<p>I just finished reading through about 6-8 different threads/links, "cover to cover," about whether non-majors should send music supplements (CD's) to colleges for admission consideration. (handy links, violadad! Thanks! BUT ...)</p>
<p>All that did was confuse and worry me. There were lots of different opinions out there.</p>
<p>Anybody else like to throw your opinions my way? </p>
<p>My rising high school senior is very good -- not a prodigy -- on his string instrument. All-State level. Principal All-District and All-Region. Principal at his high & middle schools 4 of the last 5 years, as well as next year. Very competitive area/state for string musicians. 7 years of private lessons by a professional musician on the same instrument.</p>
<p>Wants to major in engineering and, if he can, minor in music. Definitely wants to play in an orchestra during college. If non-majors can't play in a certain college's orchestra, he’s not going to apply to that college.</p>
<p>And so ... he thought he'd send in a Music Supplement. He recently recorded a whole smattering of different stuff that a lot of his college choices require for music major auditions (Bach cello suites, certain scales done certain ways, certain concertos and etudes, etc), and figures he'll have the guy who did the recording make different CD's for each of the different colleges, picking and choosing from son’s recorded selections to meet each college's criteria.</p>
<p>Since he's not a music major, and therefore not focusing his search on the greatest music schools, but rather on very good engineering schools with good music programs, we've found that a lot of his colleges have not clearly defined on their websites just what they want or don’t want in the way of supplements. So NOW, we're thinking he'll probably have to contact the various music departments for all the different colleges to see what they’d recommend. This is getting more cumbersome than we imagined!</p>
<p>And then we recently read several of the “send music supplement?” threads … and lots of people seem to think it might be better not to send them at all! Oh brother.</p>
<p>So, what do YOU think? Is it worth all the trouble? Send or not send? Contact college admissions or the schools of music directly for guidance? Or not contact anybody at all and just submit the CDs to general admissions after finalizing his various online apps?</p>
<p>(FYI: He has nearly perfect-to-perfect academic stats and is not interested in HYP. This is not the "Can my son's music supplement help him over the edge in admissions?" question. It’s more like ... "What's the best course of action for a kid who loves to play, is pretty good at playing, and is driven to only apply to schools where he can play as a non-major – in regards to supplements?" type question. )</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>