Pairing business, technology and creativity, our students come to the heart of Silicon Valley to deepen and grow their passions. The result? A skilled and dynamic community with a social life that is surprisingly robust.
Immersive, collaborative and designed to unlock your creativity—for over 130 years USV has been helping people turn their passion into their professions. Today, it’s your turn. Explore our program offerings to help you develop the skills you need for the job you’ll love.
This is the beginning of that adventure, and your first assignment. If you already have existing work to show us, you should simply gather and organize it. If you don’t have any work samples, do not worry. In these guidelines, we provide directions on how to create work samples.
As someone who is interested in audio, you have probably already created some audio work samples. They might include, but are not limited to, audio tracks (studio or live recording) of any musical genre (demos are welcome), sound FX for a video game or a video clip, or even just some beats. Whatever it is, we’d love to hear it!
It's easy: Submit three samples of your best work, which show off what you have done so far. Give us as much variety as possible.
Submit your work samples as .wav or .aiff files. In other words, avoid mp3s and music streaming platforms (SoundCloud, Bandcamp) if possible. If you have created soundtrack content and want to show it with an animation or some video game action, please send it as a Quicktime movie.
If you are sending original work (or remixes), we will evaluate it based upon four criteria:
We need to know how much of what you’re submitting is original. Did you use loops or samples? Who engineered the tracks? If you recorded with friends, what was your part?
If your work is live sound or studio engineering, we will evaluate it according to these four criteria:
It would be great to know a little about what inspires you as a musician or audio person. Tell us a little about your experience to date. Have you been doing this for long? Have you taken classes to learn how to produce audio or play music? Do you have anything on YouTube, SoundCloud or similar media streaming platforms?
We'll listen carefully to what you have sent, evaluate it for its strong points and provide some feedback as recognition of the good work that you have done; we may even include some ideas about how to improve the tracks or expand your versatility in audio.
Do you have a question? Do you need help with what to submit, or how to create original work? Feel free to reach out. Contact Department Director Xo Xinh Nguyen or your admissions advisor. We are here to help you.
