Applying for Fall 2017

[Wolfymozy]

I have not heard from Harvard and Princeton either. Looks that they are pretty late this year. :/ 

[PhDavid]

5 hours ago, Musica said:

I had interviews with Cambridge, Stanford, CUNY, Penn, Northwestern, and Michigan so far, and those are the only ones Ive had any contact with outside of the standard application received business. 

I'd say you are doing pretty well haha

[tammtam]

Am I only one who hasn't got ANYTHING heard from schools? I have applied for musicology to 14 schools including 6 UCs and Stanford, Harvard, UPenn, UMich... I am an international applicant and so far I just have had no contact. No interviews, no offer. Is it that I have to prepare for the "ALL-REJECT"? ...

[PhDavid]

8 minutes ago, tammtam said:

Am I only one who hasn't got ANYTHING heard from schools? I have applied for musicology to 14 schools including 6 UCs and Stanford, Harvard, UPenn, UMich... I am an international applicant and so far I just have had no contact. No interviews, no offer. Is it that I have to prepare for the "ALL-REJECT"? ...

It's still pretty early. I wouldn't worry too much just yet. 

[Musick]

On 1/29/2017 at 5:26 PM, PhDavid said:

 

[Musick]

Did anyone else apply to UC Berkeley? I did for composition and I just saw on the results search page that someone posted an acceptance. They were accepted way back in late January. I haven't heard a thing from Berkeley and the website still isn't updated. Wondering if I'm screwed...

[earplugs]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share what little information I have with respect to doctoral music composition programs...

I had a Skype interview with Stanford about two weeks ago. The e-mail invitation stated that the interviews were for the "finalists", so, if you haven't had your interview there, I suppose you can assume that you didn't make the first cut. (By the way, I'm still waiting for their decision...)

The same goes with CUNY Graduate Center: today is their interview day. So, unless you had your interview with them today, that probably means that you didn't make the cut there...

[Musick]

1 hour ago, earplugs said:

Hi all,

Just wanted to share what little information I have with respect to doctoral music composition programs...

I had a Skype interview with Stanford about two weeks ago. The e-mail invitation stated that the interviews were for the "finalists", so, if you haven't had your interview there, I suppose you can assume that you didn't make the first cut. (By the way, I'm still waiting for their decision...)

The same goes with CUNY Graduate Center: today is their interview day. So, unless you had your interview with them today, that probably means that you didn't make the cut there...

No idea about CUNY... but I heard directly from Stanford that they interview "finalists" who have 1. not yet made the next cut 2. not previously met with their POI in person. So don't despair... if you weren't contacted you could either be a sure advance to the next cut regardless, or it's because your POI already knows who you are and has talked to you. No idea how interviews work at other schools but this is what I heard from Stanford.

[Musica]

Just got my first admit in an email from Penn! Package details forthcoming :-)

[Musick]

1 hour ago, Musica said:

Just got my first admit in an email from Penn! Package details forthcoming :-)

Hell yeah dude! Congratulations. What / with whom are you going to be studying there if you choose to attend?

I am still waiting for any word from anywhere... negative or positive.

[Musick]

Well as it turns out, my morning news is...

 

UC Berkeley = reeeeeejected.

It's okay, not my top choice... didn't even really choose the right person as my POI and when I sat in on a seminar there I thought they were another school just heavily invested in the kind of music that no one wants to listen to.

0a, 0w, 1r so far.

[tammtam]

10 minutes ago, Composilosomatician said:

Well as it turns out, my morning news is...

 

UC Berkeley = reeeeeejected.

It's okay, not my top choice... didn't even really choose the right person as my POI and when I sat in on a seminar there I thought they were another school just heavily invested in the kind of music that no one wants to listen to.

0a, 0w, 1r so far.

Same goes here for Musicology and it was 3:30 AM in my place... Guess I have done all my sleep tonight.

Long time, no this strong heartbeat, since I have finished my piano performance major.

So the week has begun "finally"? I am just too scared.

[Musick]

Yeah now that I've received my first decision... I shall lose sleep nightly as I expect others to come in soon. Hopefully better ones!

Sorry to here Berkeley shafted you too dude. But oh well, Taruskin retired... just think about how Berkeley musicology probably isn't what it used to be. I've been going through my list of cons about it and no longer care much that they didn't want me haha.

[Musick]

Hmm... I wonder why @unitstructures keeps downvoting my latest posts. It's not a particularly informative way to express dissatisfaction. Do you disagree with something I said? Have I offended you? I hope my questions make you feel more comfortable expressing your point of view directly, I'm interested in it.

[.letmeinplz//]

17 minutes ago, Composilosomatician said:

Hmm... I wonder why @unitstructures keeps downvoting my latest posts. It's not a particularly informative way to express dissatisfaction. Do you disagree with something I said? Have I offended you? I hope my questions make you feel more comfortable expressing your point of view directly, I'm interested in it.

Not that I have a dog in this fight (or care) but he probably downvoted both of those due to the disparaging remarks about a school you obviously wanted to go to (you wouldn't have paid them otherwise). It is a pet peeve of many applicants here - like many of the survey rejections that  have comments to the effect of "good I didn't want to go anyway", etc.

Like I said, not that user so I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess.

Edited February 14, 2017 by .letmeinplz//

[Musick]

3 minutes ago, .letmeinplz// said:

Not that I have a dog in this fight (or care) but he probably downvoted both of those due to the disparaging remarks about a school you obviously wanted to go to (you wouldn't have paid them otherwise). It is a pet peeve of many applicants here - like many of the survey rejections that  have comments like "good I didn't want to go anyway", etc.

Like I said, not that user so I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess.

Interesting point of view. Thank you for your opinion. I'm curious, do you suspect that I didn't fill out my application lineup with some schools that were not near my top choice? I certainly did, as there are actually only two schools at which I honestly have a POI... but it's foolish to just apply to two schools. Furthermore, I did not actually pay them, I received a fee waiver as a result of an organization I'm part of.

Interesting that you say you don't care, but you took the time to type that message to me. Are you even a music applicant? 

[Wolfymozy]

Composilosomatician.... Ignore and wait for results. Let everyone do whatever they want. upvote-downvote... Who cares?? Hope you get good results soon. 

[Musick]

10 minutes ago, Wolfymozy said:

Composilosomatician.... Ignore and wait for results. Let everyone do whatever they want. upvote-downvote... Who cares?? Hope you get good results soon. 

Yeah, given the touchy nature of what is discussed on this forum... I can imagine everyone has their own way of dealing with acceptances and rejections. I just do my way and let others do theirs. I find it especially annoying to be preached to about how I "should" respond to admissions results. I think it's all in good fun, and those who want to bicker will always find something to bicker about. As far as votes, you're getting an upvote brother.

Hope you get some good results soon too!

[Musick]

My plan is definitely to talk shit about the programs that reject me and then laud as the academic heavens, any programs that accept me. After all, that's exactly what they are for me.

[unitstructures]

8 hours ago, Composilosomatician said:

Hmm... I wonder why @unitstructures keeps downvoting my latest posts. It's not a particularly informative way to express dissatisfaction. Do you disagree with something I said? Have I offended you? I hope my questions make you feel more comfortable expressing your point of view directly, I'm interested in it.

The first one was for "another school just heavily invested in the kind of music that no one wants to listen to." The second was for "Taruskin retired... just think about how Berkeley musicology probably isn't what it used to be." I disagreed with both but no, it wasn't enough to offend. It was more just a turn off. I rolled my eyes and clicked the red button. Also, you're presumptuous to imply that downvoting signifies a lack of comfort in expressing opinions. You probably didn't pause to wonder if it could be one of a million other things. 

7 hours ago, Composilosomatician said:

Yeah, given the touchy nature of what is discussed on this forum... I can imagine everyone has their own way of dealing with acceptances and rejections. I just do my way and let others do theirs. I find it especially annoying to be preached to about how I "should" respond to admissions results. I think it's all in good fun, and those who want to bicker will always find something to bicker about. As far as votes, you're getting an upvote brother.

Hope you get some good results soon too!

You're the only one who seems touchy around here. Also, no one preached anything about how you should respond to a rejection. Did you really project all that from a couple of downvotes? 

[Musick]

The first one was for "another school just heavily invested in the kind of music that no one wants to listen to." The second was for "Taruskin retired... just think about how Berkeley musicology probably isn't what it used to be." I disagreed with both but no, it wasn't enough to offend. It was more just a turn off. I rolled my eyes and clicked the red button. Also, you're presumptuous to imply that downvoting signifies a lack of comfort in expressing opinions. You probably didn't pause to wonder if it could be one of a million other things. 

Thank you for further explaining your thought process. I didn't imply that, I stated it directly. Can't pause and wonder at the same time, but I did consider other possibilities. I do not think that downvoting is meant for the purpose you used it for, nor is it very informative. So, I'd love to know not that you disagree... but why you disagree, with either of those statements. Are you comfortable sharing that?

 

You're the only one who seems touchy around here. Also, no one preached anything about how you should respond to a rejection. Did you really project all that from a couple of downvotes?

You were not the preacher, it was @.letmeinplz// . I'm sorry that you perceive me as touchy, I assure you that's not the case.

 

So once again... why do you think Berkeley isn't the kind of school that promotes music no one wants to listen to? And why do you think that Berkeley musicology will not change / has not changed after Taruskin's retirement?

I'm not sure how much thought you put into your dissent, but hopefully it's plenty... because I think it would be quite informative to others considering Berkeley for music studies of any kind to have our different points of view on the department ethos. If you're up for elaborating on your point of view, I'd love that.

[unitstructures]

Fine, I'll indulge you. I happen to think that there is no such thing as "music no one wants to listen to," simply because there is at least that person who made the music and made it out of his/her/their desire. There are many different kinds of music with varying degrees of commercial success, and there is and should be room for the kind of music that most aren't conditioned to like, and academia should and accommodate that. When you wrote "no one" it stunk of self-centeredness. I wouldn't have downvoted you if you had replaced "no one" with "I," which is all you have the prerogative to speak for. Also, there's a composer at Berkeley who's music I find beautiful. As for the second one, of course Taruskin is Taruskin but no one professor can significantly lower the quality of a program, especially one like Berkeley, because a department is a network of several human and non-human resources, and although the effects will be felt for a time, it will not be degraded, which is what you implied. Is that enough explaining for you? On another note, I hope you get in somewhere you like, and make great music for the benefit of everyone interested. I don't really know how composition schools pick students but can only guess it's arbitrary to some extent, way more so than musicology. It must be stressful and a blast to the ego, if you have a big one.

[Wolfymozy]

Hello everyone. Anyone any updates on Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton? 

[tammtam]

Might I add asking anything heard from UC Davis or UCLA too?

[Musick]

3 hours ago, unitstructures said:

Fine, I'll indulge you. I happen to think that there is no such thing as "music no one wants to listen to," simply because there is at least that person who made the music and made it out of his/her/their desire. There are many different kinds of music with varying degrees of commercial success, and there is and should be room for the kind of music that most aren't conditioned to like, and academia should and accommodate that. When you wrote "no one" it stunk of self-centeredness. I wouldn't have downvoted you if you had replaced "no one" with "I," which is all you have the prerogative to speak for. Also, there's a composer at Berkeley who's music I find beautiful. As for the second one, of course Taruskin is Taruskin but no one professor can significantly lower the quality of a program, especially one like Berkeley, because a department is a network of several human and non-human resources, and although the effects will be felt for a time, it will not be degraded, which is what you implied. Is that enough explaining for you? On another note, I hope you get in somewhere you like, and make great music for the benefit of everyone interested. I don't really know how composition schools pick students but can only guess it's arbitrary to some extent, way more so than musicology. It must be stressful and a blast to the ego, if you have a big one.

Your points are certainly heard/read... the matter of musical taste is subjective and the quality of a school depends on many factors and isn't usually a house of cards. Rather than just myself, I have a whole community of musicians and scholars that are interested in less narcissistic art and music, and instead in the artist/musician seeing himself/herself as an important representative and leader of a large group of people. That said, I strongly believe that the purpose of music is to engage with others in a reliable way. Commercial success? Not what I'm talking about... that's more proof of connection with business interests, and the rest is their expertly conniving ways of distributing that material to the unthinking masses. I prefer to communicate with the thinkers, but catch that word again, "communicate". I see my job as finding the match for my original ideas, ideas which should be those of a cultural leader. Not everyone is trying to do it that way, and I object to the sorts of things I think of as the masturbatory arts, but I like everyone to be happy and if there is a place for people who are into that sort of thing... great. It's not for me though. Different strokes for different folks.

Yes who knows how admissions to composition programs work. I've heard everything from it's so competitive and everything has to be perfect, to extremes like GPA and GRE don't matter whatsoever and it's all about your composition portfolio and professional record. Alas, you'll all know where I end up attending. Best of luck to you as well.