<p>Hi. Does anyone have any comments/experiences/recommendations for good graduate programs in classical composition in North America?</p>
<p>Currently, I am investigating:
Juilliard
New England Conservatory
Indiana
McGill
Eastman
Cornell
Princeton</p>
<p>I am currently an undergraduate composition major at a well known east coast conservatory, with a 3.5 GPA. Haven't taken the GRE yet.</p>
<p>Does composition require the GRE? I know my music performance major didn't need it for grad school.</p>
<p>S has had a number of friends go to grad school for composition. Juilliard, Indiana, and Cleveland seem to be the popular ones among his friends.</p>
<p>There are a number of undergrad composition threads that can accessed by searching. A number of these schools have been touched on, and some of the points address grad programs, faculty. Former posters WindCloudUltra and MahlerSnob were knowledgeable about comp programs. You might want to search for posts with those user names.</p>
<p>You also might want to look into NYU/Steinhardt for composition as well.</p>
<p>Son has a fellow Hartt classmate at Yale for composition. Great department, very tough admit.</p>
<p>binx, the GRE requirement is school specific, even for performance/composition/music history grad appliants. A few of the initial schools son was investigating for grad performance required GRE. It would not surprise me if it's required by Cornell, Princeton. It's always good to check.</p>
<p>I know a young woman getting her master's at IU (did her undergrad there, too) and she is happy with the program. She is looking at UTexas for her PhD in composition, so they must have some good faculty.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies so far. While I believe virtually all schools ask for GRE for MA and PhD fields (theory, musicology, etc), all the Ivy League level schools seem to require GRE for ALL composition applicants, even for MM and DMA admittance. McGill is an exception, and I believe they don't ask for testing from composers.</p>
<p>I would eventually like to end up at an Ivy League institution, although I'm not confident I can pull up my GPA by a few decimal points AND manage to study enough for the GRE in time for Master's applications. (Also, some top acadmic institutions require speaking knowledge of French or German from a composition applicant as well. Columbia is one such place.) </p>
<p>More realistically, I'm planning on attending a conservatory to get my masters, and in the meanwhile study hard to get my standarized test scores to a competent level to apply for doctoral studies at an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experiences or impressions about the composition faculty and program at Rice's Shepherd? You can PM me if you prefer.</p>
<p>D said it is a small program but that the faculty is excellent. They actually teach undergrad and graduate theory, so she had some of them as teachers.</p>