For my Dartmouth application, I indicated that Music would be my secondary area of academic interest. I only said that because I am very unsure about what I want to do in life, and I have experience with the piano (one of my main ECs) - I am probably not even going to end up majoring in Music, but I am interested in taking a few music classes and maybe minoring in music. Since Dartmouth asked for areas of “academic interest” rather than a major, I assumed that it would’ve been beneficial to indicate that I was interested in music (which I am) since I have previous instrumental experience.
I said I was interested in submitting a music portfolio, which I did for most of my schools. However, I am now suddenly worried that the music portfolio would actually hurt my admissions chances. I have played in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center, and I have won multiple awards around the state level (and some considered to be international level), and my piano teacher has helped many students win high awards and get into amazing colleges. Not to sound braggy but I am not too shabby, and I was told by my teacher (who has a lot of experience with this type of stuff) that my music supplement was “professional” and could only help me and not hurt me. However, she did not know that I indicated that I was interested in studying music (really regretting that choice now), and I don’t consider myself to be AMAZING or anything like that at all. I’d imagine that there are many more talented pianists who are better than me who also indicated that they wished to study music.
So, in the separate music supplement for Dartmouth through the SlideRoom software, I am saying that I am considering the music minor and I don’t even bring up the idea of majoring in music. My question is: would indicating on my CommonApp that I am interested in music mean that my music portfolio would be looked at even more closely and harshly? I was under the impression that indicating any academic interests for Dartmouth had no impact on admissions chances. Had I been applying to, say, the Northwestern Music School, then the supplement would understandably be looked at more critically. However, would someone who said that his secondary academic interest when applying (which says there are no try-outs for the music department) be held to the same standard? Thank you - my separate Dmouth music supplement is due tonight BTW.
