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Music Fall 2019 applicants


klavierstucke

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50 minutes ago, nardis said:

I just received an admit notification from UChicago from Ethno. Wording makes it look like musicology decisions have been made as well

Congratulations! Who knew they’d release decisions on a weekend...

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44 minutes ago, Musica said:

Congratulations! Was it from the DGS, your POI, or some other faculty member? 

Thanks! I'm elated as this is one of my top choices.

The email is from the Director of Admissions, but says that my POI will be in contact with me shortly and that an official acceptance from the dean will be sent soon 

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Has anyone heard from UCLA musicology or know when results usually come out? I've browsed the previous years' result pages and it seems quite mixed.... Have been accepted to my other top choice but would love to know around when I'll hear from UCLA....

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1 hour ago, nichemusicnerd said:

Has anyone heard from UCLA musicology or know when results usually come out? I've browsed the previous years' result pages and it seems quite mixed.... Have been accepted to my other top choice but would love to know around when I'll hear from UCLA....

I'm curious about this also. It seems like in past years they've sent out campus invitations by this time. I haven't heard anyone invited yet though!

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14 hours ago, spianist said:

I didn't get an email from Chicago either... Weird. I wonder how "fit" is determined anyways.

Congrats everyone on acceptances!

I think "fit" can mean a number of things: how your research is situated within the department, whether or not your interests intersect with that of faculty members, whether or not your POI is looking to take on more advisees, etc. And then of course your strength as a writer, thinker, etc. Who wrote your letters of rec will also matter depending on the institutions. If one of your writers is a recent graduate of xyz university, then the weight of their praise will mean a lot at said university. Conversely, where the word of one letter writer means a lot at xyz university, it may be meaningless at another. Additionally, we have to consider the "type" of applicants we are. In other words, some schools like students who begin a PhD with broad interests that they can shape and mold into one of their branded dissertations. Other schools seek the opposite kind of candidate who already has a diss project in mind and it's just a matter of developing those ideas into a large scale project. Some schools are really interested in the gray areas between ethno and historical and will be interested in students who explore that undefined territory (Harvard, Berkeley), while other programs uphold the distinction and will hold you to it (Penn, Yale.) One is not better than the other in any instance, and getting rejected from a school doesn't necessarily mean we weren't "good enough." Unfortunately, none of it really makes sense and trying to predict decisions based on where we may feel we're a good fit is fruitless. At the end of the day, they make the decisions and it's a frustrating reality we must all live with. But I like to think admissions committee's are good at determining fit, even if it means breaking our hearts. It's important to remain open minded and excited about any acceptances we receive! 

And on that note, I think it's time for me to retire from this blog. As wonderful as it is to commiserate with all you wonderful people, it's also forcing me to conclude the worst even when it's not justified. We'll all find out sooner or later, one way or another! Best of luck to ALL and congratulations! 

Edited by musician94
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20 hours ago, nardis said:

I just received an admit notification from UChicago from Ethno. Wording makes it look like musicology decisions have been made as well

Hey congratulations, Nardis! Is this for the joint TAPS-Music PhD?

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Yes, this whole process is a bit of a mystery with too many variables to judge — in a sense we are being considered in the context of people they admitted over the last two or three years, too, so that they do not find themselves too heavily weighted one way. 

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@musician94 Again congrats on ur UCB acceptance and I hope the next few months pan out how you like. Good luck!

"Fit" is slowly coming something meaningless to me. There are just so many variables that are impossible to predict until you are actually on campus, making friends with students, taking classes, meeting profs etc. I will try to leave my hope in this admissions process' ability to appropriately match students and institutions.

I will say though, that for me a good fit college is one with a high rate of placement of PhD graduates into tenure-track positions. I would objectively be an incredible fit at schools like that, and a bad fit at the other ones.

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There's a lot to be said about this for composers too, who have to weigh aesthetics of the faculty and students against their own.

It seems true that most programs these days have a greater diversity of styles than they maybe once did, but there are doubtless general trends for which students are attracted to which programs (and vice versa).  Unfortunately this has funding implications, as the schools with the best placements which jive aesthetically most with myself often have dubious funding situations. Food for thought. 

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Guest barkin62

Two years ago when I applied to composition masters programs, I got into my top two choices, which made sense for my aesthetic (post-spectral, etc), but rejected everywhere else, including "safety" schools. That probably made me a bit overly positivist about the notion of fit, even though it's obviously a wishy-washy idea at best.

On the other hand, I've often worked best---both in composition and theory---with people who don't have the same repertoire interests, and mostly just gotten hung up on weird and meaningless technical disagreements when the advisor's interests are too similar to mine.

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22 hours ago, Soufie_S said:

Hey congratulations, Nardis! Is this for the joint TAPS-Music PhD?

No, this is the standard PhD in Ethnomusicology program, not the joint one.

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11 minutes ago, klavierstucke said:

Just got an Eastman rejection delivered steaming hot to my email inbox ?

O nooo I didn't get it either... and I thought my interview went alright.

It was my top choice. Now time to be sad ??

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38 minutes ago, spianist said:

O nooo I didn't get it either... and I thought my interview went alright.

It was my top choice. Now time to be sad ??

Damn I'm sorry. I hope the rest of the month will go well for you. I'll be sad with you!How many do you have leftt o hear from?

Reality is now hitting me and I'm a bit worried I'm gonna get rejected everywhere. 4 rejections and 3 implied ones (from having not received acceptance/interview at this point). Yale interview went well today but an interview going well seems to be no indicator of success, they've probably 79% made up their mind by then.

There's one school on my list I now wish I did not apply to, I bet God knows this and he will arrange so that they alone accept me and I will have to make a peculiar decision.

 

Edited by klavierstucke
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4 hours ago, klavierstucke said:

Damn I'm sorry. I hope the rest of the month will go well for you. I'll be sad with you!How many do you have leftt o hear from?

Reality is now hitting me and I'm a bit worried I'm gonna get rejected everywhere. 2 rejections and 4 implied ones (from having not received acceptance/interview at this point). Yale interview went well today but an interview going well seems to be no indicator of success, they've probably 79% made up their mind by then.

There's one school on my list I now wish I did not apply to, I bet God knows this and he will arrange so that they alone accept me and I will have to make a peculiar decision.

 

I'm in the same boat, 3 rejections and 3 implied, so I can commiserate with you. Waiting to hear back from 4, one of which I interviewed with last Friday (NYU). The interview went well, but then again that seems to be no indicator of success.

I've applied to a couple places in state, but schools in California seem to announce results later than other states (at least according to the results page). One of them was a backup for me, but you're right. It'd be funny if God's calling was for me to go there, and I have no choice but to follow His will. I guess it'd be ok to be close to home even if it wasn't where I wanted to go

But ultimately, I guess I should be grateful and honored to go anywhere (I feel you. I'm seriously afraid of getting rejected everywhere at this point...).

Edited by spianist
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2 hours ago, spianist said:

I'm in the same boat, 3 rejections and 3 implied, so I can commiserate with you. Waiting to hear back from 4, one of which I interviewed with last Friday (NYU). The interview went well, but then again that seems to be no indicator of success.

I've applied to a couple places in state, but schools in California seem to announce results later than other states (at least according to the results page). One of them was a backup for me, but you're right. It'd be funny if God's calling was for me to go there, and I have no choice but to follow His will. I guess it'd be ok to be close to home even if it wasn't where I wanted to go

But ultimately, I guess I should be grateful and honored to go anywhere (I feel you. I'm seriously afraid of getting rejected everywhere at this point...).

Lets hope we get into one college we like! Just need one, can't attend two at the same time!

Edited by klavierstucke
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Hi

Is anyone aware of any Harvard Ethnomusicology admit offers or acceptances, yet?

Also, how does Harvard Music usually carry out their admission process? They don't usually interview potential candidates, do they?

Looking forward!

Thanks

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6 hours ago, Soufie_S said:

Hi

Is anyone aware of any Harvard Ethnomusicology admit offers or acceptances, yet?

Also, how does Harvard Music usually carry out their admission process? They don't usually interview potential candidates, do they?

Looking forward!

Thanks

Hi Soufie — they generally do not interview all candidates for ethno or musicology to my knowledge. They may reach out to some students (as they did me) for more information or an informal chat. 

 

Music theorists have already interviewed, as their program usually requires it. 

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16 hours ago, Musica said:

Hi Soufie — they generally do not interview all candidates for ethno or musicology to my knowledge. They may reach out to some students (as they did me) for more information or an informal chat. 

 

Music theorists have already interviewed, as their program usually requires it. 

Oh great. And thanks @Musica The gsas did send out a generic email pretty early on asking for foreign language proficiency details...but I am guessing you are not talking about that...also, have you applied to the Ethnomusicology program?

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9 hours ago, Soufie_S said:

Oh great. And thanks @Musica The gsas did send out a generic email pretty early on asking for foreign language proficiency details...but I am guessing you are not talking about that...also, have you applied to the Ethnomusicology program?

I am actually a historical musicologist, but we have not heard anything yet either as a group other than the languages email, too. The email for more information for me just wanted clarifications on my area of interest. I expect that we should hear within the next two weeks, though, as historically that is (almost) always the case!

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16 minutes ago, klavierstucke said:

Just received Interview email at Penn. Took me by surprise, I thought they'd already sent them all out. 

None for me. ? Congrats! Maybe they didn't like the people they interviewed the first round, and you were on some unofficial waitlist. Good luck!

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