First, for most composition programs you will be asked to send a CD of recordings to go with your scores. While most schools will probably accept MIDI, Sibelius, or Finale realizations, it is in your best interest to have your pieces performed by real, live people. If you happen to have your portfolio already recorded, great! If not, you may want to arrange your senior recital or a recording session prior to applying. As an example, I presented a recital on October 6th, had an additional recording session on October 29, and put together a CD sometime during the 30th and 31st.

Secondly, most of my instructions so far are roughly the same regardless of MM or MA program (Music Ed. and Music Therapy are two exceptions). For a degree in musicology, you would need to submit a portfolio of academic papers in musicology, for theory, you would need to submit a portfolio of academic papers in theory. Performance majors would need to send a CD or more commonly schedule an audition.

Now then. Actually applying. As I said in part 2, I gathered all my information for the application process, and took an entire Saturday just to apply. This may not be needed if you’re looking at two to three schools, but if you’re looking at eleven, then do it. The vast majority of applications are online, in various lengths. For example the application to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is really short. REALLY short. Roughly a page. Other applications are large multi-step affairs. Several schools are transitioning to a completely web-based system for reference letters. This actual application process is fairly straightforward.

From here, the graduate college will look at your application, transcript, and everything else, see if you meet their minimum requirements, and then either send your portfolio to the music unit, or ask the music unit for their opinion (based on the portfolio you actually sent to the music unit). The music unit will send your portfolio to the composition department (or whatever your major area is), where it will be heavily scrutinized. Or more accurately, evaluated.

Some colleges and schools of music will require an application to the school of music, and some will require that you fill out a graduate assistant application when you apply. Some will not.

A word about graduate assistantships. Apply for them. Apply early. For large state institutions, it is not unusual for a graduate assistantship to cover tuition (for so many hours), health insurance, and a stipend of eight to ten thousand dollars. Private schools (as far as I know) grant similar packages. If you truly are doing what you love, you cannot ask for a better situation than to be paid to go to school.

So now that that’s all done, now comes the super fun part! Now, all you have to do is wait. and wait. and wait. and you get the idea. For the application I sent in the beginning of November, the first I heard about admissions was in late February, and that was EXTREMELY early. The first GA offer came in mid to late March, and the offer that I finally accepted was extended in early June. So what happens during this time? Besides going crazy, of course.

Several schools are going to want, and probably require, interviews. Some schools will do their first round of cuts before require an interview. Some schools will work with your schedule and allow you conduct the interview over the phone. Some schools would just like to have you in for a visit. From January to April 2009, I traveled to Lawrence, KS; Waco, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Norman, OK; and Winston-Salem, NC. That’s a lot of driving. My advice would be to visit as many of the schools as you can, and all of the schools about which you are serious.

As far as interview dress code goes, I would say it would be at or above the dress code for a job interview. For my trip to Baylor (which was not an actual interview but more of a visit), it was completely casual. For my actual interviews I dressed significantly nicer. When I asked the professors at Butler University how I should dress, I received the response “Well, I always tell my composers to dress nice.” They were visibly impressed when I showed up in a suit. Your mileage may vary.

So that’s what I have for this month. From looking for what you’re wanting to putting together a unified portfolio to the application process, now all that needs to be done is the waiting.

Did I mention the waiting?

At this point, you should have about ten schools, all thoroughly researched, to which you will apply. Deadlines vary by school, but most deadlines fall between December 1st and January 15th. For good measure, you should apply by mid-November. Assuming that you start thinking about the application process at the beginning of your senior year, you should have plenty of time.

The first thing you should do is to write out the admission procedures for every school at which you are looking. Applying to graduate school is generally a two step process. Step one is to apply to the graduate school or graduate college of the university, and step two is to apply to the actual school of music. Every school is different in exactly how they split up the application procedure, so do make sure that you pay close attention to how they want it done. Generally, you will apply to and send your transcript to the graduate school, which will then ask the school of music for their recommendation. The school of music will base their recommendation on various items, discussed later.

Some graduate schools will require scores from the GRE General test. Some won’t. Make sure you have in your notes whether or not each school requires this, and plan accordingly.

And then there are transcripts. Some schools require that transcripts be sent directly from the school, some are fine with you including them in your portfolio. The same goes for letters of reference. Actually, letters of reference are being done online more and more.

So applying to graduate school is pretty easy. Have your GRE scores sent to the school (if needed), send your transcripts, and fill out the application online. Applying to the school of music is more involved. For a composition program, schools generally want to see the following items:
1. An application to the school of music.
2. A portfolio of compositions (usually 3, sometimes as little as 1. The University of Denver requires one score be notated by hand.)
3. A CD of compositions
4. Letters of recommendation/reference (usually between 2 and 4, three is pretty common).
5. A resume/performances list
6. An application for graduate assistantships.
7. A letter of intent
8. (sometimes) Transcripts

And remember, this has to be done for each school. Some schools also require a sample of scholarly writing, some schools don’t require a letter of intent. The way I handled the paperwork was to print two copies of a checklist for what each school wanted. One copy went in the envelope I was preparing, the other copy stayed in a folder of graduate application paperwork. When something went in the envelope, it was checked off.

This packet of stuff is your first impression to the school of music so plan accordingly. Some schools ask for an interview, some schools will not, so this may be all they see of you until you are accepted. I used the same letterhead/font choice/logo for everything from the resume to the mailing label. I would look at getting scores bound at a local copy shop (I used Office Depot and was quite happy). Have someone look over an early copy of your resume and your letter of intent.

Reference letters can be interesting, as they are perhaps the only aspect of your application packet over which you have no control. I would advise you to ask early–and check often. In my case I knew most of the music faculty well, and had no problem asking any of them for a reference. I sent them a short email asking if they’d be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me, and they all responded positively (do this early, professors’ schedules are insane at the beginning of the semester, and then it gets worse!). Make their lives easier by putting together a list of schools, their requirements and addresses, and the general date when they are due.

Most schools will require a CD of performances of your works. In my case, I planned my senior recital in mid-fall so I would have recordings of everything to send to the various schools of music. CDs should be properly labeled (I used LightScribe discs to set myself apart).

Some schools, once you speak with them, will want you to meet them, or will require an interview (which we’ll get to). Travel to as many schools as you can. I visited about half of the ones to which I applied, and it didn’t seem to make that big of a difference. But visits and such, that’s getting into Part 3.

For the record, I submitted all of my applications on November 1st. Happy applying!

When I first started college, I knew I wanted to do something with music, but had the same challenge that many music majors have had over the years: How do you combine an abstract major like music with a “marketable skill” like business, teaching, music therapy, and those fields. So I chose music education, until I realized that my real love was music composition, which made me realize two things; for one, I would probably like to teach at the college level, and two, I would likely need a doctorate to do it. So at the beginning of my sophomore year, I decided I needed to think about graduate school.

Looking for a graduate program is much different than looking for an undergraduate program. During my sophomore and junior years of high school I began getting mail from colleges all over the country until I was receiving brochures from over 100 different schools. This was certainly not the case with my search for graduate programs. The biggest difference is that I had to initiate contact. This isn’t to say that graduate schools and the people that run them are unfriendly (well, some are, but that’s a different story), in fact the opposite seems to be true. The next biggest difference is that most graduate schools do everything online anymore, instead of mailing out information packets.

I began really researching graduate programs in September of 2007, during my junior year at Drury. Even though I requested information from grad schools all over the country, my search was based on certain criteria and assumptions. Here’s how I based my search:

1) I will probably get each of my degrees from different schools, so I have diverse base of teachers. (This ended up not being true, but it is something worth considering early.)

2) As I understand it, private schools that offer doctoral, masters, and bachelor degree programs usually divide their money in the order of 1) doctorate, 2) undergrad, and 3) master’s. Schools that offer a bachelor’s and master’s tend to give out money in the order of 1) master’s and 2) bachelor’s. Since I was planning on different schools for different degrees, I would be looking at private schools that offer a master’s but no doctorate. (This is advice I was given, I’m not sure if it’s true, but it seemed like good advice.)

3) I would also be looking at large public schools that offer all three degrees, because the funding opportunities seemed to be more uniform.

A) I wanted to stay at least somewhat close to home (I’m from southeast Missouri, I went to college in southwest Missouri). I decided that I probably wanted to stay somewhere in the midwest area. (I ended up applying to schools between Winston-Salem NC, Denver CO, Chicago IL, and Waco TX. I eventually decided on Norman, OK.)

B) I wanted to look for a larger school with an established school of music. I had done the entire “small, private liberal arts school” thing, and I was looking for something bigger, with more resources, and more people. I was especially looking for schools with a school of music in the 300-400 student range.

C) Something I had not thought of, but is especially important at this point is who is on the composition faculty. Listening to the music of the composers at a certain school will certainly give you an educated picture of the music you will be writing while attending that school.

D) I didn’t want to take lessons on my primary instrument, or do an audition on my applied instrument.

E) I didn’t want to have to pay out of pocket for anything (A tough demand, but as we’ll get to, not impossible).

So this is how I started my search. I knew I wanted a larger school, either private or public, somewhat close to home, that had great opportunities for funding. I began by going though the brochures of schools that had contacted me for my undergraduate, and made a list of schools that looked promising and had a master’s program. Next, I checked out the schools of members of the music faculty at Drury and asked their opinions (While Drury is a small school, and I certainly had plenty of advice from my composition teacher, I also talked with almost everyone else at some point or another.) I did quite a bit of searching on GradSchool.com’s list of music programs, and I later consulted the list of EDUers.com graduate music program rankings (a resource I didn’t find until recently.) And finally, one school I looked at because their chair of composition was a visitor at Drury for part of our NASM accreditation.

So between all the schools on that list, there should be at least 20 to 30 good schools that offer a master’s degree of some type. What comes next is requesting information from these schools (which can often be done online via some sort of form. Whether or not you receive actual physical information in the mail depends on the school), emailing prospective teachers, and the less-than-glorious job of combing through student handbooks, curricula, and websites to see how you want to spend two years of graduate study.

A note on degrees: The two basic degrees offered in music programs is the MM (Master of Music, very common) and the MA (Master of Arts, more common in liberal arts settings). I chose the more specialized MM degree. You will also see schools that offer no master’s degree, but only offer a doctorate (such as Northwestern University). It is difficult to get into a post-baccalaureate doctorate program, but I recommend applying, if nothing else, for practice.

So this is a good starting point, and by far takes the longest time (It actually feels like waiting for a decision takes the longest time, this is actually false). What you’re looking for is a good base of about ten schools to which you will actually apply. So start researching!