# Composition Portfolio for College: Score Rules

How many scores, what format, and whether MIDI recordings count: composition portfolio rules from BU, Indiana, Michigan, CMU and MSM for fall 2027.

Canonical: https://pianotosheetmusic.com/blog/composition-portfolio-college
Published: 2026-09-29 · Author: Antoine Duno (https://pianotosheetmusic.com/about)

Performers prepare an audition. Composers prepare a portfolio, and for many US music schools the portfolio *is* the prescreen: faculty read your scores and listen to your recordings before deciding whether to interview you. The rules are short, but they differ from school to school in ways that matter, especially if you write at the piano and your pieces don't exist on paper yet.

> **Quick answer**
>
> For undergraduate composition, schools ask for **2 to 7 original scores**, as **PDFs** uploaded online, with a **recording of each work** (required at some, encouraged at others). **Live recordings are preferred, but MIDI realizations are accepted** by Michigan, Manhattan School of Music and Indiana, and Carnegie Mellon accepts an "electronically generated" recording. The usual deadline is **December 1** (Indiana, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, MSM). **Boston University** is different: scores are due **November 1** for Early Decision and **January 10** for Regular Decision. BU is also where the phrase "good manuscript form" comes from.

## Five schools, side by side

Checked on each school's own admissions page on 16 September 2026, for applications to start in fall 2027. Pages are updated every cycle, so open the linked page before you submit.

| School | Undergraduate works | Score format | Recordings | Deadline | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Boston University](https://www.bu.edu/cfa/music/admissions-auditions/audition-repertoire-and-portfolio-requirements/) (BM) | At least 3 original compositions "in good manuscript form" | Digital, uploaded to Acceptd | Encouraged, not required | Nov 1 Early Decision; Jan 10 Regular Decision; Mar 1 fall transfer | No formal interview for undergraduate composers |
| [Indiana, Jacobs](https://music.indiana.edu/admissions/auditions/composition.html) (BM/BS) | 2 to 3 scores, no more than one large ensemble work | PDF only, no Finale, Sibelius or Word files | Performances if possible, "good MIDI realizations, if necessary"; mp3 or mp4 | Dec 1 | Selected applicants interviewed, about 20 minutes, with a brief ear-training test |
| [Michigan, SMTD](https://smtd.umich.edu/admissions/undergraduate/requirements-for-pre-screening-portfolios-auditions-interviews/) (BM) | Up to 7 scores | Uploaded in the Artistic Profile | One per work; live preferable, MIDI accepted | Dec 1 | Online interview for selected applicants |
| [Carnegie Mellon](https://www.cmu.edu/cfa/music/apply/audition-portfolio-review/requirements-by-area/composition-review-requirements.html) | 3 original compositions | Not stated beyond the markings listed | One per work; live, or electronically generated if live isn't possible | Dec 1 | Interview invitations in early January |
| [Manhattan School of Music](https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/composition/prescreening-audition-procedures/) (BM) | 3 to 5 original, contrasting compositions | PDF | Live preferable, MIDI renderings accepted; uploaded as .mp4 or other video format | Dec 1 prescreen; Feb 1 for the audition project and added portfolio | Composition project, interview |

Three things in that table catch applicants out.

**BU's undergraduate calendar is not the prescreen calendar.** BU's prescreening page lists December 1 for prescreened programs, but its composition section gives undergraduate scores their own dates: November 1 for Early Decision and Spring Transfer, January 10 for Regular Decision. Early Decision applicants face a deadline a month before the December 1 schools.

**The recording rules point in different directions.** Michigan wants a recording of every score. BU says recordings are "encouraged but not required". Manhattan School of Music wants audio uploaded as video files. Get the file type wrong and you will be re-exporting on deadline night.

**Indiana's two pages disagree slightly.** The official Jacobs admissions page says "two to three scores". The composition department's own FAQ blog says undergraduates "should include two to four works". Follow the admissions page, and ask if a fourth work matters to you.

## What "good manuscript form" means in practice

Only BU uses that exact phrase, but Carnegie Mellon and Indiana describe the same standard in more detail, and it is the best checklist you will get from the schools themselves.

Carnegie Mellon asks for scores that show "your creative ideas in addition to your skill and craft", with attention to "completeness and clarity", including "dynamics, articulations, slurs and phrasing marks, etc where appropriate". Pieces with electronics need "a separate staff/line on the score" or performance directions for those parts.

Indiana's composition department says scores "should show the composers' familiarity with the conventions of score presentation and their ability to notate music clearly and accurately (including such important compositional elements as tempo, dynamics, and articulations)".

Turned into a checklist for a solo piano piece, that is:

1. **A title** at the top of the first page.
2. **A tempo marking** at the start, and wherever the tempo changes.
3. **Dynamics** throughout, not just at the opening.
4. **Articulations, slurs and phrasing** where you actually want them played.
5. **Pedal markings** where the pedalling is part of the sound you wrote.
6. **The notes and rhythms you mean**, spelled so a pianist can read them at sight: sensible hand distribution between staves, and accidentals that follow the key.
7. **Consistent layout**: readable staff size, no collisions, page turns in sensible places.
8. **A PDF**, not a notation-software file. Indiana says so explicitly: "no Finale, Sibelius, or Word files".

None of the five pages says whether a handwritten score is acceptable. All of them expect a digital upload, and Indiana and MSM specify PDF. If handwriting is your only option, email the admissions office before you scan it.

## Recordings: live, MIDI, or nothing

Every school that addresses recordings prefers a live performance. What differs is how much it tolerates the alternative.

- **Michigan:** "live performances are preferable; yet MIDI realizations are also accepted".
- **Manhattan School of Music:** "Recordings of live performances are preferable, but MIDI renderings are also acceptable".
- **Carnegie Mellon:** a live recording of each work, but "If a live performance is not possible, an electronically generated audio recording will be acceptable."
- **Indiana:** "Recordings of performances, if possible (or good MIDI realizations, if necessary)". The department's FAQ adds the warning worth reading twice: MIDI "can also obscure the personality of the work and give the impression of a composer desensitized to the role which real instrumental characteristics and real performer involvement plays".
- **Boston University**, undergraduate: recordings "encouraged but not required". For its graduate composition applicants, BU says "acoustic recordings are strongly preferred rather than MIDI realizations", which tells you how the faculty listen.

For a pianist-composer there is an easy win here. **A solo piano piece is the one kind of work you can record live yourself**, on a decent phone, in a quiet room. That recording beats a MIDI mock-up at every school above, and, as the next section shows, it can also be the starting point for the score.

## If you wrote the piece at the piano

Plenty of applicants compose by playing, and the piece lives in their hands and in a few voice memos. The portfolio needs a score. You can type it into notation software note by note, pay someone to engrave it, or start from a transcription of your own performance.

The third route runs like this:

1. **Record a clean performance.** Phone close to the piano, quiet room, no metronome bleeding into the take. Play it the way you want it notated, not with every rubato you would use in concert. This same take can be your portfolio recording.
2. **Transcribe the recording** to MusicXML. This gives you notes, rhythms, key and time signature to edit, instead of an empty page.
3. **Open the MusicXML in notation software** such as MuseScore Studio, Sibelius or Dorico.
4. **Fix what the transcription got wrong.** Check bar lines, hand distribution between staves, note spelling and any place where the pedal blurred note lengths. Automatic transcription struggles most with dense pedalled passages.
5. **Add the musical markings** from the checklist above: tempo, dynamics, articulations, slurs, phrasing and pedal. This is where the "good manuscript form" is actually earned.
6. **Proofread against the recording**, then against your ears at the piano.
7. **Export a PDF**, and name it the way the school asks. Indiana's example is `Intrada_BrassQuintet_2024.pdf`.

Be realistic about step 5. A transcription writes down what you played, which is not the same as a finished score. The faculty reading it are judging the notation as much as the notes, so budget real time for editing. Our [comparison of MIDI, MusicXML and PDF](/blog/midi-vs-musicxml-vs-pdf) explains why MusicXML, not MIDI, is the file to edit from.

If you want to try that route on your own piece, you can [use Piano to Sheet Music](/transcribe).

## A piano score, not a lead sheet

If you write songs as well as concert pieces, don't send a lead sheet (melody and chord symbols) as a portfolio score. Carnegie Mellon's list of markings and Indiana's language about the "conventions of score presentation" both describe fully notated music. A lead sheet leaves the accompaniment to the player, which is exactly the craft the portfolio is meant to show. We explain where each format belongs in lead sheet vs piano score.

Arrangements are a separate question. Carnegie Mellon says arrangements of other composers' works "are welcome" but are "supplementary to the basic requirement for three original works". The other schools ask for original compositions, so an arrangement should never take the place of one.

## Choosing which pieces to send

The schools tell you what they want to see across the set:

- **Variety.** Carnegie Mellon asks for works "showing the composer's range in genre, training, and ability". Manhattan School of Music asks for "contrasting" compositions, and Indiana's department wants "a variety of forms and media".
- **Not only piano.** If all your pieces are for solo piano, consider whether one ensemble work would show more range. Indiana caps undergraduates at one large ensemble work, so this is about breadth, not size.
- **Style is open.** Michigan says "all musical styles are welcome", and Indiana's department says it "does not promote any particular compositional style or ideology".
- **A list of works.** Indiana requires a chronological list with date of composition, instrumentation, duration and any performances. It is worth preparing even for schools that don't ask.

## Working back from the deadline

Treat the portfolio as the deadline, not the application form. Every schedule below runs from dates the schools publish; the gaps between them are your call.

- **By early autumn:** choose the pieces, and ask performers now if you want live recordings of ensemble works.
- **October:** record the solo piano pieces and get every score into notation software.
- **Before November 1:** BU Early Decision composition scores are due.
- **Before December 1:** Indiana, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon and Manhattan School of Music.
- **January 10:** BU Regular Decision composition scores.
- **February 1:** Manhattan School of Music's audition project and added portfolio materials, if you pass its prescreen.

If time runs out on the engraving, paying for it is an option; our guide to [music engraving service costs](/blog/engraving-service-cost) compares what that runs to.

## Other places the same score gets used

A clean score of your own piece rarely does one job. The same PDF can go to a young composers' contest, whose requirements we cover in preparing a score for young composer competitions, or be played in a piano exam, where boards such as ABRSM and Trinity have their own notation rules, set out in our guide to [own compositions in piano exams](/blog/own-composition-piano-exams). UK students face a similar task for coursework, covered in A-Level Music composition score requirements.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many compositions do I need for a college composition portfolio?

It depends on the school, so read each page. For undergraduate composition in September 2026, Boston University asked for at least three, Indiana's Jacobs School for two to three scores, Carnegie Mellon for three, Manhattan School of Music for three to five, and Michigan allowed up to seven scores, each with a recording.

### Are MIDI recordings accepted in a composition portfolio?

At most of the schools we checked, yes, as a fallback. Michigan, Manhattan School of Music and Indiana accept MIDI realizations when a live performance isn't available, and Carnegie Mellon accepts an electronically generated recording. Live performances are preferred everywhere, and Indiana's composition department warns that MIDI can obscure the personality of a work.

### When are composition portfolios due?

December 1 is common but not universal. Indiana, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon and Manhattan School of Music all list December 1 for undergraduate composition materials. Boston University is the exception: its undergraduate composition scores are due November 1 for Early Decision and January 10 for Regular Decision.

### What does good manuscript form mean for a composition portfolio?

It is Boston University's phrase for a clean, readable score, and the other schools spell out what that includes. Carnegie Mellon names dynamics, articulations, slurs and phrasing marks. Indiana's composition department wants scores that show familiarity with score conventions and notate tempo, dynamics and articulations clearly and accurately.

### Can I submit a handwritten score to a college composition portfolio?

None of the five admissions pages we read says whether handwriting is accepted. Every one expects a digital upload: Boston University says scores should be in digital format for Acceptd, and Indiana and Manhattan School of Music require PDF. A clean scan might qualify, but ask the admissions office before relying on it.

### Do recordings need to be audio or video files?

Check each school's format. Indiana asks for mp3 or mp4 files. Manhattan School of Music requires audio recordings to be uploaded as .mp4 or another video format, even with no visual component. Boston University encourages recordings for undergraduates but does not require them, and Michigan wants a recording of each score.

## Sources

- [Boston University School of Music: audition repertoire and portfolio requirements (Composition)](https://www.bu.edu/cfa/music/admissions-auditions/audition-repertoire-and-portfolio-requirements/)
- [Boston University School of Music: prescreening information](https://www.bu.edu/cfa/music/admissions-auditions/school-of-music-prescreening-information/)
- [Indiana University Jacobs School of Music: composition auditions, interviews and prescreening](https://music.indiana.edu/admissions/auditions/composition.html)
- [IU Jacobs Composition Department: frequently asked questions](https://blogs.iu.edu/jsomcomposition/frequently-asked-questions/)
- [IU Jacobs Composition Department: admissions process and advice](https://blogs.iu.edu/jsomcomposition/admissions-process-advice/)
- [University of Michigan SMTD: undergraduate pre-screening, portfolio and audition requirements (Composition)](https://smtd.umich.edu/admissions/undergraduate/requirements-for-pre-screening-portfolios-auditions-interviews/)
- [Carnegie Mellon School of Music: composition review requirements](https://www.cmu.edu/cfa/music/apply/audition-portfolio-review/requirements-by-area/composition-review-requirements.html)
- [Manhattan School of Music: composition prescreening and audition procedures](https://www.msmnyc.edu/programs/composition/prescreening-audition-procedures/)

All requirements checked 16 September 2026.