kccur

Where you at, theorists? Best of luck to all my fellow music theory applicants in this annual season of waiting.

Definitely. It's honestly part of the reason that I decided to not apply to Indiana (the other reason being that while they have a good faculty and great rep, I don't actually think I'd leave my masters institution for IU, so why bother paying something like $100 to apply and potentially another several hundred flying to Bloomington to interview). Dec. 1 deadlines destroyed me when I was applying for masters programs. Definitely spent an all-nighter on that.

Hope the theorists here all had a good time at SMT this last weekend awkwardly following around prospective faculty members, I know I did. Also hope your application processes are going well -- got a lot of work left to do, but I just cut Indiana from my list, so hey, no more December 1 deadlines! Voila, two more weeks to finish papers.

This is what I've been told (both by profs at my institution as well as those at others) as well. I was a little bit worried about sending two Ravel papers, since he's been most of what I've been writing about for the last two years, but was told that it's better to send better work than more variety. That said, I've got a pop music/cultural studies paper in the works, so hopefully that'll pan out. Can't believe it's already application season again, I feel like I just got over my PTSD from masters applications two years ago. Siiiiiiiigh

In hindsight, my purpose statement was horrific when I applied for master's programs. I'm shocked I actually got in somewhere with how badly I botched pretty much most parts of the application process. I still don't feel like I really have a great idea of what to claim I specifically want to do (heading into second year of a theory master's now), but I at least know enough to claim that I know what I'm doing in the SoPs. Almost time to apply to theory PhD programs -- eek. Brace yourselves, fall application season is coming.

Props! And in case you need another thing to be excited about, from my (very limited) experience, the Northwestern musicologist grad students are a fantastic bunch.

Agreed, but unfortunately that seems to be the way the game works these days. My medical field friends say it's especially bad for them, apparently some of them have been told by admissions people (after applying) that the posted test score cutoff and the effective test score cutoff are significantly different (i.e., they won't seriously consider applicants below a certain score, even though their posted cutoff was significantly lower). Applications seem to be a little bit of a racket. It's frustrating.

Great to hear from a Chicago person, especially with regards to the culture, I definitely hope to be able to be choosy enough to pick somewhere with a good crowd for PhD. With both Rings and Zbikowski there, there are multiple professors there doing stuff that I think is cool so it already seemed like it might be a good fit academically. What type of stuff do you focus on? Also, what's the theory/musicology thing that they do at Chicago like? How much teaching opportunity is there for the grad students? Also, do you guys have any opportunity for sort of interdisciplinary work with the cog sci theory folks over at Northwestern? I (admittedly) haven't read too much Zbikowski yet, been in other veins of the narrative and semiotics field, but I hear that he's into a more cog sci approach to that stuff. Which sounds really cool. I've also heard that U of Chicago is a pretty intense place, what's your sense of that? I mean, I'd expect that from an elite school like UChi and it's probably a reputation more earned for the undergrad culture than the grad culture, but just curious whether you feel like it's vastly different in that way from your undergrad/masters.

re: clarinetcola, props on the acceptances and interviews. I'm not super dialed in to the reputations of schools (so I'm pretty interested in what answers other people you have for your questions), but in general, I'm pretty sure Indiana is considered to be pretty superior to Michigan as far as theory schools go right now. I don't know what the deal is with Michigan since they're great at pretty much everything else, but I was told by some of my undergrad professors (as well as some students there in other departments) to not even bother applying to Michigan for theory. Not sure what the deal is, and it's very possible I've gotten bad info. I've heard it's a little hard to get individual attention at Indiana (at least, for master's students) and that they took a little bit of a hit after Robert Hatten left, but pretty sure it's still considered one of the elite schools. Probably top-5, definitely top-10. Again, I don't feel that I'm super well-informed so I'd like to hear what other people think, but that's what I've heard. I didn't hear back from Yale until mid-March last year, but that was for a rejection, so who knows that that means for your case. Best of luck!

You never know. I thought I had struck out last year in applying for music theory master's programs (I made a looot of mistakes in the application process, lessons learned for next year's PhD application season) only to get an offer from Texas in early March. Good luck everyone, I don't miss the waiting-game stress one bit. Although I'll be in that boat again next year, le sigh. Speaking of that, a few music theory program questions (I figure I'll just ask on this thread because it seems to get much more traffic than other ones): - What's the culture like at U of Chicago? I went to a grad conference last year with them, Northwestern, and Wiscy and didn't get the most friendly vibe from the Chicago people. I loved the Northwestern folks, but unfortunately, I don't think it would be a good fit. Cognition is cool, but I don't plan on it being my bread-and-butter. - I heard recently that Indiana makes it excessively time-consuming to get a PhD. I don't know whether the person I heard it from was talking about master's + PhD or just PhD, but they were told by professors that it's rare for anyone to get out of there with a degree in less than eight years. Anyone have any knowledge of this? - Where else are some of you theorists applying? What drew you to those schools? Obviously, some of em (like Yale and Chicago) just have an excessive number of badasses on their faculty, but I always find it interesting to hear why people applied where they did.

Yuuup. Pretty excited. I mean, UT isn't an elite-elite school, but they're pretty good from what I hear. I need to do a better job applying when I get around to PhDs though -- sending rushed applications to 3 schools = not a good plan. I feel lucky to have gotten a good offer from one of em.

Yessssss. Finally got my Yale rejection as well, it's nice to have closure. Time to get my free Masters at the University of Texas and boost my resume for PhD application season...

I actually would prefer that my rejection letter came in the form of a lolcat. Hope you're listening, Yale -- you've waited long enough, get on it.

Yeah, not a real surprise. Kinda hoping to hear something official soon though.

Freaking Ivy League procrastinators.

Congrats to the UCLA admits! Enjoy sunny Los Angeles, from what I've seen, the UCLA campus is beautiful.

Exciting, but yeah, I feel the same way. While it would be ridiculously cool to get an offer from those guys, the odds are pretty dang slim.

For Yale?

Nope. All silent on the Yale front. SNES, you're looking at theory, right? Wanted to see what you thought of about Northwestern. I was up there last weekend for a conference, and I gotta say their musicology grads are really cool. But I got the impression from talking to them that it wouldn't really be a good place to go for straight-up theory. (I know they rock at cognition, but while cognition is cool and all, it's not what I want to focus on.)

I'm convinced that they just dont read their email. Got a scholly offer from Texas! Pretty surprised actually, I thought my app was really messy.

THEY DID IT AGAIN. Got an email from Yale today! Yale sent me another "automated response" to the query I sent Yale in December. Telling me they weren't going to answer the question that hasn't been relevant for three months (and that they didn't answer the last time they sent me an "automated response.") No news on, you know, aaactually getting into grad school. I swear one of their grad students has to just be intentionally screwing with me.

Curing cancer wasn't one of your undergrad requirements? Figured that was standard core curriculum by now.

You're Canadian: it's almost scientifically impossible for Canadians to be offensive. And seriously -- this is sort of a competitive business filled with a lot of talented people. If someone can't deal with the fact that other people are more successful, it's going to be real tough gig for them.

Fixed your post

Yep, applied there for theory but my UT app wasn't my best (hadn't finished my thesis yet / the UT application system is confusing as hell) so I've sorta been writing that one off. Haven't heard back though, if that makes you feel any better.