I got accepted to the CCS at UCSB and the composition program at CSUN. Anyone got experience in these and want to give input? I loved both campuses and have heard great things about both programs. Please help!
These will be very different college experiences. I’m not familiar with the composition professors but the overall atmospheres of the schools is very different. You’ll be surrounded by different student bodies. Different landscapes. Different course offerings outside the composition program. UCSB’s College of Creative Studies is quite unique. Like a Liberal Arts College within the larger university. CSUN, outside of the music program, will have many more commuter students.
Are you particularly interested in any particular professors? Have you compared the curriculums required for the degree? Have you looked at the actual course lists? Have you compared the opportunities to hear your music performed? Do either of the departments seem to have a particular aesthetic? Are you interested in more experimental music, or lean more towards traditional classical? Any idea of your goals after undergrad? What kind of college experience are you hoping for?
Thanks for your reply. I liked CSUN’s professor, but the UCSB professor seemed cool too.
I couldn’t find a Composition curriculum for CSUN but UCSB had a great one. The opportunities look about equal as far as performing. I am not interested in electronic soundscape composition but am in Twentieth Century Harmony, ie Boulez, Hindemith, Stravinsky. I wanna be a writer for ensembles after. I want the best college experience, surrounded in a good fun easy environment and possibly double major in something else for academics, but still will do what it takes to achieve what I want.
Seems like a clear choice to me from what you just posted. CCS is supposed to be a very special experience. And UCSB will offer you the rest of a great college experience. CCS is solely focused on composition as its music option, as well, so as a composer you know you won’t be an afterthought. Why not go visit both again?
Nice idea. Thanks so much! Is CCS for a specific composition style?
@eblackburnmusic I’m sure you’ve done research but for others viewing this thread, the first sentence from the College of Creative Studies Composition page https://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/majors/music-composition:
The CCS Music Composition Major is geared toward preparing students for graduate school or for careers as professional composers. Students develop their personal composing voice while building a foundation in classical composition techniques. The instructors are working composers, who provide a professional intensity to the undergraduate experience by means of one-on-one tutorials from the very first quarter, small seminar courses unique in approach and creative in design, and special projects.
Curriculum
The highly malleable CCS curriculum design enables an individual’s course of study to bend in the direction of personal interests and goals, even as it maintains solid integrity in the form of a core curriculum. At the very center of this core is individual instruction with a composition teacher. One of the resident Music Composition faculty members also serve as the student’s faculty advisor for the duration of the program. Students also take many courses in the Department of Music in the College of Letters and Science.
One other thing to keep in mind in comparing the two programs - CSUN has grad students in the composition program, but CCS is exclusively an undergrad program.
They both look like great programs.
I am a little confused about UCSB having a composition major in the music dept. http://www.music.ucsb.edu/programs/composition and also in the CCS. But CCS looks like a great program, with flexibility built in.
CSUN looks like a challenging program with some emphasis on “new music”, and I like the page where they explain that contemporary/popular writing is not really what they are looking for.
That said, I would choose UCSB without a doubt for the larger resources and the interesting program.
If money is an issue, go with that though!
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I’m taking everything into consideration!
Congrats on having these choices. And for composition grad school is the key period for development for some.