Newly Admitted Students
Please visit the Graduate Division's Newly Admitted Applicants page for next steps. Please visit the Graduate Division website for more information on campus resources and services for graduate students.
When you arrive on campus, be sure to obtain your UCSB Identification Card/Access Card. This can be done at the information desk at the UCen.
Guidance Exams
The Fall 2023 Guidance Exams, Orientation dates, and Departmental Meetings Schedule:
Music History Guidance Exams will be administered remotely, and they will be an open book exercise. If you would like to retake all or part of the exam, please e-mail Dave Paul (dpaul@music.ucsb.edu) with that information. If you are taking the music history guidance exams, we will e-mail you the exam questions and instructions at 8am, Monday morning, September 25. We will ask you to choose a four-hour window between Monday morning and the end of Wednesday afternoon, and to e-mail Dave your exam answers (Word doc or .pdf) by 5pm, Wednesday September 27.
Theory Guidance Exams (Performance students) Wed., Sept. 27th, @ 9am in Room 387-1011 (across the parking lot from the music building).
Theory Guidance Exams (Theory, Musicology, Composition Students) Wed., Sept. 27th, @ 10am in Room 387-1011 (across the parking lot from the music building).
Musicianship Guidance Exam Wed, Sept. 27th, @ 2pm in Room 387-1011 (across the parking lot from the music building).
Music Department Reception Wed., Sept. 27th, @ 3pm in the music courtyard
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Graduate Guidance Exams in History are done open book over the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before instruction begins on Thursday.
Graduate Guidance Exams in Theory and Musicianship will take place on the Wednesday before instruction begins Thursday in person.
Ethnomusicology Graduate Guidance Interview:
Please see an ethnomusicology faculty member to schedule a time/date
Music Department Reception will take place the Wednesday before instruction begins on Thursday
The first day of classes is Thursday September 28, 2023.
View the GradPost's New Graduate Students page for campus-wide information, including required TA orientation for new TAs.
All graduate students, with the exception of those entering in Ethnomusicology, are required to take Guidance/Diagnostic Exams. Study guides and sample exams will be emailed to students in summer; the 2023 versions can be accessed here.
Guidance exams can be taken twice. Deficiencies can be remedied by retaking the exam next year, or by taking a course.
For any further questions about the exams, please contact the Graduate Advisor.
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