 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: ClariTone
Date: 2006-04-28 22:10
Hello
Just wondering, do universities hand out graduate assistanceships in the music department to non-majors, or do they reserve them for music majors??? Do majors get priority over non-majors for these positions??? Thanks!!!
Clayton
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-04-29 00:26
Hi Clayton,
I have never heard of a non-major getting an assistantship.There is usually an expectation that the graduate assistant (GA) will do some TA work (grading, proctor exams, work on lecture materials, maybe present a lecture or two). Howwever, most of my TAs were doctoral students (sometimes the teaching was good and other times...)
Why would a department spend tuition waiver money and a stipend on a non-major? Maybe to work on a grant but that would be a long shot and the person would have to bring a great deal of expertise to the table. As a PI for several grants, I always had department GAs working for me and would not have considered anyone from another major unless there was none available in my department.
HRL
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-29 01:25
I was offered an assistantship to do instrument repair when I was a bioinformatics grad student, but I was an experienced repairman (and it was moot anyway as my bioinformatics assistantship was a lot sweeter).
-Randy
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2006-04-29 02:02
Randy,
That's a pretty unusual case but you were at the right place at the right time and had something needed by the department. It sounded like Clayton was appoaching the possiblity of an assistantship on a more traditional tack.
HRL
Post Edited (2006-04-30 02:43)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: claritoot26
Date: 2006-04-29 15:09
By graduate assistantship, do you mean a performance one, a teaching one, or an administrative one? It may be possible to get an administrative assistantship in the music admissions office, or a performing arts library, or maybe a technical one doing stagehand work. But performing and teaching assistantships are exclusively reserved for music majors, I would think. Perhaps MIT or another institution that offers good music training without a degree program might offer music assistantships, but I doubt it. I am a performance major, and received an assistantship in the performing arts library instead of the school of music. Financially, it was a good deal, but it requires me to average 20 hours a week over the course of each year, and I am about 200 hours behind due to increased practice time for auditions and recital preparation. Thanks goodness my boss is fairly flexible, and I should be able to make these hours up after graduation this May.
I'm sure each institution is different, so you should ask the department where you are interested in going to school. Also, don't neglect looking for assistantships campus-wide in other departments. Most likely, there will be something out there for you. Keep up your playing in the ensembles as a non-major. I was a non-major (in music) for a long time before going back to school after I turned 30 for a B.M. and then an M.M. in clarinet performance.
Lori
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-29 15:43
Back when the US needed to catch up with Russia's Sputnik, I had a graduate "traineeship" sponsored by NASA. Many of my technology schoolmates had similar support.
When I went across campus (Univerisity of California, Berkeley) for my German reading lessons, I was shocked to see the imbalance: in the 500 or so students in the German program, only 2 had assistantships. Those, plus a few hourly readers comprised the total graduate student support.
As they used to say in the rejection letters from the College of Electical Engineering, "The competition was severe."
On the other hand, the featured bassoon students at Bassoonarama from the University of Ihaho at Moscow were NOT music majors. One was a materials science major, and one a biochemist. Of course, the bassoon prof probably has only a handful of bassoon students --not needing an assistant.
I'd expect that most schools will keep their funds "in the family."
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-29 17:21
In the sciences it is often said that if you don't have an assistantship you shouldn't be in school. I, too, was shocked how few lib arts grad students had them.
-Randy
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
