Composition

Residency Requirement

Per Graduate College policy 8.2.1.1, "The student must be in residence at OU for at least two consecutive 16-week semesters during the pursuit of the doctoral degree while enrolled and engaged in coursework or research activities as prescribed by the major academic unit."

Application materials required for all graduate degrees

These items must be submitted to the online graduate application system.

• Resume/Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  • Submitted to the online application under the Supplemental Materials tab.
  • While style and format are free to vary, your document should include the following information:
    • Personal Contact Information
    • Education, including institutions attended and degrees earned (when applicable)
    • Employment history (including teaching experience for music education majors)
    • Noteworthy performances, conference presentations, or scholarly endeavors
    • Research publications, including thesis topics/titles, music compositions/arrangements, or other related scholarly work
    • Any academic/music honors, awards, or scholarships received 
• Statement of Purpose
  
  • Submitted to the online application under the Supplemental Materials tab
  • The personal statement is intended to provide insight into the applicant’s desire to pursue a graduate degree in music. Applicants are expected to prepare and submit original work that reflects their own ideas, experiences, written communication skills. The use of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools to write, draft, substantially revise, paraphrase, or otherwise generate content is not permitted. Minimal use of assistive AI for grammar, spelling, etc. is allowable. By submitting the Statement of Purpose, applicants affirm that the work is their own, original, and complies with this policy. The program reserves the right to request clarification regarding submitted materials if concerns arise regarding authorship or originality.
  • Please compose a brief personal statement (approximately 2–3 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font text with 1-inch margins) regarding your desire to pursue a graduate degree in music. Include responses to the following prompts:
    1. How would you describe your professional path to this point?
    2. Why do you want to pursue this degree at OU?
    3. How do you want to grow musically, artistically, pedagogically, and/or intellectually during your graduate studies?
    4. What skills, expertise, and experiences do you bring to graduate study at OU?
    5. Describe your post-degree plans (i.e., How will you apply your newly acquired academic knowledge and expertise?).
       
• Three letters of reference
  • Submitted to the online application under the Supplemental Materials tab
  • Your three reference letters should include:
    • At least one letter from: your studio professor, ensemble conductor, chamber coach, etc., or a person who has considerable knowledge about your abilities as a performer or composer.
    • At least one letter from: a person who can speak to your abilities as a scholar of music.

Scholarly writing requirement

This degree requires you to submit a sample of your scholarly writing.

• Submitted to the online application under the Supplemental Materials tab
• The Scholarly Writing Sample is intended to provide insight into the applicant’s ability to synthesize, hypothesize, argue, etc. scholarly work/research in music through written discourse typical of a college-level manuscript. The use of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools to write, draft, substantially revise, paraphrase, or otherwise generate content is not permitted. Minimal use of assistive AI for grammar, spelling, etc. is allowable. By submitting the Statement of Purpose, applicants affirm that the work is their own, original, and complies with this policy. The program reserves the right to request clarification regarding submitted materials if concerns arise regarding authorship or originality.
• The guidelines for this writing sample are as follows:
  1. Should represent your best writing and researching skills.
  2. Preferably not more than 3 years old; should be recently revised. If you do not have a recent scholarly writing sample on hand, we ask that you compose something original.
  3. Adhere to a consistent method of formatting and citations (e.g., Chicago, MLA, Turabian, APA) and include a bibliography/reference list.
  4. A minimum of 5 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font text (not counting bibliography) with typical 1-inch margins.
  5. Ensure your writing sample is representative of the field. Consider presenting a complete argument supporting a clear thesis, perhaps methodological in nature for empirical research, or other format reflective of various academic areas in music.
  6. Please contact the Graduate Music Office (gradmusic@ou.edu) or the area chair for your program with any questions about meeting these requirements.