<p>I'm a current undergraduate music composition student getting ready to apply to graduate schools this year. I already have a list of potential schools, but I was wondering if anybody could give me some more information on them. It's often hard to glean much useful information from university websites, and I'm just wondering if anybody here had some extra information on the quality of these programs. If you have any suggestions of schools for me to look at as well, I'd also welcome that.</p>
<p>Schools I'm looking at that I could use extra information on, basically, what have you heard about them. Some of these schools have great history, but I'm more concerned about the current state of the program:</p>
<p>University of Cincinnati
Yale University
Eastman School of Music
San Francisco Conservatory
UC Berkeley (this one I'm particularly interested in)
Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Columbia University (also very interested in Columbia)
Cornell University
Arizona State
Boston University
Ithaca College</p>
<p>There are some other schools that I'm looking at as well that I know enough about to feel confident in applying (for example, University of Michigan, and the film music programs at UCLA, NYU, and USC). My biggest problem is that I'm interested in both film music programs, and more traditional composition degrees. So I'm trying to get a variety of schools and programs.</p>
<p>Any help is appreciated.</p>
<p>Admittedly, I can’t offer much help in the way of your film scoring desires, but I should warn you that Columbia’s graduate music composition program is not a Master’s but a combined MM + DMA. If you intend only to complete a Master’s, then Columbia might not be your best choice. Be also warned that most of the schools on your list are notoriously competitive.</p>
<p>As far as quality is concerned I can really only personally speak for Yale. Had lessons with some of the composition faculty there and was generally pleased, if not impressed— and the fact that they grant full tuition scholarships to their students is another plus. I have, however, heard good things about Dan Asia at ASU and the faculty at CCM UCinncinati. The schools you’ve listed have decent to great reputations and I’ve not heard anything objectionable about any of them.</p>
<p>Are you looking to a MM or a Ph.D./DMA? There are some programs such as Columbia’s, Harvard, Standford, McGill, and UCSD to name a few that provide direct entrance into the Ph.D or DMA program. I would advise that you have deep discussions with the composition faculty at your current school regarding the options that may be open to you based on your individual circumstances.</p>
<p>If I don’t go into a program for film scoring, I most likely would continue on for the DMA/PhD anyways, so those kinds of programs also interest me.</p>
<p>I suppose my biggest problem is that I don’t have a whole lot of competition at my school to compare myself to. I’m at a very small University that only has an undergrad program. Great faculty, but a small music department. It’s hard for me to know just what kind of competition I’ll be facing exactly in applying to these schools, and whether or not I have much of a chance to get in. It probably would be a good idea to look at some other schools that aren’t so incredibly competitive, but I wouldn’t even know where to start in terms of finding some that still have good programs where I would receive good training.</p>