<p>I'm currently compiling a list of schools for application to PhD-Musicology programs (my specialty is Baroque (French especially), and I'm also planning to minor in ethno, preferably in the music of India or Russia/the Balkans), and I'm looking for any info you could offer in terms of quality of faculty, performing communities, collegial atmosphere (student-teacher, student-student, inter-departmental, etc.), common rates of progression through programs (in other words, how long does it take for a well-motivated student to complete the program), post-grad placement programs...anything you think might be helpful for my decision. </p>
<p>Here's my current list of schools (please feel free to suggest others, too): </p>
<p>U of Chicago
Harvard
UC-Berkeley
Illinois-Champaign/Urbana
UCLA
Cornell
U of Pittsburgh
Ohio State University </p>
<p>I'm particularly interested in any info you may have on Cornell or Pittsburgh, as I have no sense of these schools whatsoever! </p>
<p>I don't think Pitt has a full doctoral program....it looks like they just have certificates...unless I'm reading the website wrong.....I don't know much about the dept but I love the city. It's a nice place to live and go to school.</p>
<p>I think you may be right. When I took a close look at their website, it listed a PhD program in music with a "subspeicialty" in musicology. I'll have to call them to see exactly what that means...</p>
<p>I've had great luck getting in touch with folks from each of these universities, EXCEPT U of Illinois! If you are currently in, or know someone who is currently in the program, could you put them in contact with me?</p>
<p>Some other top musicology programs with good funding:
Columbia
Princeton
Michigan
Stanford (no ethno)
Penn
Also, look at Brandeis as a fallback from which you might be able to transfer.
CUNY also has a good program.</p>
<p>not so much for the rankings, as for the data that goes into them.</p>
<p>Be aware that most programs take only 1 or at most 2 Baroque specialists a year, so given the dearth of slots, you have to apply widely (10-12 schools might be a goal) and see how the chips fall.</p>
<p>(My d. is entering the musicology program at Princeton this fall as an Italian Renaissance/Baroque specialist.)</p>
<p>Most take two or three music history students total per year, in all specialities. Once accepted, you are not bound to stick with your "speciality" -- you will first have to do course work and comps...the dissertation is several years down the road, and you can explore different areas. In fact, it is good to have multiple interests. On the other hand, I don't think you "minor" in another field, though you can of course take classes in ethno and theory if you are a music historian -- also be warned that ethno and music history are quite distinct in their approaches (and sometimes clash with each other).</p>
<p>Also, as nobody else has addressed this: it would be unusual to finish in less than 6 years in most programs. Keep that in mind when you compare fellowships.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, mini! I'm curious, did specific schools tell you that they only take a certain number of specialists of each major era (Baroque, Romantic, etc), or is this just a general rule?</p>
<p>check out this site: American</a> Musicological Society
It has lots of information that might be of interest to prospective music graduate students. </p>
<p>The way some departments work, is that the people on the committee reviewing the applications will push for particular candidates for admission, often based on what they say will be their speciality -- it varies from year to year; a Mozart specialist might find an applicant interested Mozart to be an appealing applicant, for example, but the following year may not be on the committee. You are not necessarily expected to wind up specializing in that topic once there. Also, many departments are small, and the faculty member who directs your dissertation need not have written on the same subject -- a Brahms specialist could direct a dissertation on Bartok.</p>
<p>"Thanks for the info, mini! I'm curious, did specific schools tell you that they only take a certain number of specialists of each major era (Baroque, Romantic, etc), or is this just a general rule?"</p>
<p>My d. looked up the specialists in her area at each school and first e-mailed and then called each one (before applying - it is considered bad form to do so after applying), to discuss the program, to find out how many students they had in her area, etc., and to begin to get a sense of compatibility - it is often the mentor in the particular area of interest who will make or break a students' career. She applied to 11 programs (including two Canadian) - and I don't think there was a single program that took more than two Baroque applicants in a single year, and many often didn't even take one.</p>
<p>another thing to note, though this is anecdotal and may not apply to the OP: when my kid and another undergrad music major applied at the same time, from the same undergraduate program, to a wide range of top graduate schools for music history, in no case were they admitted to the same programs, though they both got into about half of the ones they applied to. Coincidence? My sense was that the graduate programs were disinclined to accept more than one student from any single undergraduate music department. This would suggest that it is important to apply widely.
Have you considered McGill? It has a strong and large music department, the Schulich School.</p>
<p>Looking at the lists of attending students at each school, I would come to similar conclusions - never two entering students from the same school (which means, of course, students coming from what might ostensibly be considered the strongest undergraduate programs might be at a disadvantage - though the odds on admission are generally so poor that maybe it doesn't matter a lot.</p>
<p>McGill was my d's second-choice school. It is a great program in a terrific university in a fine location.</p>
<p>Ooh, this is an interesting discussion. I have also just applied to a bunch of musicology/theory programs, and I have no idea what to expect. It hadn't occurred to me that only 1 baroque specialist would be accepted per year. That's a frightening thought (though I'm not a baroque person). I just sort of assumed that the best students with the best writing skills and undergrad records would be chosen (within reason). Hmm. Does anyone know when to expect decisions? I have only heard from one school so far, and they had me over for an interview last week (local school, so no biggie). Does anyone know anything about UVA and DUKE? I threw them on my list last minute, but I know little about them aside from a few strong jazz scholars.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Since our discussion on this board this past summer, I have had a chance to speak with my potential advisors at the schools where I am applying (listed below). They all said that their committees do not decide by student speciality, though you may have a certain professor lobbying for a particular student because of shared interests.</p>
<p>I finally decided on the following group (in a rough order of preference):</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
U of Chicago
Harvard
Ohio State
Princeton
UNC-Chapel Hill
Brandeis
U Pittsburgh
U of Illinois</p>
<p>The earliest that I may expect to hear from anyone is the last week of January, another group around mid-February, and the final group around mid-March. There is a forum that posts results on another website. PM if you'd like the information.</p>
<p>good luck.
keep in mind, when selecting a school, that prestige is important and so is money -- go with the most prestigious school that gives you the most money...this sounds crass, but the job market for musicologists is tight -- very much so this year, with Stanford among others canceling job searches. Berkeley does very well placing people; Harvard has a relatively young faculty right now, not many heavyweights (except the ones who decamped from Princeton to go to Harvard a couple of years ago) -- though Harvard is Harvard and it has lots of money. As places to live for 6 years, Cambridge and Berkeley are tops.
Also, apply for conferences -- there are student conferences every year; you want to start building your resume as soon as you can. It's a lot easier to be accepted to give a paper at a conference than to get an article published, and you can meet people and make important connections.</p>
<p>You'll notice that the more prestigious schools are at the top of the list ;) I have OSU higher than one might expect, considering their relative lack of prestige, because they really do have an impressive placement rate and faculty (especially in my field).</p>
<p>I'm hoping I'll have a little leeway with the prestige factor, since I've already given a conference presentation, published an article, and may have my first book published by the end of 2009 (editorial staff is on board, but the company brass are dragging their feet).</p>
<p>One last message to all of you perspective musicologists…</p>
<p>First, if you have your heart set on a school, unset it now. As you can see above, I had my “preference order” listed above. As I look back at some of the schools at the top of that list, however, I realize how silly this listing was. I now know that I would have fit in poorly at more than one of the schools from the top of my list. </p>
<p>Get to know as much as you can about each school, and not just academically. Get to know some of the students, visit the campus when possible just to see daily life, talk to recent grads who are out in the job-hunting market, etc. etc. </p>
<p>On the GRE: as an educator, I absolutely detest standardized testing, and perhaps none more than the GRE (the point of graduate work, in my opinion, is to prepare us for independent professional work, not to learn how to take a uniform, fill-in-the-bubbles test!). There will be so many different messages coming at you regarding the importance of the GRE. Here’s the simple truth: some schools and musicology departments care a lot about those scores, some just a little, some not at all. Contact the department, ask them, and prepare accordingly. Some schools (especially the bigger ones) have to find funding for their grads in a competitive university-wide pool. In this situation, the only “standard” comparison is GRE scores. For this reason, they may pass on a student with better professional potential and qualifications for a student with higher GRE scores whom they know can get funding.</p>
<p>People will come to you with a hundred first and second and third-hand stories of someone with mediocre test scores who still got into their school of choice. Kudos to them, but if you want to give yourself the best chance at a certain school, be sure to find out if GRE scores matter to them. Some will be forthright, some will be coy; just keep pressing until you get that answer!</p>