Reading the rest of this page will help you decide if Columbia is the right graduate program in Ethnomusicology for you, and whether you would be a competitive applicant for our program.

If you are a student currently in the PhD program in ethnomusicology, this page also summarizes the current official program policies and requirements. It should be considered an official document for advising purposes.

Please read this page closely before contacting the Program Chair (Prof. Aaron Fox for 2007-8) with further inq uiries. Most initial questions we receive about the program are addressed in detail below. Prof. Fox can only answer inquiries about topics not addressed here.

The comments on this page reflect our experience with the questions most often asked in initial inquiries about our program. This page is very detailed, but you should read it in its entirety if you are serious about applying to Columbia's graduate program in ethnomusicology. After you have read this page carefully, feel free to contact Prof. Fox by EMAIL ONLY (do not phone) with further questions about the program. Note that Prof. Fox has a substantial email backlog and it may take a week or longer for a reply.

1) What is the relationship between the MA and the PhD components of your program? Do you have an MA-only option?

Answer: Columbia does NOT offer an MA-only track in the Ethnomusicology area of the Musicology graduate program. All students who apply are presumed to be seeking the PhD degree, and you should be SURE not to check the "MA" box on the online application forms. Our students earn an MA degree, typically after three semesters of coursework capped by the completion of a substantial ethnographic thesis (75-150 pages is the general length), produced under close faculty supervision during our two-semester "field methods" course sequence (from the second semester of year one to the first semester of year two). We require students to undertake a substantial ethnographic project for the thesis, almost always based somewhere in the New York area (for obvious reasons of accessibility and time management) as training for the process of designing and realizing a major dissertation project. We do, on occasion, decide that a student is not best served by continuing past the MA stage of our program, and in such (rare) cases -- which can occur if a student does not finish the MA thesis by early in the second semester of the second year, or if the thesis does not meet our standards for a substantial work of ethnographic research -- a student may end up leaving our program with what is called a "terminal MA degree." Since the MA degree here requires, in addition to the thesis, the passing of 18 credits of coursework (typically, students take 3 courses per semester for a total of 9 credits per semester, but in some cases students take fewer courses per semester), and the passing of an exam in at least one language (typically, demonstrating reading ability in a European language relevant to research in Ethnomusicology -- French, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc., though there are other possibilities given particular research specializations), it is possible that all requirements for the MA degree will not be met until the end of the second year. However, and despite the occasional exception to this rule, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) requires all students to complete the MA degree within two years, and we observe this rule strictly within our program unless there are significant mitigating circumstances -- health or family emergencies, for example -- along with strictly enforcing the requirement that the thesis be substantially finished (in near-final draft form) by the beginning of the second semester of year two. In most cases, students have met all requirements for the MA when they have completed the thesis. The emphasis of our program is on the PhD dissertation, and immediately upon completion of the MA thesis we expect students to turn their attention to the development of an original contribution to the scholarly literature that will be the foundation for their dissertation research. Indeed, we generally hope and expect that the MA project will lead the student, directly or indirectly, toward that project. If you are not sure you want to pursue a PhD, it is inadvisable to apply to our program.

2) What background in Western music history and theory is expected of applicants to your program?

Answer: This is a very common question, and the answer is somewhat complex. According to the official departmental requirements listed in the GSAS bulletin, we expect applicants to have a "strong background" in the history and theory of "Western music." This is a matter under some debate within our program and across various areas of our department's graduate offerings. It is the opinion and experience of the Ethnomusicology faculty that a strong background in social thought, language study, area studies, and cross-cultural experience (acquired through travel, prior research, residence abroad, etc.) is of more value for students anticipating careers as researchers and teachers in academic Ethnomusicology. We do not require applicants to have an undergraduate degree in music. Nor do we favor or disfavor students with undergraduate music degrees when we evaluate applicants to the Ethnomusicology PhD program. We do generally expect our applicants to be musically experienced, whether in Western classical music or any other tradition, and it is generally quite helpful to be able to read music, and to know the broad outlines of Western art music history and the major theoretical concepts of music of the so-called "common practice" period in that history. These skills come in handy at various points in a graduate career at Columbia, and serve students well throughout a career in Ethnomusicology. They are, however, skills that can be acquired with a modest extra-curricular effort if they are weak at the point a student applies to our program. In our experience, this is not as true of skills in social analysis, language fluency pertinent to proposed areas of research specialization, and similarly relevant travel and cross-cultural contact experiences. Historically, and currently, most of our students have been and are skilled musicians (indeed, many have been professional musicians), but not all have been skilled in Western art music traditions. Most of our students use their musical skills extensively in their pursuit of the PhD degree, and acquire additional musical skills while they are in our graduate program. And because many of our students spend part of their fellowship career teaching the department's "Music Humanities" core course, which presents a basic history of Western art music along with the key musical concepts that have developed in concert with that tradition, possessing relevant knowledge about Western art music is a valuable practical skill for students in our program. These skills can be learned, however, to a level adequate to teaching courses like "Music Humanities," by reading several textbooks over the course of a summer before one enters the graduate program, and during the apprenticeship each student who teaches in the Music Humanities program undergoes prior to being asked to take on the role of an instructor with a section of his/her own to teach.   We care more about your social scientific training, your (potential) suitability for conducting field research in your area(s) of interest, and your general musicality, than we do about the specific content of your music knowledge or your specific familiarity with the repertoires and theoretical concepts covered in a typical undergraduate US music major.

Here is the frank truth: not only do we look seriously at applications from students with backgrounds other than traditional undergraduate music degrees; we often find students with other backgrounds (anthropology, linguistics, area or ethnic studies, or political science degrees, for example), and strong musical skills acquired outside of an academic degree program (e.g., playing in bands, or during study abroad) to be stronger candidates, in general, than many if not most students who apply with BA degrees in music, unless that BA work included a substantial ethnomusicological component (as is sometimes the case).  If you are an undergraduate in the freshman-junior years, please take this advice seriously if you are planning to apply for our program, and be sure to take some coursework in anthropology or related areas of cultural studies and social science if at all possible during your undergraduate education.  If you have an honors thesis in your future, seriously consider designing a fieldwork-based ethnographic project.  If you have the chance to learn a second or third  language to a reasonable level of fluency in college, prioritize that over learning the piano or learning serial composition. All of these approaches will increase your odds of admission to our program, in to other top ethnomusicology graduate programs as well. 

3) What is the place of "performance" in your program? I notice you do not offer any lessons or ensembles.

Answer: Good question. Historically, we have never been a performance-centered program in the sense of offering course credit for playing in ensembles or taking lessons in non-Western music. Nor have we ever offered such ensembles or lessons. We are considering adding such a component to our offering over the next few years. [NOTE: we are pleased to anounce that our Bluegrass ensemble will continue through 2006-7, and that we have been offering a Japanse Gagaku performance program since 2006-7 as well. Information is on our home page.] We are partnering in this effort with the department's Music Performance Program, which currently sponsors an extensive slate of lessons and ensembles in Western classical music, and the new Jazz Performance Program, directed by ethnomusicologist Chris Washburne. There will be opportunities for graduate students to participate in whatever offerings we develop at the undergraduate level, though not necessarily for graduate credit. Students can take ensemble courses offered at NYU (which typically offers one or two such courses per semester) for graduate credit if there is a clear connection between the ensemble course in question and a student's area of research specialization.

But there's more to say about this subject. New York City is quite possibly the world's richest scene for musical performance opportunities across a huge range of styles, genres, cultures, and traditions. Many of our students have, over the years, been deeply involved in performance activities in many of the ethnic and immigrant communities in New York City. One can find a teacher for nearly any of the world's musical traditions in the city, and often this means teachers with deep and native connections to these traditions. From gamelan to salsa to West African drumming to Andean panpipes to Hindustani music to Afro-Cuban jazz to Taishanese batyam ensembles to anything else you can imagine, all you have to do is get on the telephone or the subway to find a richer and more culturally embedded performance opportunity than could be offered by any university department or program. And most of our students have taken advantage of this fact to the hilt. It's harder than taking an ensemble course with a visiting artist to have to go out into the community and search out the musical experiences you crave, but it is ultimately more like what ethnomusicologists must learn to do as professionals, and much more fulfilling when you accomplish entry into the local worlds of musical performance that exist in every corner of this city. Such connections are easier to make because of the long history of our students' work in the New York City area, and because we bring local artists through regularly for lecture/demonstrations and performances through the Center for Ethnomusicology. In other words, far from being hostile to performance, we embrace it as a more serious aspect of the training of future professionals in the field than many programs with richer formal performance offerings within their curricular structure. As mentioned above, nearly every student in our program is a musician in some respect, and many are or have been very serious professional or semi-professional musicians. Some maintain their professional careers even as they study here, and some develop such careers as they study here. All of the Ethnomusicology faculty members are active musicians, and several of us have spent large periods of our lives (one still does) making a living playing the music(s) we write about.

That said, our formal curricular offering is focused on training students in social theory and the social scientific study of music, the history and practice of the discipline of ethnomusicological research, and the pursuit of a high-level research career in the discipline. We are a small program, with the goal of training a small number of students at a time under close supervision, producing a small number of highly original PhD dissertations every year, and adding to the pool of serious researchers making major scholarly contributions to the field. Thus, our formal curriculum emphasizes research practice, intellectual history, and contemporary theoretical approaches to music as human activity. If your goal is to become a professional performer in a non-Western tradition (or a popular music tradition), this might not be the program for you.

NEW for 2005: 3a) I notice that Columbia is exceptionally strong in Jazz Studies, and Jazz is my musical and /or intellectual focus. Should I apply through the Ethnomusicology program?

Answer: Columbia is indeed in a period of remarkable efflorescence in the area of Jazz Studies, thanks to the growth of the Jazz Studies Center, directed by Prof. O'Meally (Dept. of English). Centers, at Columbia, do not have their own faculty or offer degrees. Faculty members associated with the Center are scattered across the departments of Music, English, Anthroplogy, History, and the Institute for African American Studies. In music, both Prof. Washburne (an Ethnomusicologist and professional trombonist who directs the Jazz Performance Program) and Prof. Lewis (a trombonist, composer, and scholar who is now appointed in Historical Musicology) are affiliates of the Jazz Studies Center. Our program has lately seen a remarkable number of applicants with a strong interest in Jazz, many of whom are exceptionally well qualified for graduate study, but who in many cases would be better advised to apply for graduate study in areas other than Ethnomusicology. We're not sure quite why this is the case, and we want to make such applicants aware of the broad range of options for the serious study of Jazz at Columbia. Some have a specifically ethnomusicological interest -- broadly speaking, focused on sociological and cultural questions and ethnographic methods for addressing those questions. Others have a more historical, archival, biographical, music-analytic, or performance- and composition-focused interest in Jazz, though most express some healthy blend of these interests. Because we consider it important for our program to deal with a broad spectrum of musics and cultures, and because we have many strong applicants with interests other than Jazz, we cannot admit all or even most of the promising and talented Jazz-oriented applicants we see. Therefore, we are more likely to consider seriously candidates who can articulate a specific case for approaching Jazz through ethnomusicology (or ethnomusicology through Jazz!). In other words, an interest in Jazz does not automatically mean you should apply through our program for graduate study at Columbia.

4) Do I need to work with a specialist in my area of interest? How closely will I work with faculty members and especially my adviser? Is a small program right for me?

Answer: That depends, in part, on you, and in part, on your area of interest, and in part, on what your goals are. We are a small program, with current strengths in the popular musics of the Americas and Europe, music and technology, music and language, and social theory (especially theories emphasizing gender, class, and performance). We hope to search for a new colleague in 2006-7, with an eye toward broadening the areal coverage of our program while also extending our theoretical breadth. We will not know the outcome of that search, however, in time for this year's applicants to decide whether or not to come, should they receive an offer of admission and/or fellowship from us, on the basis of a new hire. The conventional wisdom -- that you should be advised by a senior scholar who works "in your area" (i.e., an Africanist if you work in Zimbabwe, an Asianist if you work in Korea) -- is less obviously true these days than it used to be. You are better advised to consider attending a program where the university itself is strong in your area. Columbia is especially strong in South and East Asian studies, and the Middle East, and even Central Asia (though our strengh there is principally oriented toward policy and economics via the Harriman institute). We are exceptionally strong in Jazz and African-American studies. We are strong across the board in technology applications and studies. And we have one of the best post-colonial-theory-oriented anthropology departments in the country. You should also consider the importance of working with faculty who are strong in areas of theoretical focus, as well as geographical focus, that matter to you.

As a small program, we cannot offer specialists in every area of the world, or every theoretical framework. Instead, we pride ourselves on being a program that devotes serious attention to our students throughout their graduate careers, which we consider quite as important to the development of graduate students as matching faculty specializations to student projects. Three of our recent PhDs worked in East Asia, but were advised by a specialist in American popular music. Two won major grants for their research, and both of these won prestigious post-doctoral fellowships in Asian Studies, and are now employed at good jobs. None of these students lacked for expert Asianists among the Columbia faculty. One of the advantages of a young and energetic faculty is that you will be closely advised, and have consistent and constant access to your faculty mentors. Of the common complaints one hears about graduate school, perhaps the most common is "my adviser/committee/faculty never reads my work or makes time to talk to me." We strive to be a program where that complaint is never (ok, rarely) heard. We treat students as colleagues in training, and expect students to act toward each other as colleagues, and to show a collegial level of professional commitment to the program as well as to their own work. We seek to create a sense of community in our program, and we invest in that effort heavily, for example, by making the facilities and resources of the Center for Ethnomusicology available to all of our students. First-year graduate students are entrusted with keys to the Center, and the freedom to use our most expensive and important assets. And we keep students as informed as possible about the discussions happening among faculty members about the program, its future, and its policies. If you seek a small, tightly-knit community of fellow students and faculty members and visiting scholars and guests, then you should give our program a serious look. Larger programs have their advantages too. Our goal is to realize fully the advantages of a small program in a large university and a huge city.

Question: NEW Fall 2006: What are the recent changes to the faculty in ethnomusicology at Columbia?

Answer: We are delighted to announce the appointment of two new faculty members in Ethnomusicology. Prof. Christopher Washburne, who has been the Director of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program, is now also an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology. In addition, Prof. Lila Ellen Gray, a specialist in Portuguese fado, joined our faculty in the Fall of 2005 as an Assistant Profesor of Ethnomusicology. Finally, Prof. Fox has recently been promoted to tenured Associate Professor.

We are also pleased to welcome Dr. Ruth Emily Rosenberg as a Mellon post-doctoral fellow in the Columbia Music department for 2006-8. Dr. Rosenberg holds a PhD in the Anthropology of Music from the University of Pennsylvania and wrote her dissertation on Corsican lament.

Prof. Ana Maria Ochoa has moved from Columbia to become an Associate Professor of Music at New York University.

5) How important are GREs for admission and funding?

Answer: We have a very competitive admissions process. We see dozens of applications -- most from highly qualified applicants -- for 2 to 4 funded positions in our program each year. Therefore, everything counts. We care primarily about your score on the verbal GRE exam. At a minimum, you should earn around a 600 score on that exam if you are a native speaker of English. Lower scores raise red flags. Scores above 750 can be helpful. Scores between 600 and 750 are simply expected except in unusual cases where other qualifications are outstanding, or where a diagnosed and recognized disability explains a lower test score. If you do poorly, take a course, study a guide, and take it again. It's worth it.

6) How important are letters of recommendation for admission and funding?

Answer: Very, if the writers can speak to your abilities as a scholar, researcher, or cross-cultural communicator. Letters from people who barely know you, or which strike a very general tone, are less useful than even slightly critical letters from mentors who have worked with you closely. Letters from people who understand what Ethnomusicology is are much more useful than letters from people who don't. Ask your writers to be honest about your scholarly potential, not just your personal qualities. Give them writing samples to evaluate and remind them what you did in their class. (And here's a friendly bit of advice from a busy professor: give your writers at least a month's notice before the deadline, supply them with stamped, addressed envelopes placed in larger envelopes or folders, mark deadlines clearly on the enclosing folder or envelope in large letters, and remind your writers about impending deadlines -- politely -- several days before the letters have to be mailed.

7) What should I submit as writing samples?

Answer: We look at writing samples, obviously, to see if you can write fluently in English. But we also read them to see if you can think like an ethnomusicologist. Therefore, do not send us a harmonic analysis of a Haydn string quartet, even if it's well written, unless you don't have anything that deals with music in a social context, as a symbolic practice, as a meaningful human activity, as a political expression, etc. (Not that you couldn't extend an harmonic analysis of a Haydn string quartet in such directions!) And don't just print out a paper you wrote two years ago. Edit the writing samples you submit, and update them. Give us your best. The writing samples you submit are extremely important. Length is less important than quality or an ethnomusicological topic. A shorter essay (or two short pieces) demonstrating fluency in social thought will help you more than a 50-page research paper on a topic unrelated to ethnomusicology or social thought. We will accept two shorter (approx. 1000 word) writing samples, but PREFER one substantial sample, (15+ page complete research paper, a chapter from a thesis, etc.). Please contact Prof. Fox if you have questions about what to submit.

8) What should I say in my personal statement?

Answer: The biggest mistake people make is over-doing the "personal" part. Tellng us how much you love all music, or how you always wanted to be a professor, or how you discovered Ethnomusicology, etc., should comprise only a small portion of your statement. The best applications address your goals as a scholar, your ideas for potential research projects, your developing specific interests in particular musics, cultures, and theories thereof. Make your statement sound professional; you are applying to a professional school. Avoid extended autobiographical anecdotes. We don't care that much about your extra-curricular activities unless they are arguably qualifications for graduate study in Ethnomusicology. Put them on a resumé or CV. Use the personal statement to tell us what you find intellectually compelling about music as a human activity, how you have developed your thinking about that interest or problem, and how you see that development as best served by being in graduate school here. Yes, we do want a sense of you as a person: a scholarly person.

9) Should I visit Columbia if I am serious about wanting to join the program?

Answer: If you can afford the time and money, a visit to our program is an excellent idea. It is not required, however. If you cannot visit, and there are questions you would like to ask that are not answered here, phone interviews with faculty members can be arranged. Whether you are visiting or arranging a phone interview, please send a brief academic resume in advance (degrees earned, schools attended, relevant courses and grades, major research projects, languages learned, travel experience, musical background, etc.). In-person and phone meetings are short (30 minutes at the most). It's a shame to waste the time filling in the basic facts about your experience. Be prepared, especially, to talk about your research interests and why Columbia appeals to you specifically. Visiting prospective students can usually sit in on our graduate seminars (check the course schedule and plan accordingly) and meet with faculty and students, as well as get a feel for the place in general. Be sure to let us know you're coming, and to clear the dates with us. Check CU's academic calendar to avoid holidays. Write to each faculty member individually to make appointments for meetings and for permission to attend her/his class, please. Send email ONLY (do not call) to Prof. Fox for general coordination of a visit. But also write other faculty members to make individual appointments and to obtain permission to sit in on their classes (not always permitted or possible). Be aware that there are sometimes several students visiting at any given time during the fall, and that our time is limited for meetings.

10) I'm the best candidate you've ever seen. Will I get a fellowship offer?

Answer: Not necessarily. There's no single objective criterion for what makes one strong applicant preferable to another. There is no "best candidate." There are, however, many excellent candidates, and more than we have funded positions for. We make our admission and funding decisions based on a complex calculus, considering which of many highly qualified candidates will make up the best class as a group, spreading the potential advising load among our faculty members, and lastly, considering how strongly an applicant wants to be at Columbia and is served well by being here. If you really, really, really want to come to Columbia, and you think you are a strong candidate, let us know in no uncertain terms how strongly you are drawn to our program and why.

11) I already have an MA degree. Will I have to repeat the MA requirements and thesis in your program?

Answer: Skipping our MA thesis requirement is rarely possible. If you have earned an MA in Ethnomusicology or another field where you have completed a substantial, fieldwork-based thesis equivalent to the theses done in our program, and where you have completed foundational coursework similar to ours, you may qualify for "Advanced Standing," and be exempt from the MA requirements in our program. In most cases, even students who have completed MAs culminating in substantial ethnographic theses may be advised to take some of the courses required for our MA, although if they are granted Advanced Standing, they are exempted from the 18 credits required for the MA degree, and may move directly into fulfilling the 24 credits beyond the MA required for the PhD (some of which would then be fulfilled by courses normally taken by students pursuing the MA, such as our Proseminars I and II, or our Field Methods I and II seminars). Decisions on Advanced Standing status are only rendered once a student has entered the program in every case. Students granted Advanced Standing are offered four (rather than five) years of guaranteed fellowship support, and are usually eligible for (though not guaranteed) a fith additional year, just as students who enter without Advanced Standing are often eligible for (though not guaranteed) a sixth year of support in addition to their five years of guaranteed support. The reason for the reduced amount of support in cases of Advanced Standing is, obviously, that in such cases a student generally needs one less year to complete requirements for doctoral candidacy.

12) What about the fellowships? How much teaching is involved?

Answer: Students on fellowship, whether admitted for the MA-PhD combination or with Advanced Standing, have no duties in the first year of their appointment. After the first year, students on fellowship are expected to take on a variety of duties within the department. A significant majority of our students spend at least two, and usually more, years teaching the core curriculum course known as "Masterpieces of Western Music," or colloquially as "Music Hum." In the second year of fellowship support, most students serve as teaching assistants under the guidance of more advanced instructors. After completing this year of assistantship, students on fellowship are then eligible to become instructors with their own sections of the course (and assistants of their own). Despite the name of this course, it is possible for ethnomusicologists to teach the course with a significantly ethnomusicological approach, and models for doing so have been developed. Most of our students have benefited from teaching this course, and in fact, have excelled at it, earning some of the highest student evaluations among our graduate student instructors consistently. We also have assistantships available for courses in Asian Music Humanities, always assigned to students in the Ethnomusicology graduate program, and in some of the jazz and popular music courses offered by members of the Ethnomusicology faculty. In addition, the Center for Ethnomusicology employs one student on fellowship, generally for a two year term, as the assistant to the Director. The student-published journal, Current Musicology, also employs two students on fellowship as Editor and Assistant Editor. We are looking at ways to develop more Ethnomusicology-oriented assistantships and instructorships, and it is likely that such opportunities will increase in coming years.

These duties can be time-consuming, though they are often fulfilling and always career-enhancing experiences. Students should be mindful that as their academic focus intensifies, their fellowship duties increase at the same time, meaning that even as a graduate student with full funding, you will experience a taste of the life of a professional academic -- too much to do, and not enough time. It's not for everyone, and requires real skill in time management, work discipline, and the integration of one's diverse activities.

13) What if I am admitted but not offered a fellowship?

Answer: As of 2005-6, we are no longer admitting unfunded students. All students are admitted with full funding. ng.

14) Should I apply for outside support even if I expect to be competitive for a fellowship offer at Columbia (or any other university)?

Answer: Absolutely yes. Such grants as the Javits Fellowship, the Mellon Fellowship, and the Ford Minority Doctoral Fellowships are extremely competitive and prestigious. If you win one, you will almost certainly be offered fellowship support at most of the programs to which you apply (though there is no guarantee) that can be taken in addition to the outside support, meaning that you could be supported for seven years or more, guaranteed, or take some of the support as funding for field research, etc. In addition, earning such a prestigious fellowship is quite likely to be career-enhancing if you complete the PhD. At the moment, we have one Ford Fellow among our graduate students. We'd love to have more.

15) I am a member of a recognized minority group. What are Columbia's policies pertaining to graduate admission and funding for minority students? What sources of funding are available for minority students?

Answer: You should visit the website of the GSAS' Office of Minority Affairs, headed by Dean Sharon Gamble, at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/ps/min-affairs/pages/wel/index.html for specific information on CU policies on admission and funding opportunities for minority students, and other important resources. At a program level, we strive to admit the most promising students, but also to create strong cohorts of students with diverse interests and backgrounds, and we do consider the cultural, linguistic, national, gender, and ethnic diversity of our student body as a factor in our thinking about admission and fellowship decisions, just as we do when we search for new faculty colleagues. We are proud of the diversity of our student body, reflecting a committment that extends back to the origins of our program. We encourage talented minority, international, veteran, and disabled students to apply, and to approach us directly if they have special concerns about the admission process that are not addressed directly by the Office of Minority Affairs at GSAS. Our commitment to diversity reflects a specifically academic consideration as well, since our discipline makes cultural diversity a central object of inquiry. Therefore, a diverse student body adds to the academic excellence of our program for all of our students and faculty.

16) Are there specific considerations relevant for international students?

Answer: Our admission and fellowship offers have no citizenship requirements. International students on fellowship are eligible for specific student visas through the United States Department of State. We have always had a significant number of international students in our program, and many of those students have gone on to distinguished careers in the United States and in their native countries. The international character of our program (students and faculty) is a point of pride, but also one source of our program's quality, since Ethnomusicology is so profoundly an international discipline. The main consideration related to international students is English-language fluency.Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences places specific requirements on all applicants who are not native speakers of English, detailed at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/ps/main/pages/admis-info/index.html#N101AB

The primary consideration for us in evaluating international students, other than the considerations that apply to all applicants, concerns the ability of such students to write and speak English with exceptional fluency. Because our program culminates in the production of a substantial work of scholarship -- the PhD dissertation -- in English, students who are not exceptionally skilled in English generally face great difficulties in programs such as ours. If you are interested in our program but not fluent in English to a very high level, we suggest that you devote at least a year to intensive English-language study, preferably in an immersion environment (e.g.., living in the US) before you apply. If you are not sure whether your fluency is adequate to PhD level work in our program, please send a writing sample well in advance of the application deadline and we will evaluate it informally and give you an honest opinion that may save you the time and expense of applying before you are ready. We are eager to have international students join our program; we do not want these students to have a frustrating experience.

11) So what exactly IS your curriculum? What courses do I have to take? What exams? On what schedule? (See the link to the Musicology handbook at the top of this page for additional information.)

Answer: Some of this is now under review and discussion, and changes to some aspects of our program are certain to occur in the near future (some have recently occurred and been approved). This is why we are not currently posting a formal list of required courses on the website. After 30 years under the able direction of Prof. Christensen, and as he is preparing to retire, and as we are hiring a new colleague, we are in the process of discussing and rethinking many aspects of our offering and requirements, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. In general, we are moving toward a more flexible model of "required" coursework, as are many other programs, while still maintaining a very rigorous and fixed set of core courses for graduate students. Here are the current requirements for students enrolling in the forthcoming year:

Year I, Fall Semester: 2 required core courses, one elective (9 credits)

1) Proseminar in Ethnomusicology I: An Intellectual History of the Field
This course aims to contextualize the modern enterprise of Ethnomusicology and the cultural study of music in a broad history of musical and social thought reaching back to the Age of Enlightenment and the rise of modern science, the political and economic contexts of colonialism and social change in global modernity, especially within Europe and the United States (but obviously as affecting peoples and cultures around the globe), and the specific disciplinary history of major contributions to social thought about music since the 1890s, the modern era of "Comparative Musicology," the "Anthropology of Music, " and "Ethnomusicology" as institutionalized disciplines, concluding with a consideration of the rise of cultural studies and popular music studies as alternative disciplinary and theoretical and empirical foci.

2) Proseminar in either Historical Musicology or Music Theory -- We expect our students to take the equivalent foundational seminar in at least one of our sister areas within the music department.

3) Elective: A course of the students choice, from a long list of possible choices offered around the University and at the consortium schools, in which a student is able to pursue some specific area of potential research focus for the MA and PhD projects to come. This choice is made in consultation with the entire Ethnomusicology faculty in an advising session at the beginning of the semester.

Year 1, Spring Semester (9 credits)

1a) "Advanced Research Seminar " -- Core Course in Social Thought (currently in development)
Description: In response to the feeling among the faculty that Ethnomusicology graduate programs, including our own, have not placed enough emphasis on training students in the broader history of anthropology and social theory, this will be roughly equivalent to a core course in social anthropology, covering the major founding figures of modern social thought, their lineages, and the paradigms that have flowed from their influences. The course will emphasize connections between these lineages and paradigms and questions related to music and the arts, but in a mirror image of the first proseminar, the emphasis will be on the social theories and theorists whose work has provided the much broader intellectual context within which ethnomusicologists have worked over the last century and a half. In its conclusion, this course will emphasize, especially, contemporary theories now current in anthropology and other social sciences, and will focus especially on the ways in which popular music scholarship in particular has diverged from, incorprorated, or developed apart from the musicological traditions represented in most music departments.

and/or
1b) Proseminar 2: Contemporary Musical Ethnography (details coming soon): The program has initiated a new three-course core sequence, consisiting of two "proseminars" (Intellectual History of Musical Anthropology and Ethnomusicology) and a research seminar in social theory (1a above). The three courses are offered on a rotating basis. Details will be posted here shortly.

2) Field Methods I -- The first of a two-semester required sequence of courses in field-based ethnographic research, the goal of this course is to assist students in developing an independent ethnographic research project in New York City. There is some reading of the literature on fieldwork and ethnographic methodology, but most of the course is devoted to the practical tasks of developing a research problem, seeking and entering a field research site, conducting interviews, documenting musical performance in context (including practical skills in audio and video recording and photography), and organizing preliminary fieldwork into the form of a fully realized research proposal in the form of an actual grant or dissertation proposal. The work done in this seminar is typically continued by students into the summer, and certainly during the following semester (Fall semester of year II, when it is continued in the second course in the Field Methods sequence.

3) Elective research seminar in Ethnomusicology, anthropology, or a related field, generally related to the project focus of a student's developing MA/PhD project, but not necessarily so. If an research seminar -- even on on a topic unrelated to a student's major area of interest -- is offered within the Ethnomusicology program, this will generally be the best choice for most students. (Chosen in consulation with the Area Committee advising process)

Year 2, Fall Semester (typically 6-9 credits)

1) Field Methods II -- A continuation of the first course, this course is run as a workshop, in which students bring materials to class from their work in the field and discuss problems and issues related to both the field research itself and the development of a theoretical and analytic framework for writing about this research. Assignments will be tailored to specific problems raised by specific projects. As the semester proceeds, students will begin to turn in draft chapters of their MA thesis, and the goal of the seminar is to oversee the completion of a complete draft of the MA thesis by the end of the semester. A final, edited and revised draft (as mentioned above) will be due at the beginning of the Spring semester, after the Winter break.

2)* and 3)** Elective courses in anthropology, Ethnomusicology, area studies, etc. (chosen in consulation with the Area Committee advising process)

*In alternate years, the second (elective) course taken in this semester will be replaced by a required course, offered every other year, covering the visual representation of sound. Classically called "Transcription and Analysis," we are currently developing a new version of this course which emphasizes a) the literature on the subject in Ethnomusicology and linguistics; and b) the use of computer-aided sound analysis tools. In years in which this course is not offered, there may in the future be another required seminar (in either ethnochoreology or comparative perspectives on the world's major music areas) with which the transcription course will alternate. A student should take whichever required course is offered at the earliest chance to do so.

** Depending on a particular student's need for time to write, conduct fieldwork for the MA thesis, complete any remedial language study, begin more advanced language study, and begin teaching or other work under the terms of the fellowship offer, a third course may not be required by the Area Committee for any particular student in this semester if it places too great a burden on the student in the context of these other obligations, since it is possible s/he will already have met the 18 credit minimum requirement for the MA degree.

Year 2, Spring Semester (typically 6-9 credits)

Since most students will have met the 18 credit requirement , this semester is relatively flexible. Students should plan on taking at least two seminars or courses, preferably at least one of which is directly related to their area of primary interest for dissertation research, and any required Ethnomusicology seminarthat is offered (see above) in the event that such a seminar is not offered in the Fall (this may occur due to scheduling and faculty availability). For example, the transcription course may be held in the Spring, rather than the Fall, but will be offered every other year in any event.

The focus of this semester is the early process of preparing for the exam sequence and the dissertation project proposal. Therefore, any coursework done in this semester should be oriented toward completing requirements, developing a dissertation project, and accumulating the 24 additional credits (8 courses/seminars/independent studies) necessary for the M.Phil. degree, which is the precursor to doctoral candidacy, achieved upon completion of the doctoral exam sequence. N.B. The M.Phil. degree no longer requires defense of the dissertation proposal; this occurs after the M.Phil. has been awarded.).

Year 3: The Exam Sequence

Note: See the "Year 4" section below for an explanation of how we are accelerating our program so that students begin to apply for external field research funding in Year 3.

During the third year in residence, students are expected to develop a balance of courses and seminars to prepare for dissertation field research and grant writing. The emphasis is not on requirements or the accumulation of credits (although most students will still need some coursework towards the accumulation of the 24-credit requirement for the PhD past the 18 credits earned for the MA degree) but on the acquisition of knowledge necessary to compete for outside funding for field research, to design a dissertation project that will comprise an original and major contribution to ethnomusicological scholarship, to publish or present at meetings research already completed or in development (for example, research based on the MA thesis) and to prepare for exams. Be aware that students are frequently very busy teaching as well during this year, and striking a balance between these competing demands is difficult and important. Here is the sequence of exams:

1) Analysis Presentation -- ideallly taken at the beginning of the Fall semester of the third year, in this exam students are asked to submit several musical "artifacts" (CDs, instruments, websites, films, etc.) related to their major area of interest. The facuty will choose one submission and the student has 30 days to develop and present a "conference-style" paper on one of the three choices assigned, with no assistance from faculty members. This presentation should be professional in tone and manner, lasting exactly 20 minutes, and should present a richly ethnomusicological analysis of the artifact, balancing issues of sonic and social significance, the immediate features of the artifact itself and some of the myriad contexts in which the artifact might be said to make sense or be located -- or for that matter, within which the artifact might be problematic or controversial. The presentation should be explicit about the theoretical premises of the analysis presented. After the presentation, a discussion with the Area Committee members in attendance for the presentation (which is also open to other faculty members) ensues, during which the student is evaluated on her/his ability to field and address questions of the sort one might expect at a conference presentation or job interview.

3) Written Comprehensive Exams -- Historically taken at the begining of the fourth year, we have recently moved these to the of the Spring semester of the third year. The exam consists of two four-hour sessions, during which a student writes three essays in response to three of five possible questions posed by the area committee for each session (based on questions submitted by the student for the Major/Minor area exam). The first session, entitled "General Ethnomusicology," (taken in January of the third year) tests students on their mastery of the history and practice of the discipline, the legacy of key figures in that history, and the trajectory of key ideas in that history. Increasingly, this exam focuses on contemporary popular music and media studies. The second session, entitled "Major and Minor Areas," tests students their mastery of the areal and theoretical literatures and concepts related to their "major" area of research -- the subject of their dissertation project. This comprises two of the three essays, chosen from three questions. The "minor area" requirement reflects our expectation that each student should have at least some breadth of knowledge in a muscal tradition, cultural area, or theoretical approach that is not as directly related to the dissertation project as the "major area" topics. Here, we pose two questions and expect one essay. In both cases, the questions posed are based in large part on annotated bibliographies prepared by students and submitted to the Area Committee prior to the scheduling of the exam. For the major area, we expect an extensive bibliography of at least 100 items, and preferably more. For the minor area, we expect a less comprehensive bibliography of 25-50 items.

There is one additional requirement for the M.Phil. degree, which is that a student must pass a proficiency exam in a second language. In cases where a student plans dissertation research in a language other than her/his native language, this exam will be an oral exam in that language, with a qualified speaker (ideally, a native speaker) chosen by the Area Committee, and generally taking the form of a conversation in the language in question with the examiner. In cases where field research will be conducted in a student's native language, this requirement may be met by passing a second reading exam in a different language from the one used to meet the requirement for the MA degree.

At the conclusion of the exam sequence, and assuming a student has 24 credits of coursework past the MA requirements (most have many more) and has passed a second language exam, a student is awarded the M.Phil. degree. This leaves only the successful defense of a doctoral dissertation proposal, and of course, the dissertation itself, successfully defended, as the remaining requirement for the PhD.

Year 4 and Beyond: Grant Proposals, the Dissertation Proposal, the Proposal Defense, Field Research, and Dissertation Writing and Defense
Note: Some students can complete most of the stages listed below during the 3d year. We are encouraging this accelerated scheduled for all students in the program beginning with the 2003-4 entering cohort.

The goal of year 4 in our program is to craft a comprehensive proposal for dissertation research. This must be a substantial (25 pp. average) document that explains the theoretical, practical, empirical, and contextual bases for the project. We expect students to begin serious work on this proposal at the conclusion of the exam sequence, during the Summer between years 3 and 4. However, in recent years many of our students have applied for external funding in year 3, concurrently with taking exams. This year, all four of our 3d year students won a total of 8 major research grants (incuding grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright, and IREX). It is certainly possible, for a motivated and well prepared student, to conduct fieldwork in the 4th year and complete the dissertation in the 5th year at Columbia.

Because the cycle of funding source deadlines favors proposals that are well underway by the Fall of the year before funding begins, we expect that students will spend the Fall semester of their 3d (and if necessary 4th) year applying for as many external sources of fieldwork support funding as possible. We have developed an impressive recent track record in this area, and for the past several years we have led all US Ethnomusicology programs (and most US Sociocultural Anthropology PhD programs) in securing external funding from social science granting agencies for PhD dissertation field research. The majority of our students receive at least one major grant for fieldwork. The department also offers a small number of unencumbered dissertation fellowships, and the University also offers several competitive research and writing fellowships.

Pursuing external funding may require extensive preliminary fieldwork (often conducted in the Summer months between years 2 and 4, and for which departmental support is available). In any case, as the proposal takes shape, a student also begins to form a dissertation committee. Once the Area Committee as a whole rules that a draft of a dissertation proposal is ready for defense, a defense of the proposal is scheduled with members of the Area Committee and, often, a faculty member from outside the department who will serve on the student's dissertation committee in attendance. (In such a case, the outside member must also agree that the proposal is defensible.) Typically, students approaching defense approach a member of the Ethnomusicology faculty with a request to "sponsor" (or "advise" in the terminology of other universities) her/his dissertation. The sponsor, plus two other faculty members, comprise the core "reading committee" for a dissertation, and it is generally advised that one member of this reading committee be from outside the department. (When the dissertation is defended, two more faculty members, with as many outsiders as necessary to have two on the final defense committee, are added to what is known as the "dissertation defense committee" -- but this leaping far ahead). As a matter of process, the proposal defense can be conducted with any quorum of music department faculty members in attendance (usually three). At this defense, the student presents a brief overview of the project and is then orally examined by the proposal defense committee. If the result of this defense is a positive vote of the faculty members present, the student is then advanced to doctoral candidacy, meaning that all s/he now has left to do is to conduct field research, write a dissertation, and defend it. (No small feat, of course!)

Generally, Year 5 (but inceasingly year 4) is spent doing primary field research, usually with outside funding. And Year 6 (and sometimes Year 7) is spent in residence at Columbia, writing a dissertation. Because our 5-year fellowships can be deferred in any one year for field research away from Columbia, a student can expect to return to Columbia and take up the final year of her/his fellowship support (usually entailing teaching duties) while s/he writes the dissertation. Alternatively, if an external grant is taken as "substitutional" funding (replacing rather than deferring a Columbia GSAS fellowship year), the Graduate School will "top up" significant external grants (over $10,000) to the full value of a GSAS fellowship (currently over $20,000 in annual stipend, plus tuition and fees)

Support for year 7 is available, but only in cases where the department's labor needs and fellowship budget allow, and where the student is making strong progress toward completing the dissertation during year 6. (All these numbers can be extended by an additional year if a student manages to fund 2 years of field research from outside or personal sources.)

Columbia's GSAS requires the PhD to be completed within 7 years (and the MA within 2 years, and the MPhil within 4). These deadlines are now being fairly strictly enforced by GSAS, and we are enforcing them within our program very strictly, though we will of course consider mitigating factors such as exceptionally difficult or complex dissertation projects, health problems, family crises, pregnancy, etc. as reasons for extensions. Students who do not complete a dissertation by the end of their 7th year risk serious consequences, up to and including being cut from the program without having earned the doctorate. We have instituted strict oversight of the progress of students in candidacy -- in the field, and especially, in the writing phase, requiring reports on progress every semester and the submission of new work to the entire area committee (not just the dissertation committee of the particular student in question) with each report.

Where do Columbia PhDs work?

Answer: Recent graduates have taken teaching positions in departments of music and anthropology at such institutions as Connecticut College, The University of Oklahoma, The University of Chicago, Sarah Lawrence College, and several have also won postdoctoral fellowships in recent years. The academic job market is fiercely competitive and challenging. We are acutely aware of that and strive to make our students as competitive as possible for academic careers. Some of our graduates also work in non-academic settings, or combine part-time teaching with non-academic careers in music, policy, and research.

In Conclusion: Matching Your Goals to Our Goals

Our primary goal is to get you through our program with a strong foundation in the history, theory and methods of ethnomusicological research, social thought, and professional academic practice, and with an exceptionally strong dissertation to show for your efforts. We want your experience here to be personally enriching and equally a source of enrichment for our program itself, both for the fellow students in your cohort and for those ahead of and behind you in the program, and for the faculty. We look for students who bring something special to our program and our community, and we hope to provide a stimulating and collegial environment in which students can realize the potential we detect in them when we make an offer of admission. We want you to complete the program in a timely manner, and to be a strong candidate upon completion of the program for a post-doctoral fellowship or a tenure-track job at a research university or college. If these aren't your goals for yourself over the next six or seven years, this is probably not the program for you. Earning a PhD is hard work, undertaken in the prime years of one's life, and it entails economic and personal sacrifices commensurate with the potential rewards of a successful career in the field for which it is a qualification. Earning a PhD, even with fellowship support, entails significant opportunity costs relative to the time it takes to complete the degree -- for example, the years spent living in relative poverty while your college classmates are advancing in more lucrative professions, and the difficulties of starting a family, entering a marriage (not knowing where you will end up working, a problem compounded for marriages between graduate students, which are quite common), or following a whim to move or travel. The job market in academia is extremely tough and competitive. The unemployment and underemployment rates are high and this is a risky career choice compared to other professions. Ironically, the best careers often fall to those who enter the profession with little consideration of such matters, and a single-minded devotion to their work -- a passion, in fact, for knowledge. Finally, you must understand that graduate school is a stressful experience, even for the strongest students; even after you enter the profession you will spend years living up to the expectations and standards other people set for your work and your conduct. Living in New York City, it should be mentioned, is also stressful for many people, even those of us who find it unbelievably stimulating. You should factor these issues into your thinking about your goals and about whether Columbia is the place to pursue them. We want you to be healthy and happy as well as successful and productive. If our program's goals match your personal goals, we welcome your inquiry and your application.

Program Policies and Standards:

Honor Code: All work completed toward the MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees in the Ethnomusicology program is governed by a strict honor code, as is all non-degree scholarly work done while a student in our program (conference papers, publications, etc.). Students are trusted to maintain the highest standards of ethical scholarly conduct. Plagiarism, of any kind, and any other form of academic dishonesty, if discovered, is grounds for immediate and permanent dismissal from the program.

Standards of Conduct: Students are expected to behave professionally and respectfully in all interactions with fellow students, colleagues, and faculty members. They are expected to attend seminars and classes with few absences, and to participate in program and departmental events (talks, performances, etc.). Students are responsible for maintaining communication with faculty advisers on a regular basis, and for meeting all other requirements specified by the Department and GSAS. Students must file official annual GSAS annual progress reports beginning in year 5.

Incompletes: In addition to enforcing GSAS and departmental standards for the completion of all coursework in a timely manner, we do not permit students in ethnomusicology to maintain any incompletes in any courses beyond a single semester. No student may have more than two incompletes at any time, under penalty of being placed on academic probation.

Deadlines: The MA thesis, the exams, and the dissertation proposal must be completed on the schedule delineated above unless another accommodation is approved by the committee for significant reasons (health, pregnancy, family crises, military service, etc.). Failure to meet the deadlines imposed by the program is grounds for termination in the program.

The Ethnomusicology Area Committee, made up of all faculty members currently teaching in the Ethnomusicology area, reserves the right to assess and determine academic progress and standing for all students in the program, except where such matters are rightfully overseen by the department, the graduate