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Portfolio Assessment for Admission to Composition ProgramsI. This differs enormously from school to school and level to level. Some examples:Small liberal arts college, BA program only (composition or composition/theory)Students do not apply as freshmen to the degree program; they apply to theMusic Department as a music major (usually includes an instrumental or vocal audition but not a theory skills exam or composition portfolio) or to the University as an Arts and Sciences major or General College student.Students receive a general music degree; first composition classes are often takenas juniors, after all basic theory courses are complete. Composition or comp/theoryare emphasis areas of the degree.No need for portfolio to admission to the emphasis area; students who want thecomp or comp/theory track are simply advised into the appropriate courses.Most often there is a single faculty member who teaches many theory classes and has a few private composition students, or perhaps a small composition class.There is no recruiting for the program. Majors tend to weed themselves in as their exposure to, and interest in, contemporary music grows during their first years in the music program. Faculty often encourage students who show promise in theory classes to consider this track.Example: William Jewell CollegeState university with medium-size music department, with BA, BM programs in comp, and some MA or MM comp studentsStudents may start composition as freshmen or sophomores. Initial courses may be style-imitation-based rather than creativity-based.Admission to the undergrad comp program may be by portfolio, but is more likely to happen at the sophomore or junior level, after comp classes have been taken. Admission can be based on student interest and grades in theory and comp classes.If the programs are large enough, and especially if there a masters program, there may be two faculty members who teach composition; often the primary teacher begins working with students at the junior or senior level, with the secondary teacher taking the freshmen and/or sophomores.Example: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (main campus)Strong Music Department in a Top-Level private university (BA, PhD or DMA comp)Often there are no undergraduate music majors except for BA (general music). Hence no performers, mostly scholars. Also, there is often no MM degree – students who do not already have an MM are admitted to the doctoral program and take graduate level course work until they have sufficient hours to formally begin doctoral study. No MM is awarded but the equivalent course work is completed.Not sure about BA admissions. Some schools may admit through portfolio review, while others function similarly to B., above. Doctoral programs are very small (perhaps 2 new students per year). Portfolio review is accompanied by interviews and testing (theory, analysis, counterpoint, skills, history). Strong scholarly component to the course work.There are usually two, or perhaps three faculty teaching composition. Examples: Cornell, University of Chicago, HarvardLarge School or Conservatory of Music (State or Private University)Often there is a preparatory department that fosters composition skills as well as performance and theory. Freshmen and transfer students are evaluated primarily by portfolio, though other criteria are considered (performance ability, analysis and skills, GPA, ACT, etc.).Less of a scholarly emphasis and greater emphasis on musical skills.There are many faculty teaching composition, orchestration, and electronic music; they generally do not teach non-composition courses as frequently as in smaller programs.MM and DMA/PhD candidates are evaluated primarily by portfolio, though other criteria are considered (GPA, TOEFL, performance skills, analysis and musical skills, recommendations and transcripts).Examples: UMKC, UT-Austin, Yale, USC, IndianaII. Attracting, Selecting and “Signing” Talented StudentsRecruiting OverviewSize and quality of applicant pool is largely determined by reputation of the program, university, or faculty. Also important are population of the community/region, and the number of alumni who are actively teaching in the field. Undergraduate recruiting for music composition is extremely difficult, as there is almost no formal pre-college composition instruction in US public or private schools. Having a strong presence in regional public schools, or loyal alumni who are teaching in area schools, and/or comprehensive pre-college instruction at the school are all ways to help to build a strong presence for the undergraduate composition program. Advertising is impractical, though there are some summer music programs that are good sources of well-trained musicians, some of whom have interest and ability in composition.Graduate programs are built primarily by strong faculty who have high visibility in the profession as a whole. Nothing gets the word out like a personal presence at conferences, workshops, and guest composer residencies at major programs. Bringing guest musicians of note also builds reputation and adds high notes to the curriculum.A reputation for both artistic excellence and pedagogical excellence builds over time. An important part of this is word-of-mouth description by current students and alumni at conferences and other meet-and-greet venues. The personal touch is extremely important in attracting high-quality students.Having the administrative and organizational act together is almost as important. Students can be turned off by inaccurate or inadequate information, long silences in response to inquiries, and lost or misplaced material. Confusing or contradictory information is also a problem. The information produced by the University can differ from that produced by the school, and even within a school the information from the recruiting office can be different from the information from the program coordinator. The website is often more important in undergraduate recruiting than in graduate recruiting, and in smaller programs than in larger ones where there is more opportunity for personal connections, but a well-organized, accurate, up-to-date and informative web-site is something to spend a fair amount of energy developing and maintaining.In web-based or other kinds of advertising, tout the program’s strengths. If you have a terrific electroacoustic studio, or a specific program of note, play that up. Finally, a reputation for a supportive atmosphere and advocacy for student achievement and job placement also help to build a program’s reputation.ProceduresLay out your calendar with the complete cycle of inquiry, application, audition/review & selection, scholarship offers, negotiation, and matriculation processes. Coordinate this with the department’s administration and staff. Roughly, ours is as follows:August: Update application information for upcoming cycleSeptember – December: Process inquiries and make contact with prospective students; assist with application processJanuary – February: Review portfolios, assist acceptable students with completion of their applications and all materialsFebruary – April: Make scholarship offers, negotiate with students, work through the waiting list as initial students accept or decline offers (a VERY complicated and time-consuming process!)May: Finalize the roster for fallIt is important to have firm deadlines. At UMKC, late applicants may not be considered at all, or if we have a chance to review their work, exceptional students will be placed high on the waiting list. This builds reputation for the program and helps avoid a situation that happens all too often – graduate students who are turned down by their first choice schools then try to get in at their second choice schools after the deadline. Our deadlines have been moving earlier each year for several years now; currently it is Dec 15 for both grads and freshmen/transfers.Having a faculty member AND a student make personal contact with all prospective students is a lot of work, but it pays off.Portfolio review is a team effort in larger programs. The greatest weight is given to artistic and technical quality, but other considerations can be important. Having a broad mix of styles and approaches among a group can create a community of learners. Recommendation letters can provide information on how students learn and whether they get along well with others. Transcripts can sometimes be illuminating. Students with significant experience in key areas can be excellent additions to a program; in our case we have a strong EM program, CITS, and NOVA, so strengths in these areas are important for us to note. Some schools require on-site interviews; we do not, largely because it would be a huge hardship for our international students (we have many of these, especially from Asia, for obvious reasons). At UMKC, the four full-time composition faculty members each review and rank applications separately and send rankings to the coordinator. We then get together for an all-day meeting to go over our combined rankings, and listen/review applicants’ works again. By the end we have created a list of students who are accepted, wait listed, or denied admission. The coordinator then works with the Enrollment Management staff to create offers.The most difficult phase of this process immediately follows the review. Getting the right number of students for a program is a jigsaw puzzle whose image keeps changing all the time. It helps to have a clear picture of what the “right” number is program – this depends on available resources (faculty members, scholarship dollars and other resources, space in applied studios, performance and other opportunities). Programs accept more students than they can handle because only a percentage of accepted students actually decide to attend. The percentage varies considerably from year to year, so be prepared to have boom and bust years as well as stable periods. I imagine this even happens at Juilliard, but it’s a way of life for almost all of us.According to the calendar established by the National Association of Schools of Music, which accredits all college-level music programs, financial aid offers must be in graduate students’ hands by April 1, and students must accept or reject these offers by April 15 (undergraduates have somewhat later deadlines). In truth, students are accepting and rejecting offers throughout the months of March and April. Some of the “no’s” are open to negotiation, others not. As students make their decisions, the puzzle changes, particularly with regard to scholarship offers, because the dollars that have been attached to offers become available for reallocation when those offers are declined. This process varies significantly from school to school. Somehow, by the first of May, most of this has been settled, though the wait list students can still be in the process of making their decisions until late May or even early June. During this period there is no substitute for personal faculty involvement. Students are often very torn by this process – it’s a big decision and there are many factors. Having a person that they know will be there to help them can make a big difference. A few schools have such long-standing international reputations that they can afford to be aloof in this process, but none of us are likely to teach there. In point of fact, we have been known to “steal” students from some of these places, even when money was not the issue, by being the place with heart.Something to be aware of: this is an emotional process. Faculty can spend weeks cultivating a group of prospective students, meet them in person, spend hours helping them through the process, go to great lengths to find resources, get them within a hair of signing, only to lose them at the last minute (or even later) to another school (perhaps even a lesser school). It can be a big emotional letdown. Years of experience can soften this, but it’s never easy.July is really the only month where very little happens in the recruiting process. Enjoy it. ................
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