<p>Seriously, for art/music supplements, how can they require a recommendation from a teacher or mentor, and a private one at that!</p>
<p>I've developed my artistic talent by myself and haven't had the luxury of having a "mentor" or "private teacher" to assist my artistic growth. That sounds like something Stanford should value. School teachers won't do either, as I have only taken a semester of art in HS and they don't know me.</p>
<p>That is the most bizzare and pretentious thing I have seen in any application so far. Stanford should learn from MITs admissions office, which is far more understandable and reasonable.</p>
<p>I really hope this is not a strict guideline -> has anyone gotten around it?</p>
<p>It is a new guideline that they recently added. My guess is that too many people were sending random junk, so they decided to make it a little more difficult for the applicants to deem themselves "qualified" to be artists/musicians/etc. </p>
<p>I guess you could e-mail or call them and ask how strict they are about this requirement...</p>
<p>yes, i figured that's exactly why they'd do it, but this is blatant discrimination against those who don't want/need or can't afford a mentor/teacher</p>
<p>after all, they are people and hopefully will be understanding, so I will call to see what they have to say.</p>
<p>Yeah...I was in the same position you are. I had one of the art teachers at our town art center look at my portfolio; he wrote a recommendation for me based on two one-hour-long sessions. It wasn't ideal, but I think the recommendation is judged less on its content than on its mere presence.</p>
<p>Thanks, in that case I'll probably ask an art teacher that I had (she probably still remembers me). I guess they want someone to confirm that you have the talent.</p>