Composition: choosing a school and faculty mentor

This forum has been so helpful in the past year as I’ve help my son navigating the somewhat crazy process of applying to study composition! I’m finally writing for advice because I just can’t figure this out…is it common practice, or not, to be able to arrange a trial lesson or at least a meeting with the faculty member that the student is most interested in studying with? Once you’re admitted, how does the process of getting matched to your primary teacher work - is that determined before you decide where to go?

My son is in at NEC and U Mich so far, and is very enthusiastic about both. He’s visited both but has not yet had any one-on-one time with the comp faculty, and at NEC there is not even an interview for composition anymore, so he hasn’t even met them. He has emailed to ask some professors at both places, but hasn’t heard back, or at has gotten mixed messages about who he should be contacted (i.e., he emailed the prof, who told him to contact Admissions, who told him to contact the prof directly…). So, is this actually something that is just not done, or do we just need to be more patient with the profs’ presumably busy schedules? Just want to be sure that we’re not being overly pushy/demanding.

My impression is that, with instrumentalists, you are pretty much accepted into a particular person’s studio, so you know before deciding where to go who you’d be studying with. Is it different with composition?

Thank you!

@kumakazi You might get faster responses on the music major forum. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/

Yes, what @bouders said

Moving to Music Major Forum

Composition students do generally get accepted into a studio.

Has your son listened to music written by faculty? Not that that always matters.

It is extremely reasonable to ask to meet with a professor he might be interested in, before choosing. Or the chair of the department.

Once accepted, it is easier to get a meeting. At this point they want your son and will do things to convince him to come.

Some schools will ask your preference at some point.

I sent you a private message.

Thank you!

Thank you! He has listened to their music and knows who he is most interested in based on that, but it would be nice to be able to meet them and see if it seems they would be generally nice to work with. He is accepted at NEC and U Michigan, and Bard as of today. Joan Tower at Bard has been very approachable and responsive and was even willing to meet with him before he made it through prescreening, and he liked her a lot. His private teacher said that this is a very busy time for profs, so it may just be that! I guess we still have time but boston and michigan are not easily driveable for us, and im hoping to get plane reservations made if needed. I guess Skype is always an option, too. But thanks for letting me know that this is a reasonable think for him to be asking for. Thats very helpful.

The hard part can be accessing the professors at this time. I remember calling admission at NEC and telling them that the chair was not answering. They got a message to him and he was very eager and spent a lot of time with my kid. So I think it I wise not to form any opinions based on responsiveness, as you say :

Often in composition one ends up working with all the composition faculty - one is assigned to a different one each semester. It’s different than instrumentalists. That is how it worked for my son as an undergrad at Bard, and a grad student at Yale. The student can request to keep working with the same professor but for various reasons that’s often not an option - whether by policy or practicality.
So it is best to choose a program where there are a number of professors with whom the student would like to study at some point and where you trust the aesthetic and philosophy of the department as a whole. It’s also very hard to know in advance which professor will be most helpful in a particular point in a composer’s development.

Agree with @SpiritManager . . . know someone who was undergrad composition major at USC Thornton and is now in grad school at Yale. His undergrad experience was working with different composers in different classes, though I honestly can’t remember if it changed every semester or every year.

Some schools have you work with several teachers first year and then you choose. Oberlin, I believe, did that when we looked at it. Some do have you work with only one for 4 years. Good thing to ask about.

At the undergrad level I truly believe the most important thing is having a teacher (s) who let you develop your own “voice” and a good test of that is diversity in students’ work.