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The Department of Music at Berkeley is one of the oldest and most prominent in the country, bringing together a renowned group of composers, scholars, and performers. The graduate program is ranked among the top in the nation. The department offers the M.A./Ph.D. and the Ph.D. degrees (for those who have previously completed a Master’s degree) in composition and scholarship, the latter with options in musicology and ethnomusicology. The Music Department does not offer the terminal M.A. degree. The amount of time needed to complete the Ph.D. varies considerably from one student to another, but students are encouraged to proceed as fast as they can and as the nature of their doctoral project allows. It is expected that the typical student (having obtained an M.A. degree) will have pursued sufficient coursework, fulfilled all the supplementary requirements, and taken the qualifying examination, advanced to candidacy, and completed a prospectus for the dissertation by the end of two years. The program provides graduate students with a solid mastery of their discipline while cultivating a sense of intellectual and creative independence. Students are free to explore related fields of study both within the music program itself and the university. Graduates of the Berkeley Music Department play prominent roles in distinguished musical institutions across the nation and abroad.
