theory and Musicology, but also with scores and recordings. That will add some time to the decision process for the department.

Congrats tbone! I was under the impression that the 20th would be testing and the 21st was interviews. Best of luck. Who was it that sent you the email?

No from CUNY

John, Regardless of your test scores and your degrees, if you are passionate about this (or anything in life) you would be nuts NOT to pursue it. You get one chance at this life. If you spend your time thinking "what if," then you are wasting your time. Just do it. Best of luck! Brian

http://www.brianpenkrot.com/works/

Tbone, we were there on the same day! (I wore a tie). CUNY has a DMA in performance for strings, winds, horn, and voice, with a focus on chamber music. When I visited, all of the students had just written vocal pieces and were working on their pieces for the ensemble that was going to visit. One student was having a sax concerto performed the following day, though I got the feeling he arranged the performance on his own.

I visited NWU, U of Chicago, NYU GSAS, Columbia, CUNY, and Boston U. My top choice is Columbia, followed by U of Chicago. I would be happy with any of the programs, though. University of Chicago is really a strong academic program. Its current structure was laid out by Ralph Shapey. Howard Sandroff is mostly at Columbia College now (I think) and Ilya Levinson got tenure there last Spring, so U of Chicago now has the distinction of an all female faculty. I don't know what that means, but it's rare to find a department like that. The one issue with the program is that there is no performance program, so only a few of the new music concerts during the year are performed by professional level musicians. But the ensembles they hire are really top rate and academically they are at least on par with CUNY. I went back and forth on Temple, but what sold me was stories from my friend who went to Brevard last summer with a couple of Temple students. Each semester each student is assigned a residency with a different group: brass band, orchestra, choir, etc. I think spending 3 1/2 months with a specific ensemble and writing for larger ensembles is really attractive. When did you visit Columbia and NYU? I know when I visited Columbia, there was a guest speaker, 3 faculty, 4 students, and 15-17 prospective students at the seminar.

To be honest, I think Northwestern had a long doldrum. Lee Hyla's presence and Jay Alan Yim's multimedia leanings appear to be the rebirth of the program (Idon't know Thomalla's work enough to comment). Not to mention the full funding plus stipend! I know there is an orchestral reading every year with Victor Yampolsky and the interaction between the composition studios with performance studios is really almost unmatched in academia. As far as competition, 2007 was the first year they revamped their acceptance practices. Across all aspects of music, they accept 17 DMAs per year. So you're competing against everyone applying for a DMA regardless of concentration. I agree, Lee Hyla seemed like a great person to study with. Where else did you visit?

Hey Tbone, I applied to Northwestern out of undergrad. Checking my email for my master's results, they sent their decision on February 9, so it still may be a couple of weeks. I met with Lee Hyla last November, and he said they wouldn't begin to look at anything until after their break. I hate waiting. A friend of mine has interviews scheduled at Eastman and Cinci already, and I am green.

Hi everyone, Thought I'd throw in on the composition side. I am no longer able to sleep at night, so this is a nice outlet. I applied to USC, UCSD, Iowa, Northwestern, U of Chicago, Indiana, Temple, Stony Brook, NYU GSAS, CUNY, Columbia, and Boston U. I was declined by Indiana. My portfolio generally consisted of (1) brass band + 2 percussion (2) guitar, violin, piano, percussion (3) percussion trio (4) soprano, cello, piano, flute, percussion (5) solo piano. For schools that required orchestral (Indiana) or tonal (Boston) pieces, I included a short fugue I wrote as a film cue for orchestra with guitar. Gilad, thanks for posting here despite your no longer needing to apply. Your experience with NYU sounds a bit like an issue a friend of mine had with Oregon last year. He was accepted and given waiver, stipend, and teaching responsibilities in March. In late April (after declining 2 offers from other schools) he received an email stating that the economy was responsibile for a shortage of funds and that he would have to pay full out of state tuition with no stipend or work if wanted to study there. (He decided not to go). Good luck to everyone! B