Opportunities

How to join us for research training

If you are interested in joining the lab for graduate school in either the Music Technology or Music Theory Areas of the Music Research Department, email Prof. McAdams well in advance of the application deadline with your CV attached that describes your research interests and your academic background with a message explaining why you wish to join our lab. Admission requirements for the Music Research M.A. and Ph.D. programs are available on the Schulich School of Music website: Entrance Requirements. Applicants with research experience in any combination of experimental psychology, acoustics, digital signal processing, cognitive music theory and who are deeply interested in exploring the musical mind in the current research areas addressed by the lab are especially encouraged to apply. We strongly recommend that you apply for external fellowships/scholarships to support your graduate studies (e.g., NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC, or Provincial student fellowships). Note that the deadlines for these fellowships/scholarships are in the Fall semester of the year prior to your graduate studies start-date. So please plan accordingly! Funding from research and teaching assistantships may also be available within the specific Area (please contact the Area Chair for Music Technology or Music Theory for more information on this).

If your GPA is 3.7 or above, you are encouraged to apply for the McGill Tomlinson Fellowship when you submit your application materials, which could help to support your graduate studies at McGill. This is especially important for people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents; students of all nationalities who have not been formally enrolled in a program at McGill are eligible for the Tomlinson fellowships. The deadline for submitting all materials is in early January; the application is completed by the applicant with the potential advisor’s input, and standard practice is to submit these materials along with your graduate school application. See the guidelines for further information. Provincial grants are also available for foreign citizens who wish to pursue doctoral studies or postdoctoral studies at McGill. They are described at the McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website and at the provincial FRQSC website. Applications are prepared with the advisor’s input, and are typically due the summer before the university application deadline; if you are interested, contact Prof. McAdams well ahead of time. Postdoctoral awards are also available from the Tomlinson program, and from each of the Canadian federal granting agencies (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC). Please contact Prof. McAdams to coordinate an application to one of these programs.

As a graduate student in the lab, you will have considerable freedom in formulating your research project within the current research areas corresponding to Prof. McAdams expertise, although in many cases additional funding in the form of research assistantships is conditioned upon participating in ongoing research grants. Initially, students are encouraged to be active members of the team and gain experience with ongoing research projects. Then, in collaboration with Prof. McAdams, they develop their own research project. All lab members are expected to contribute to lab meetings, present their research at conferences and publish their research findings under the supervision of Prof. McAdams.