Department Graduate Admission Requirements

General Application Procedure

In addition to meeting IUP School of Graduate Studies and Research requirements, applicants to the MA in Music Performance or MA in Music Education program must have an undergraduate degree in music or a demonstrated equivalent.

For the performance degree, applicants must complete a satisfactory audition on their major instrument: audition requirements are available upon application.

For the music education degree, applicants must be certified in at least one state to teach music in K-12 public schools or have comparable certification in another country.

The Music Department may request additional supporting evidence of adequate preparation in specific concentration areas.

Once the Graduate School receives an application, it's sent to the Music Department for further review and a recommendation regarding admission. The Graduate School then notifies the applicant of the decision. If you have questions about the status of your application, please contact the Graduate School.

Applicants who are accepted to a program of study are required to take a diagnostic exam in music theory and history prior to attending classes, so that advisors may provide the best guidance possible.

Application Materials Required

• Application form completed online or via hard copy (request by emailing graduate-admissions@iup.edu)
• Nonrefundable $50 application fee
• Signed and dated statement of career and academic goals: Identify your professional goals and research area of interest, a summation of your achievements within the field of practice, and a summary of your research abilities
• Two letters of recommendation
• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended, including those institutions from which a degree was not earned
• Must have a minimum 2.8 GPA
• For MA in Music Education: A photocopy of current teacher certification in music education
• For MA in Music Performance: Completion of a successful performance audition (contact applied performance faculty in your specialty)

Please send all information to:

Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Admissions Office
Sutton Hall, Suite 120
1011 South Drive
Indiana, PA 15705

Diagnostic Music Theory Exam

The Graduate Diagnostic Exam is intended to ensure that incoming students are proficient with basic analytical techniques. It covers: tonal harmony, including applied chords, modal mixture, modulation, the Neapolitan, and augmented-sixth chords; Classical cadences and phrase structure; sonata form; and principles of common-practice voice-leading. It also deals with: referential collections, including the diatonic, wholetone, and octatonic collections; elementary set theory, including normal form, transposition, inversion, and set class; and basic tenets of 12-tone music.

The exam consists of 27 multiple-choice questions and two essay questions. It is timed to 75 minutes.Students must earn a score of 70 to pass. The exam is administered online during the weeks before the fall and spring semesters.

Undergraduates at IUP use Steven Laitz's The Complete Musician: An Integrated Approach to Theory, Analysis, and Listening, which is an excellent resource for review. However, new graduate students may simply wish to study with the materials they used in conjunction with their undergraduate courses.

Graduate Assistantships

We offer a limited number of graduate assistantships to full-time, resident students in the MA in Music Performance program. These assistantships consist of varying levels of support, up to a full tuition waiver and stipend, and require from eight to 20 hours of work in the department per week. Interested students should apply by March 15 for full consideration for assistantships beginning the following fall.

Meet the Coordinator

Matt Baumer
mbaumer@iup.edu