First-Year Admissions

Steps to Complete Application

Applications will be reviewed utilizing a holistic approach, considering factors including the applicant’s leadership, service activities, interest in the major and individual determination.

Submit a completed application through either the Common Application or Coalition Application.
After your application has been processed, you should receive an email from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to gain access to wolfPAW portal account, which is your applicant portal.
- Check your wolfPAW portal’s checklist frequently to view any missing application materials.
Use wolfPAW to upload your portfolio + essay and complete the rest of your application.
- The checklist for completing an application to NC State University can be found within your personalized wolfPAW account.

Important Dates

We encourage you to submit your application through either the Common Application or Coalition Application by mid-October to ensure you have time to complete and submit your portfolio and essay by the early action or regular decision deadlines. Incomplete portfolios or portfolios received after January 15 may not be reviewed for admission.

Your application timeline will depend on whether you are an early action or regular decision applicant. Review each timeline below.


Mid-October	Submit an application through either the Common Application or Coalition Application in order to gain access to your wolfPAW account and meet the upcoming portfolio and essay deadline.
November 1	All application materials are due; this includes your portfolio and essay (uploaded via wolfPAW). Add this date to your calendar
Late January	The Office of Undergraduate Admissions will provide an admissions update within wolfPAW.


Mid-October	Complete and submit an application through either the Common Application or Coalition Application in order to gain access to your wolfPAW account and meet the upcoming portfolio and essay deadline.
January 15	All application materials are due; this includes your portfolio and essay (uploaded via wolfPAW). Add this date to your calendar
Late March	The Office of Undergraduate Admissions will provide an admissions update within wolfPAW.

Portfolio and Essay Guidelines

Along with your completed Common Application or Coalition Application, you will submit a digital portfolio and an essay response. Learn more details about each below.

Remember that a portfolio is both a showcase of your engagement with music and music technology as well as a collection of your strongest work in these areas. Instructions to upload your portfolio will be provided in wolfPAW.

You are required to submit no more than five (5) samples of your work where they can be reviewed by program faculty. Please limit each video or audio sample to 5 minutes in duration.

Required Portfolio Samples:

Up to two audio or video recordings of solo or group performances with your voice, acoustic, or electronic instrument to demonstrate your musical performance abilities (ensure your individual performance is clearly audible or visible).
Up to two examples of any science, engineering, or computer science projects, lab assignments, or essays to demonstrate your technical abilities (ensure your name is visible on the material).

Optional Portfolio Samples:

One example of an audio recording and mixing project from a DAW session.
One example of a musical score, electronic realization of a musical composition, arrangements, or sound art.

As part of your portfolio, submit a single PDF with a description of each of your submitted samples.

For all musical materials, identify the work, date of recording, and context of the performance, discuss your inspiration, what you learned, and when they were completed.
For science, engineering, computer science submissions, summarize the goal of the project, highlighting the methodology and results. For hardware design submissions, provide schematics, flow charts or diagrams, as necessary.

File Sizes and Types

We support media files as large as 5GB, larger files will take longer to upload from your Internet connection and may stall if you are on a wireless connection or one that cannot sustain a connection for the necessary period of time.

We support the following file formats:

Media	Preferred Format	Other Acceptable Formats
Video	YouTube Link (for multiple videos, please create a playlist. NOTE: Make sure your video privacy settings are set to UNLISTED. If you set it to PRIVATE, we will not be able to watch your video.)	.3g2, .3gp, .avi, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mp4, .mxf, .webm, .wmv
Audio	.mp3	.aac, .m4a, .mka, .oga, .ogg, .wav
Slide	.jpg	.bmp, .gif, .png, .tif, .tiff
Document	.pdf	.doc, .docx, .odg, .odp, .odt, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .wpd

Your essay allows you to describe your skills and experience in music technology, music performance and other musical activity. You will submit your essay response via wolfPAW.

Essay Prompt

In an essay of 300-500 words, please answer both prompts:

Describe your journey of learning musical instruments, composition, arranging, and/or arts entrepreneurship. Explain how the journey began, what keeps you motivated to keep practicing, and how you envision music staying with you in the future.
Describe a music technology product (something that exists or you imagine) and how you envision this product being used.

Apply Now!

Take the first steps to starting your application using the Common Application or Coalition Application.

Already begun the process? Review your application materials in wolfPAW.

Common App

Coalition App

wolfPAW