Music Supplement

Hi guys. I’m currently a junior and planning on applying to some very selective colleges (top 3: Princeton (SCEA probably), Columbia, Cornell). Because music (violin) is a huge part of my extracurriculars, I thought about sending a music supplement in April or so to the school’s orchestra director, to get ahead of other applicants who would be sending them via Slideroom in CommonApp. I’ve heard about adcoms not really considering the supplement as they’re not professional musicians. Would this be a good idea, given the competitiveness of the schools I will be applying to?

Admission committees are unlikely to be the listeners/reviewers of your supplement. Most likely they would send the supplement to someone who is competent to judge it. A stellar review of the supplement is likely to help your application. If you are nationally or even regionally known as a promising violinist then contacting (or better, having someone contact the music chair on your behalf) can be a big help in your application. Otherwise following the supplement process is, in my opinion, best. Note that Princeton schedules auditions during the application season. See their website for details. An audition for a talented musician will most likely go further than a supplement.

I did not know about the auditions for applicants; I thought that was for the Orchestra’s admission and for performance majors…? I do have awards on the national and international level, but I’m kind of concerned about how the director would react to it, as almost everyone in Princeton’s orchestra is so good; I’m not sure whether the director’ll be truly impressed by it, or just dismiss it since he is so jaded with working with so many other musicians. That’s my primary concern.

Ok first off, you shouldn’t really send something directly to the orchestra director if you think that will help your application a lot. Unlike sports, they don’t ‘recruit’ violinists directly. I can assure you they don’t need to selectively recruit given the amount of talented violinists we have in the US. What you SHOULD be doing is sending them in as part of your application, usually as a music/arts supplement.
Fine, Maybe contacting the director expressing interest may help a tiny bit, but that won’t matter if you don’t get in. Again, they don’t really need to recruit for violin.

So let me try to clear things up with you (even though you shouldn’t be too worried*). I am in the same boat as you @TheUltimateNerd ; Violin is a huge part of my EC’s. Here’s the thing, sending in a GOOD music recording/video as a supplement WILL help your application. I can’t tell you by how much, but I CAN definitely tell you it will help. At least when I asked an admission officer at an Ivy League school (will not say which one haha), she said that the recordings will go to music professors and teachers and they will scale it on a score from 1 to 5 and maybe add some comments. A good rating and good comments will certainly help!
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Then again, your National and International awards already put you among the top, and the admission committee will obviously be very impressed given your grades and other components also are competitive. And no!! the orchestra director won’t be jaded! Think about it, most international level violinists are attending music school! And the admissions committee? You can be 110% sure they will be impressed! Be proud of your achievements! As a violinist myself who finally achieved some national recognition a few months ago, I know its a huge ton of hard work and dedication.

I’m not sure about the “audition” thing for Princeton. They have their own separate arts supplement app that you send in. (https://admission.princeton.edu/sites/admission/files/pdfs/OptionalArts15-16.pdf). Again, when I asked their admissions officer, they said it will be reviewed by music professors and teachers.

And finally, personal experience with my friend,
I believe one of the main reasons one of my friends got into Penn was because of his music. He’s non-music major, but he’s won major piano competitions (we are talking national level + international level indeed) and etc. He sent in a whole playlist to Penn, and it was pretty darn good. I know he even sent in a resume (not sure how, or whether Penn asked him to send in one or not) of his piano stuff. He had really average grades and EC’s, nothing else too special.But his impressive music feats (and he wasn’t too shabby at violin either) really impressed the committee and made his app stand out.

Late to this question … and this depends on your talent to a degree- (I wouldn’t do it if you are not All State Orchestra level) but at All State, the college directors told my son and the other musicians, that they should definitely contact directors by email describing themselves and their goals and letting them know they will be applying. In each case my son has been contacted by the schools and told to come for a free “lesson” with the director and a chance to sit in on a group rehearsal. In the cases where the schools where too far to visit they had him send them a video recording and then they told him some critiques and where he would fit and what to do next. In all cases this has been to his advantage.
Mind you this is only for schools where you are not applying as a performance major in which case you would have an audition.