musichistorygeek

Rumor has it Cornell will be announcing musicology acceptances soon. Based on past years, they seem to like calling people, which has led to me checking my phone constantly. On the bus ride into campus the past couple of days, I was convinced my phone was vibrating, even though it was just normal bus motion/noises. I was super excited today when I was running to grab coffee and I had a missed call and message from a number I didn't recognize...turns out it was a secretary from the department in which I'm taking an elective seminar asking about picking up some course materials from the department office. And whenever I check my email, my mind goes, "Sorry, seminar professors and students in my discussion sections. I just want to know if I have funding and a place to go next year."

Congrats to the recent ethnomusicology acceptances for Harvard, Bowling Green, and Tufts!!!

I did highly unscientific poll of grad students in my program (all but two of us came to the Midwest from another part of the US or another country). Here are some things they'd suggest considering: If you are considering living in student housing, how does the cost/condition/convenience factor compare to living off-campus? If you do not already have a car, can you get around town without one? (Tip: look into whether or not the school makes bus passes available to students as part of fees) What is the social climate of the surrounding area like? (Is it conservative? Liberal? A "party school"? A small town? Large city?) Where do most grad students in your program live? What are there suggestions or complaints? How prepared are you for a physical climate different than the one in which you currently live?

One of my top programs supposedly should be notifying accepted students this week (based on past years), and I get so excited whenever my inbox tells me I have email. Except it's almost always spam, notifications from my current program about campus-wide professional development events, or questions from students about the homework.

I don't know what your field is or how your program is structured, but while I was starting my MA thesis (which I just finished!), I was also taking a seminar on a totally unrelated topic. While it didn't make that semester a lot of fun, it did force me to think about ideas and issues other than my thesis topic, which made me feel a bit mentally refreshed whenever I came back to it. Also, definitely seconding (or thirding or fourthing) the need to just sit down and write regularly and worrying about revisions later.

Working and possibly taking a road trip to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park.

Congrats to the Stony Brook and Cambridge acceptances!!

I wouldn't be so concerned (read: panicking like mad) if the programs I applied to with December deadlines didn't make it known that their decisions wouldn't be made until late February/early March. If they needed my info so early and take that long to decide, I don't even want to think when the programs with Jan. 15 deadlines will let me know. And that's even before pondering what they're going to tell me.

I just hate that some of mine say "processed application." Who (or what) processed it? The graduate school admissions people? The adcom for my programs? Is it just a generic way of saying that my application was deemed complete and passed on to the adcom for review? (I know it's probably the last one, but the irrational part of my brain just keeps going, "WHAT IS THIS 'PROCESSING' OF WHICH YOU SPEAK????")

Looks like we've got some good musicology/theory/ethno news around here in the last day or so. Congrats!

I never realized just how many junk phone calls and emails I really get until I started applying to grad school.

Congrats to the ethno admit at Berkeley!

I hope so! Although, based on past years and the department/school of music websites, it looks like Cornell and McGill have their adcom meetings in February. So that may still be quite a wait...

Just wanted to share some of the interview questions I was asked today. I have to admit that some of them threw me a bit, since I had been advised to prepare for questions about day-to-day life as a grad student, research expectations and methodology, coursework, etc., and this seemed a bit more abstract than that. Still, I think (hope) it went well. Best of luck to everyone and congrats to those who were accepted at Chicago! Is there a person and/or article that got you interested in musicology? What journals do you read regularly? Describe an article or essay you've read recently that provoked an emotional response from you. You are a recently hired musicology professor, and must teach three courses. What courses would you want to teach and why?

So, you get the call/email/letter/link to Youtube/status change! And you got in! (Congrats!) Or you didn't. (Screw them, you're going someplace better.) How quickly do you post to Grad Cafe? Immediately? Sometime that day? After calling everyone you know and grabbing either celebratory or consolatory drinks? After you get all of your decisions and are deciding where to go? I know when I was applying for my MA program, I tended to post rejections and waitlists immediately for some reason, but wait until I had told a few people before posting admits. I don't know why, but I've been pondering it as the results for musicology programs begin to trickle in. (Unfortunately, most of my programs probably won't send out decisions until mid-February or early March. Boo! ) Also, you know you've looked at the results page and wondered, "What time did they post that? Is there still a chance my admit/rejection/waitlist/interview decision is on its way?"

Congrats to the UNC and Duke musicology acceptances!!

I've heard that Cornell doesn't interview for musicology, but, to be honest, I don't know much about ethnomusicology programs. Speaking of interviews, is anyone else interviewing at CUNY in a couple of weeks? (I won't be able to get out to NYC, so I'll be doing a phone interview. )

I heartily approve of this policy. My sister is studying abroad, and it seems like every one of her emails goes from "awesome things I'm doing" to "have you heard back from anywhere yet?" I'm happy that she's happy for me, but it isn't helping my stress levels.

I have an interview at CUNY in a couple of weeks for musicology. Really excited, since their concentration in Lesbian/Gay/Queer Studies sounds excellent. (The Victorianist in me loves that the CLAGS website talks about sexology as a precursor to the interdisciplinary nature of current LGBT history and theory.)

Mailing my SOP, writing samples, transcripts, and application fee to CUNY was pretty annoying. Also, one of my apps wanted me to list conference presentations/publications but keep everything to "three lines," with a note that anything that went longer than that would be deleted. I only have a few presentations under my belt, but one of my conference titles alone was 2 lines. How were people in the sciences supposed to list their publications?

I keep checking the application websites and get so excited when I see "Congratulations!" Then I remember that it's part of the default message to anyone who has completed and turned in their application.

I came across this one while working on a seminar paper on sexology, of all things: "In philosophy, it is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way." (Havelock Ellis) I quite like it. Unfortunately, my colleagues over in philosophy and gender studies assure me that, contrary to what Dr. Ellis may have thought in the '20s, sometimes the attainment of the goal really does matter.

It's a really slow day at work, so I keep checking my statuses (and the results page here). I'm freaking out and convinced I must have made errors in my applications that will result in rejection...and based on past years I'm at least two full weeks away from hearing back on anything.

I just wish humanities programs could let us know sooner, preferably before my classes and assistantship start in a couple of weeks. I'd feel (hopefully) much better walking into my last semester at my current program if I had some idea of what was coming next. It doesn't help that my younger cousin is applying to undergrad now, so she's hearing back from places and I have relatives and family friends going "So, [cousin] just got into School X. Didn't you apply there? Have you heard anything?" And I have to sigh and explain that the application process for a BS in biomedical engineering and a PhD in musicology are slightly different.