<p>i hope not either good luck!!- and wow I was typing so fast and incoherently when I wrote that!</p>
<p>wmgan, I really wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Pianists are not generally judged on tone quality... Also, Juilliard doesn't ask for professional recordings-- Yale certainly shouldn't! Also, I know someone who really got ripped off by a recording company, and as a result had a not-so-good tape. Yale rejected him, saying they didn't like his tape, and the rest of his app wasn't strong enough to make up for it, but live auditions got him into Rice, Juilliard, and the like.</p>
<p>jarahul</p>
<p>As a point of clarification, no one ever said that supplementary materials were "against the rules" at Yale. What I have been trying to stress is what was said, not implied, by more than one Yale admissions rep (over the last two years and it might be different this year, I don't know) and that was in essence, follow directions, don't add more to the file than the requisite recommendations (unless again a third supplemental rec can shine all new light in the applicant) and don't send supplemental materials such as tapes, publications etc because we cannot guarantee that anything will happen with them.</p>
<p>Again, we were told TWICE, on two occasions by Yale adcoms that the thicker files go to the bottom. They implied (by telling an anectdotal story) that they feel that if most people can tell their own story in the required /provided space, needing more space, more recs, more material is overselling and they begin to ask questions about the applicant that are not necessarily positive. </p>
<p>Anyone is obviously free to do as they please but when an adcom tells me that they are overwhelmed by the reading load as it already is, why exacerbate the situation? As I said before, why give them a reason to not like your application?</p>
<p>Okay, I am again going to say, and I'll say it ad nauseum, spend your time and effort on your essays. Yale believes they are the strongest single element in the file after academic performance (which everyone is obviously going to have) and again in their words "the essay is your one chance to bring yourself to life and is your lone voice in admissions. It's your chance to differentiate yourself from the pack and to illustrate the person BEHIND the numbers. I've said it before in another post but the Yale adcom not only called my son's college counselors after SCEA to talk about his essays but she emailed and wrote him a personal note (as well as the form letter that came later) talking specifically about how much she and others enjoyed the essays. I'm off the soapbox.</p>
<p>If you are really compelled to send a perfomance tape/video you would be far better served to send it directly to the department chair or to a noted prof within the department and have them advocate on your behalf. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Again, Good luck to all/</p>
<p>right, yeah. i know what you're sayin, and i think we heard similar things, except like the area rep didnt express it as that people should be able to show themselves within the confines of the essays and such. He just said that the negative to supplements are that odds are no one will see them. But right, we basically heard the same thing, but in two different ways.</p>
<p>I'm pretty big into acting and have done some national television work (albeit some of it was reality TV) so I sent in my acting resume from my agency... Lester, my admissions man, told me that it was okay and that they definitely wanted to know about that kind of stuff. He said that Yale's admissions office is not nearly as imposing as the website makes it seem.</p>
<p>I stand with eadad. Supplements tend to annoy Yale adcoms. Send one if it's truly phenomenal. Otherwise leave well enough alone. Word to the wise.</p>
<p>I dont think they would use sending in supplements against applicants because there obv so many amazing applicants and as seen by the population here, a lot sent stuff in. I just think they'll ignore what they dont have time to look at. If they used that against people they'd have a very small amount of accpetance letters going out. To reject based on that would be stupid and they know that.</p>
<p>To all those people who are saying that supplements annoy the Yale adcom - take a look at the website! Why on earth would they encourage people to submit recordings/art slides/research abstracts if they plan to throw them away? I agree that supplementary recommendations will probably annoy them, but supplementary materials that THEY HAVE SPECIFICALLY SAID THEY ACCEPT, they must surely review!</p>
<p>Area rep told me they farm out the supplements to faculty competent to evaluate them and, if they are not exceptional, faculty get ticked off because they think their time has been wasted. Now you can do what you want. Just passing on information.</p>
<p>Zuma - did you choose your name because of the game Zuma? It's hugely popular in my house. I've spent lots of time procrastinating with it.</p>
<p>No. Zuma is actually a real word in a language which I will not presently divulge - to indulge a little coyness. A little research will take you right to the language and the meaning - and it is something good. How's that for some detective work.</p>
<p>Fair enough, but I also recommend the game at <a href="http://www.msngames.com%5B/url%5D">www.msngames.com</a>.</p>
<p>Zuma = South African (Afrikaans)</p>
<p>You are a long ways away, gianievve. Let me help you out. This handle comes from the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) linguistic phylum. With this clue, anyone with a linguistics background should be able to nail this one.</p>
<p>to wmgan, dude, its that they dont have time to see it, so they GENERALLY just toss em aside, but maybe sometimes theyll check them out. My area rep told me not to send my supplement with my application by rater to him personally, because if sent with the app itll probably be tossed into a big bin or something, never to be seen. Those are my area rep's words. They simply dont have time to see everything, and even if they did, besides music, a lot of things they wouldnt have time to send to other people, or if they saw it themselves, they wouldnt have the knowledge to evaluate it.</p>
<p>"if they used that against people they'd have a very small amount of acceptance letters going out"</p>
<p>Look at last year's admissions stats..... 8.9%....the numbers speak for themselves.</p>
<p>i guess one or two would be good. but don't send too much. then you just lose your edge.</p>