<p>If you are learned in an instrument (or 2 or 3), but have no plans for pursuing these musical interests professionally (major), would sending a audio, or a video of a performance be helpful to an application? </p>
<p>-Also, I am talking in reference to top colleges-</p>
<p>Who would watch/hear the clips? Would they be the regular admissions or would they be sent on to the music department? And if they sent it on, would the music department even care if you don't plan to pursue it much it college?</p>
<p>Many applicants to top schools have played an instrument]s] for years. You should only send in a tape if it shows that your have outstanding musical abilities- i.e you have played for years, have won awards, etc. Otherwise it could actually work against you.
Most of the time the someone from the music dept. listens to the tape.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't send it to the admissions office. Send it to the music department. If they think its good, they'll tell the admissions office and that will help you.</p>
<p>Admissions officers aren't going to spend time listening to your tape, because they can't be a good judge of it, while the music department can be.</p>
<p>Actually, not all of this advice is true for every school. For instance a small LAC not particularly known for music may be happy that someone wants to staff its orchestra/band/choir. That is true at Williams, my S's school. His tapes were instrumental (haha) in his admission I'm sure.</p>
<p>Most schools want all admissions materials, even supplementary, sent through admissions who then farm it out to departments.</p>
<p>Websites will detail the process at each school. At Williams, for example, the application materials were due 1/1, but the arts supplement was due 12/20.</p>
<p>Check with your music teacher and/or guidance counselor.</p>
<p>My dd is not a music major. However, it's been a big part of her life, and she has done very well with it. Her music dept suggested she send a cd and will help her record it.</p>
<p>She's applying to highly selective colleges. One of them specifically said to only send a cd if the work was 'exceptional' or something like that. So she became nervous about sending her cd, and double-checked with her music teachers who again told her to enclose the cd. And she will do so.</p>
<p>From what I've heard, the admins send the cd (or whatever) to the applicable dept for feedback.</p>
<p>Someone told me that the Vanderbilt office told them that the music dept will send them a message "we need a tuba player;" the next tuba player who has appropriate grades etc will get in - that simple and arbitrary.</p>
<p>To reinforce what mythmom said, you should follow the instructions of the individual college. Most post very specific information on their website; if not, you can call admissions and ask. </p>
<p>Usually you send the performance tape to the admissions office and *they * will pass it to the music department for evaluation. I think it's also a good idea to develop a total arts package which would include your tape; a resume that indicates classes, grades, awards, achievements, etc; a supplemental recommendation from an instructor or mentor.</p>
<p>Colleges NEED musicians just as they need football players. Some are more friendly to music non-majors than others and the range of performance opportunities varies.</p>
<p>The majority of this advice is sound and applicable, but the most cogent point is that the procedures are VERY school specific, and are normally detailed on the music department's webpages. </p>
<p>Questions should be addressed to a music knowledgeable adcom, not a general admissions person. Private instruction may be included, subsidized, or at extra cost. It may be with performance faculty, adjunct faculty, or TA/GA's for non majors. Ensemble participation will vary greatly, may be limited to majors and minors, or there may be several levels of ensembles to allow for varying levels of proficiencies. Scholarship monies, if any, range from nothing to a few grand for non music majors willing to participate in activities.</p>
<p>Certain instruments, such as the tuba mentioned, may well be needed at some schools. Bassoon, sometimes oboe, viola or harp are occaisionally in demand at smaller programs as well. Some schools will make attractive awards for instruments in demand.</p>
<p>Note that at HYP and other Ivies, schools like Stanford, MIT and others you will find a number of students who have won or placed in some major and local competitions, have the "chops" to have made it into programs at Curtis, Juilliard, or any other top conservatory level program yet are pursuing academic degrees in other disciplines. A portion of this group will go on to serious music/performance study at the grad school level. </p>
<p>Schools that are members of consortiums often allow cross registration and participation in cooperating institutions' programs and ensembles.</p>
<p>The range of answers is so varied and institution specific that the best advice
is to thoroughly investigate each school of interest. There are no hard and fast rules applicable to all.</p>
<p>"please explain to me why a bad music/dance tape could 'work against you?'"
Exactly the same way bad grades /SAT scores/ letters of recommendation could work against you.</p>
<p>^ There's a key difference: the music tape ISN'T required. The grades / SAT scores / letters of recommendation are REQUIRED materials that ALL applicants HAVE to send. Music tapes are completely extraneous. If a student doesn't have access to good resources in music, how should they know if their stuff is good, let alone good enough to send into a college? Do colleges really respond in, "HOW DARE this student send in this very MEDIOCRE music tape?!" That is what seems to me implausible.</p>
<p>Why would anyone send in something, as a supplement, that does not reflect well on themselves, or even reflects poorly? This is like drawing attention to a negative factor in an application. If it does not reflect positively on the applicant, and it is optional, then to send it in would be using poor judgement, and I think that's what the Music staff, and the admissions officers might conclude. It's like not reading the directions on an application.</p>
<p>fhimas88888888- Possibly menloparkmom misinterpreted your question. Her answer suggests to me she was assuming it was a required tape for admissions or program specific purposes. In that event, a bad tape or recording, (or art portfolio for that matter) would indeed be as detrimental as not meeting the academic admissions requirements.</p>
<p>Now for a non required purely voluntary submission, the only way I can conceive of it being in any way detrimental is if a) admissions policies clearly indicated that supplementary materials were NOT encouraged under any circumstances or b) the material was not the work of the student submitting it. Other than those two, I honestly could not see a voluntary submission being a negative.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you completely on this. </p>
<p>A suggestion to those who don't know how good "their stuff is" prior to submission may be best served by reaching out to local sources who have had professional training and exposure that would enable them to evaluate the merit of the proposed submission. These include music teachers, voice coaches, youth or local community symphony conductors, directors, church music directors, instrumental studio instructors to name a few. Their professional and educational experiences allow them to provide more constructive advice and counsel that the average layman.</p>
<p>I'm actually VERY interested in this topic as well, since I'm in the same situation as the topic starter. Only difference is that I will be applying to UC's instead.</p>
<p>Mediocre at a small LAC and mediocre at a prestigious university or conservatory are very different.</p>
<p>It's easy to ask music teacher or director of performing group at school how one stacks up. For my S's instrument if he were to be placed in last row as violin II that would be very different than first chair of violin I, which he did have. However, he was in select orchestras and was often in last row there so he had a good idea that he was mediocre but not totally hopeless. Since he scored 100 in NYSSMA for level 6, highest level, he also knows he not totally hopeless as a pianist. However, he has heard students so much better than he is he doesn't think he can be a professional pianist. He can successfully accompany singers because he has done so, and his school website specifically said it was interested in this. He has been taken private lessons on both instruments since early childhood so he has put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of practicing, something I'm sure the music department could hear.</p>
<p>If a student has never had private lessons and hasn't done any practicing at home the CD's will probably not help him, but I am sure the music department won't say, "Don't admit this loser," it just won't recommend the student.</p>
<p>And for clarification: I am (I guess maybe sadly?) a player of the most common instruments - violin and piano (and drums too, but more recreationally)
-I have played both instruments for around 10 years now.
-play violin in small city symphony orchestra, 4-year all-state....</p>
<p>And I will not lie, playing these instruments is not my life, I don't dedicate even close to all of my free time practicing, and am not a big fan of playing in competitions and winning awards.</p>
<p>The questions I had were based more on:
I am pretty good, wouldn't say exceptional, but I have spent a lot of my time playing music. Is writing this on the application good enough for colleges? I was kind of thinking that it wasn't. Anyone can play an instrument for any amount of time. There is no implication of dedication in writing that.</p>
<p>So my question: Would it be beneficial to make these skills more tangible to admissions/music department?
And again, I am talking about top schools that probably don't "recruit" non-major players. </p>
<p>I would say that level of playing is sufficient for all but conservatories. You must be very talented to have achieved that level of playing with so little effort. You don't need to advertise that that.</p>
<p>I personally sent a submission CD. I've played bassoon for years, and have made such a committment of time and effort to it that it would be ridiuclous for me not to highlight it on my applications. An admissions counelelor at Bard told me that, "bassoon players are always in high demand" and a Vassar counseler postively "squeed" (complete with a little bounce and 'ooh!') when my parents said that I played bassoon. So clearly, it was something I wanted to showcase about myself, hah.</p>
<p>Also, I although I'm not the best bassoon player in the whole world, I though making a CD was a good way to 'back myself up.' I sent in the Common App Arts Supplement form along with a music resume (listing all the groups I've been in [Area-All State, school stuff, local orchestras and quartests] teachers, a sample repetoir) and a photocopy of my NYSSMA score report. I put down that I got a 100 on the highest level of NYSSMA (like mythmom's son) and didn't want them to think I was lying! I also gota letter of reccomendation from my bassoon teacher (who I guess is sorta well known within the 'bassoon community,' hah) so that should help, too.</p>
<p>I'm applying primarily to small LACs so I can't image there will be tons of other bassoon players sending in supplemental materials (thought I could be wrong?) so I thought it was a good way to stand out (and maybe get some scholarship money....).</p>
<p>This can also apply to those of you who sing, dance, or participate in theatre. My son filled out an application at a small school recently and it specifically asked if he would be interested in performing with any of the dance, vocal, instrumental, or theatre groups as a non-major. Even though he wants to major in science, his 21 theatre performances may be worth something.</p>