Graduate Admissions Information for Faculty
Admissions process
Students have until Monday, December 1 at 11:59 PM (CST) to submit their application. Detailed instructions, including area-specific repertoire guidelines, are posted on the School of Music Graduate Admissions page.
Application materials
The application consists of two components:
- School of Music application (Google Form, no fee)
- Graduate School application (for entry to UW-Madison, $75 application fee)
The Graduate Program Manager will verify that applications are complete (e.g. English proficiency, portfolio, etc.) and will send each area a list of their candidates to be reviewed via email on Wednesday, December 3.
The list will include include the following details for each candidate:
- Name, email address, and program applied for
- Instructor/advisor request
- Link to "Reader"
- Link to "Portfolio"
- Any special notes about application status
The "Reader" link leads to an online file where all application materials can be viewed. UW login is required in order to access the Reader.
Additionally, performance candidates will have a separate link to their media portfolio, which is typically submitted in the form of a Google Drive or YouTube playlist.
Students request letters of recommendation as part of their Graduate School application. These letters are technically due on December 1 along with the rest of the materials, but of course we cannot force recommenders to meet this deadline. Faculty may exercise discretion over how many letters they would like to see before making a decision on the student's application.
Auditions
For areas that require audition prescreening, these decisions will be due no later than Wednesday, December 17. Decisions should be communicated to the Graduate Program Manager via email by the Major Professor or Area Chair. Students will be notified of the audition decision via email.
The Graduate Program Manager will review the unofficial transcripts before issuing audition invitations in order to confirm eligibility for admission. Potential issues will be flagged and must be discussed with the Director of Graduate Studies before proceeding with the audition.
The Graduate Program Manager will schedule auditions for the Brass, Percussion, Piano, Strings, Voice, and Woodwind areas on the following days:
- Saturday, January 17
- Saturday, February 14
Audition day schedules will be drafted for both dates as soon as possible before the holidays. Faculty are asked to respond to scheduling questions and approve drafts as soon as possible in order to facilitate smooth audition planning.
Schedules will be planned so that areas receive equal access to the large performance spaces in the Hamel Music Center, to the extent possible. Morphy Hall will be used for Master's auditions, if necessary.
On the audition day, the following activities will take place, facilitated by a team of graduate student ambassadors:
- Live auditions (Option 1)
- Zoom interviews after submission of a recorded audition (Option 2)
- A general informational session hosted by the Director of Graduate Studies
- Brief informational/meet-&-greet session with the area faculty
Requests for rescheduling will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Graduate students may be scheduled on undergraduate audition days, if necessary and provided there is space, with the understanding that there will be no graduate info session or graduate student ambassadors on that day.
Conducting faculty will schedule and carry out their own auditions.
See the List of Audition Dates for long-term audition planning information.
Area-level decisions
Performance areas will make admission decisions on the basis of the completed audition. Non-performance areas (Composition, Musicology, Music Education) will make decisions based on their separate review of candidates, which may include an optional interview or meeting with the student.
All admission decisions and fellowship nominations will be due on Monday, March 2. This is the Monday following the final undergraduate audition day. Each area may put forward two nominees for the departmental fellowship competitions.
Essential principles of the area-level admission decision:
- Admission decisions must be communicated to the Graduate Program Manager by email for further processing. Faculty will not be inputting decisions into the admissions platform.
- Faculty may not contact students to offer admission independently. Students will be informed of their admission by way of an official email sent by the Graduate Program Manager.
- Admission offers are not associated with a guarantee of funding. The admission offer grants permission to enroll in the program; funding decisions are handled subsequently. Any student who is admitted may choose to enroll, with or without funding.
- Admission offers may not be rescinded. If necessary, faculty may place a student on an informal waitlist for their studio/area.
The School of Music admission decision is a recommendation to the Graduate School. All candidates must also be approved by the Graduate School after sending in their official transcripts.
Academic probation/terms
Based on the transcript review performed during the audition process, and after consultation with the area faculty/prospective Major Professor, the Director of Graduate Studies may place the following conditions on a student's admission:
- A course deficiency in musicology or music theory (e.g. "must take X in the first semester and pass with a grade of B or higher")
- Academic probation for one or more semesters with no funding
- Other terms to be clearly defined in the admission offer
Additionally, if the Graduate School has concerns about a student who has been recommended for admission, they may request an appeal to be submitted by the department. In this case, the student will likely need to be admitted on academic probation with no funding for at least the first semester of study.
International students
English proficiency
Unless eligible for an exemption according to the criteria stated in UW Policy 1241, non-native English speakers must provide a valid test score (TOEFL, IELTS, DuoLingo) meeting the minimum scores set by the Graduate School. This test score is due on December 1 along with the rest of the application materials. The Graduate Program Manager will strictly enforce this requirement before issuing an audition invitation.
Important: Some students who are able to fulfill the minimum proficiency requirement for the purposes of admission still struggle to communicate and complete graduate coursework in English after arrival on campus. While there are resources on campus to assist these students (ESL courses, Writing Center, etc.), ultimately they must keep up with the rigorous academic expectations placed on all graduate students, whether international or domestic. Therefore, faculty must exercise careful and conscientious discretion when recommending international students for admission, in particular Doctoral students who will be writing a DMA project or PHD dissertation.
While the submitted writing samples and English proficiency test scores can be useful tools in the admissions process, in the age of AI they should be assessed with an appropriate amount of skepticism. The audition/interview should be utilized as an opportunity to assess the student's ability to communicate and understand academic English in a dynamic, unplanned setting.
Financial requirement
In order to finalize their admission to UW-Madison and receive/transfer their F-1 visa, international students must confirm possession of sufficient funds to cover tuition and living expenses for one year (approximately $48,000). Click here for details.
A Fellowship or 50% Teaching Assistantship in the School of Music will cover the entire amount required. A 33.4% Teaching Assistantship in the School of Music will cover about $45,000, leaving about $3,000 of which the student must prove personal possession in order to finalize their admission.
Funding process
Fellowship competitions
The School of Music has two departmental fellowship opportunities:
- Paul Collins Fellowship
For the 7 performance areas
Expect to make two offers this year
2 nominations per area - Graduate School (“University”) Fellowship
For Doctoral candidates only
Number of awards TBD
2 nominations per area
Detailed information about the fellowship competitions will be sent to faculty in January. Before Spring Break, the Graduate Recruitment & Funding Committee will select winners of the University Fellowship, and an ad hoc Collins Committee will be set up to pick the winners of the Collins Fellowship (dates TBD).
TA decisions
The Graduate Program Manager will collect applications from admitted prospective students as well as current students for available TA positions in certain areas (Band, Theory, etc.). All TA applications will be due on Tuesday, March 10. Recipients will be selected by the prospective TA supervisor(s).
Prospective students will only be invited to apply for these positions after they are admitted to the School of Music, which is why admission decisions must be finalized by March 2.
Individual faculty and areas with designated TA funding resources may make decisions on their own timeline, based on their review of the eligible candidates.
All TA positions must be associated with a clear set of duties and/or course assignments, to be approved by the Director as part of the overall departmental TA budget plan.
Funding offer deadline
Initial fellowship and TA offers must be made no later than Wednesday, March 25 (just before Spring Break). All offers and multi-year funding guarantees must be approved by the Director before the student is contacted.
Official funding offer letters and associated documents are sent by the Graduate Program Manager. To facilitate clear and consistent communication, faculty are asked to not convey details of graduate funding independently to a student.
It is highly recommended that areas establish ranked alternate lists in order to facilitate speedy re-offering of positions that are declined, especially as we approach the national decision deadline (see below).
April 15 deadline
First-pick students will have until the national deadline of Wednesday, April 15, to respond. The School of Music deadline for response is 4:00 PM CST.
UW-Madison is a signatory to the Council of Graduate Schools April 15 Resolution, which stipulates that students are under no obligation to respond to a funding offer before this date. Even after this date, the student may change their mind and accept a different offer. In this sense, the April 15 decision deadline is a "right of first refusal" that benefits the student.
Positions may be re-offered as many times as necessary until April 15, and decisions very often come down to the last minute.
After the April 15 deadline, positions may be re-offered with flexible response deadlines at the discretion of the faculty in consultation with the Graduate Program Manager. Students should be given at least one week to decide on a last-minute funding offer after April 15.
Final response deadline
The final response deadline for last-minute funding offers as well as for students who have not been offered funding is Friday, May 1. Faculty may grant extensions on the student's decision, on a case by case basis. We aim to have the incoming student list finalized by mid-May for enrollment planning purposes.
Students are welcome to provisionally commit to attend and then withdraw over the summer if their plans change. Students can apply for funding in other departments throughout the summer and up to the start of classes.