I met this guy in Brevard this past summer. He was actually a former piano student at Brevard, but was there this time around as a member of the theory faculty for the high school division. He also did the pre-concert lectures. He and I got to talking one afternoon at the cafeteria and I learned that he was enrolling in the fall as a musicology graduate student at Cambridge. Effing Cambridge. And when I asked him what his background was, I learned that he had gotten his Bachelors degree from USC (Southern California) in Piano AND NEUROSCIENCE. Oh, and that he got his Masters degree from the University College of London ...in MOTHEREFFING NEUROSCIENCE! And I thought to myself, "So this is the type of person I am up against in PhD programs for Musicology. Good to know." *visualizes throwing self off mountain cliff*
He was kind enough to tell me that day that, since I already had a couple years of actual university teaching experience and was published, that I had a leg up on him. And then I wanted to simultaneously hug him for his stroking of my battered ego and choke him while saying, "Listen, mofo. You have two degrees in Neuro - to the effing - science! From USC and London! I have two freaking degrees in How To Play the Devil Stick!"
Anyway, I decided to check up on his Facebook profile the other day just to see how somebody who is actually succeeding in doing what I tried in vain to do last Fall, which was to get accepted to just ONE doctoral program in Musicology, was doing. And do you know what I realized? This guy's not at Cambridge for a PhD. Cambridge only took him in as a freaking MASTERS STUDENT. Are you kidding me??
Let me get this straight. A guy who got a double degree from USC in Piano Performance AND NEUROSCIENCE (did I mention that before?) and won the Concerto Competition while there, THEN went to London and got a graduate degree in Neuroscience, AND was on faculty at the Brevard Music Center STILL isn't good enough to get accepted to a PhD program in Musicology - no matter if it's Cambridge? Good. Lord.
He was kind enough to tell me that day that, since I already had a couple years of actual university teaching experience and was published, that I had a leg up on him. And then I wanted to simultaneously hug him for his stroking of my battered ego and choke him while saying, "Listen, mofo. You have two degrees in Neuro - to the effing - science! From USC and London! I have two freaking degrees in How To Play the Devil Stick!"
Anyway, I decided to check up on his Facebook profile the other day just to see how somebody who is actually succeeding in doing what I tried in vain to do last Fall, which was to get accepted to just ONE doctoral program in Musicology, was doing. And do you know what I realized? This guy's not at Cambridge for a PhD. Cambridge only took him in as a freaking MASTERS STUDENT. Are you kidding me??
Let me get this straight. A guy who got a double degree from USC in Piano Performance AND NEUROSCIENCE (did I mention that before?) and won the Concerto Competition while there, THEN went to London and got a graduate degree in Neuroscience, AND was on faculty at the Brevard Music Center STILL isn't good enough to get accepted to a PhD program in Musicology - no matter if it's Cambridge? Good. Lord.
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