<p>this is for EAers and RDers... did anyone send in/is going to send supplementary material? i'm just wondering how many people from here did that :P i'm thinking about art slides in particular - i sent some!</p>
<p>I didn't. I wanted to send some of my writing, but I didn't know how well it would do... :(</p>
<p>I sent a few of my newspaper articles...I'm MAJORLY involved in my school newspaper to the point of newspaper = life and my area rep said it was okay</p>
<p>Yale is specificaly one of the schools that asks you NOT to send in supplemental information. The only supplemental info they will accept is a third rec but it has to be from someone who knows you in a completely different light who can share information about you that would not have come through in the the two academic recs or the one one from your guidance office.</p>
<p>Yale adcoms have repeateldy said that "the thicker files go to the bottom"...think about the numbers for a minute. Last year, 19,500 applications to read, two essays each, three recs each, plus the interviewers letter and then assembling and collating all the hard data into a scoring profile, yes they do rank you against your peers from your region, state and even within your own school. </p>
<p>Don't handicap yourself by not following instructions, what do you think that says to the adcoms? Give them only what they ask for and put your major time and effort into your essays. I have more details on this in another post on the Yale thread.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>huh?
eadad where you getting this information from?
i remember reading on the yale app, "You are welcome to submit any supplementary material..blah blah" something like that.
if you are confident with your abilities, i dont see why sending in supplementary materials is a bad idea... think about it, 19500 students with high SATs/GPA/RANK, what are they gonna distinguish you with?</p>
<p>Having said that I havent sent in any supplementary stuff coz i got nothing to show off T.T</p>
<p>i sent in a DVD of mine. im realllllly keen on film, i founded a film festival at my school, im planning on majoring in film studies, my love of movies is the topic of one of my essays, and filmmaking is one of my passionate hobbies. So I sent in a dvd of my work as a supplemental piece. My area rep told me not to send it with my app though, cuz most supplemental pieces are like tossed aside cuz they dont have time to see em, so he told me to send it to him personally</p>
<p>oh, in response to EA dads thing, what my area rep told me is basically that in many cases they simply dont have time to see them. It's not like they ask NOT to send stuff, like music they can (in theory) send it to the school. With the DVD i sent, and other non-music supplements like art and stuff, he said they rarely will see em. He told me to send my DVD to him personally just to make sure it isnt like tossed in a bin with like the dozens and dozens of videos/art/whatever else they get. So basically supplements arent really that useful, but hey, its worth a shot, and i got lucky in that he told me to send it to him personally so it wont get tossed away.</p>
<p>"19500 students with high SATs/GPA/RANK"</p>
<p>I know I'm side-stepping the main issue here, but any clue how many of those are international students?</p>
<p>Eadad,
I really wonder why you are so certain of this anti-supplemental materials thing. It is in the obvious interest of admissions committees to know how applicants spend their time; from this applicant's perspective, if I didn't practice the violin for three hours a day, I would probably have higher grades and more science classes on my resume, and I want Yale and other schools to see that that time was not wasted. Also, Yale is a famously great place for budding musicians, artists, and actors who want liberal arts educations. They have a clear incentive to know who among their applicants might add to and benifit from that aspect of Yale.
Also, though I can't claim your multiple info sessions, the officer I talked with said that additional recommendations were discouraged, but other supplemental work-- tapes, slides, abstracts, etc-- was encouraged actively.</p>
<p>fiddlefrog</p>
<p>Jarahul hit on the essence of things, they simply don't have the time to review things. Again, it is a numbers game as I mentioned above. Do the math; 19500 apps two essays, three recs. Each app is read a minimum of two times. The staff is about 10 or 11 people. The workload is staggering.</p>
<p>I can only tell you that we did attend 4 Yale info sessions over two years, one at Yale the other three in Dallas. They made a point about supplemental recs; don't send them unless they are from someone who can shine a whole new light on the applicant and don't send supplemental materials. Let your essays tell us who you are, what makes you tick and what is important to you. Their words, not mine. I cannot stress enough the importance of your essays at Yale. The recs should supplement that information all of which is coroborated by their interview process.</p>
<p>Where I am coming from: My son was one of eight in his class who applied to Yale last year. Six (including him) applied SCEA. Of them, 3 (again including him) were accepted, two deferred and one rejected. Subsequently, two more applied RD and were accepted along with the two who were deferred in SCEA. All who were accepted followed instructions to the letter even though their ranks included publications editors, nationally ranked debaters, gifted musicians, varsity athletes (non recruited) and active theater participants. No one sent any additional material, though they all certainly could have. If you look at last year's Yale admissions statistics (aka the massacre), I would say that this group certainly beat the odds by a long shot.</p>
<p>My point is simply why risk having your app put at the bottom of the pile as three different Yale adcoms told us..."the thicker files go to the bottom"....when the odds are already such a crap shoot why take the risk of hurting yourself? At the session in New Haven the adcom said "what does it tell us about you if you don't/won't even follow directions?" Interesting point I think. With 20,000 plus applications they don't need a reason to say no, why give them one?</p>
<p>Hi fiddlefrog,
As you know, I've been wondering about this too. I think that in my son's case he was able to convey the time he spends playing the piano, (like you, a few hours a day) in his application. He also wrote about music in both of his essays. So hopefully, they'll see that he loves music. In your case, I don't think that sending in a tape will put your application at the bottom of the pile because they're going to send the tape to the music department- not listen to it themselves. I would imagine that the 'thick' applications that get put to the bottom of the pile are those with extra sheets of paper -- things like extra letters of rec or other info that they themselves would have to read.
Did you write about your passion for music and convey that to them?
Andi</p>
<p>this is all so ridiculous - so yale now distinguishes students based on the few words they write in the 2 essays? they now accept or reject based on how many pounds your application file weights? At least schools like Princeton care about their applicants - they actually want to get to know you - and the 5 essay questions they ask you to write is a testament to that.</p>
<p>Hi Eadad,
Perhaps you misunderstand what happens with supplemental materials. As andi said, music tapes and scores go to the music department, which has specific people designated to evaluate work in different categories. Slides of art go to the art department. Scientific abstracts are evaluated by scientists knowledgeable in the relevant field. The admissions staff is in no way inconvenienced. The only way to add to the work load of the app readers is to send additional writing or recommendations. Moreover, I don't think that sending supplemental material counts as not following instructions-- there are explicit instructions regarding what to send and how to send it at several places on the Yale website. Sorry if I seem defensive here, but I think this is important for future applicants.</p>
<p>yes I sent a supplemental resume because I couldn't convey teh time I spent with sports and community service on the common app. Id rathe have an extra sheet of paper explaining something than to have them doubt my committment or not realize what it entails. I believe that an admission officer not knowing or understanding is a bigger disadvantage and than having an extra sheet of paper. It will take them less time to read that than it would to puzzle over what you meant by soemthing.<br>
I agree with the recommendation thing although I did send an extra recommendation from my outside of school coach because it did "shed me in a different light".</p>
<p>Just be careful about sending music, art work, articles, etc. Make sure it really is good. At an information session, the guy made a good point, "if you tell us you're an amazing violinist we will believe you we can;t judge that. But if you send a tape and the music department and they tels us it really isn't that good, we aren;t going to believe you and you lost your edge."</p>
<p>YES! I posted yesterday about my supplementals. I sent a cd and a research abstract. check it out?</p>
<p>Jarahul, they don't watch videotapes or video dvds at Yale admissions, supposedly. It said so specifically in the Yale admissions packet didn't it? But since you cleared it with your area rep, it's probably okay. That's really cool of him/her. You know, I was going to send a portfolio of stills from my work, but...the technology I need to do that is at school, and we happen to have a week off this week. So, oh well. I doubt it was going to make a difference anyway. All my teacher recs probably talked about the quality of the televised news annoucement program I started this year.</p>
<p>When I say, "all my teacher recs" I mean it...there are so many of them! It's crazy; I sent FOUR teacher recs. I asked for four early on this year so I'd have a good range of teachers to choose from(I took one from each of the disciplines). Also, at my school, my guidence counselor consolidates and sends the reccomendations, so he would also be able to tell me which of the recommendations were best. He told me to send all four, unexpectedly. Each of the four reccomendations talks about me in a completely different way, according to my counselor, though, so....I hope Yale doesn't mind.</p>
<p>yeah, tallyrand, actually i heard contrasting opinions, both of which were topped by the area rep's words himself. I called the admissions office on two separate, occassions, and they said that DVDs are ok to send, but they didnt say whether theyll be sent. At an info session in new haven, the lady wasnt sure about dvds. And the website says no DVDs. But my rep cleared it, so yeah, it was cool of him.</p>
<p>To EAdad, unless I heard wrong, supplements arent against the rules. Theres an option on the Yale Supplement asking whether u have supplemental material. And also, admissions sessions and guidance counselors at my school and my area rep said that things like extra recs and resumes and such are fine, as long as its not TOO much. So it's not "against the rules," its just sorta cumbersome for the adcoms to handle everything.</p>
<p>And to fiddlefrog, like I said, my area rep said that most non-music stuff they don't really see or do much with. I actually don't remember what he said they do with music, but for the most part he said art slides/extra science stuff/movies/DVDs are generally tossed into a big bin, like those big crates that u get your mail in once u come back frmo a 2-week vacation, and essentially don't get seen. And he said they have tons of those boxes full of them. So, aside from music, which i THINK may be treated differently, a lot of supplemental stuff just doesnt get seen, and gets sorted out. haha theyre sorta like letters people send to god, the post office just sorts them out and tosses em. these are yale applicants' letters to god</p>
<p>Hmm. Ok, thanks for the insight, jarahul. I'm surprised about art slides, though-- and glad to be a musician...</p>
<p>Fiddlefrog
They would never put Mozart or Bach into the bin!!!<br>
andi</p>
<br>
<p>"if you tell us you're an amazing violinist we will believe you we can;t judge that. But if you send a tape and the music department and they tels us it really isn't that good, we aren;t going to believe you and you lost your edge."</p>
<br>
<p>Good point! I almost regret sending in my CD. I recorded it live at my high school's "open house music marathon", using a minidisk recorder - it wasn't my best playing and I think the poor sound quality really works against me, making the piano sound much harsher and more metallic than it actually (probably) was. (That's not even considering the background noise and noisy audience, which I hope whoever listens to the recording doesn't pay too much attention to.) I'm making a professional studio recording tomorrow (god, it's really expensive!) for my other applications; I didn't have time to do a proper (professional) recording before the Nov 1 deadline. I hope sending the CD to Yale wasn't a mistake!</p>