music

Applying to College
1

<p>does composing a piece of music help you stand out and make you competitive in the applicant pool even if you only have a 3.5 UW and are in the top 20% of your class?</p>

2

<p>Any extracurricular can help you stand out a bit more if you’re extremely involved in it and passionate about it.</p>

<p>That said, while composing is a bit more unique than playing an instrument, it will not make you any more competitive in the applicant pool unless it means a lot to you and you show that to admissions officers.</p>

<p>And it’s also important to realize how much you’ll stand out will depend on what kind of colleges you’re applying to, selectivity-wise.</p>

3

<p>What kind of schools are you looking at? Many schools don’t even consider ECs, at least not significantly, in comparison to hard stats. </p>

<p>Has your work been played by your school/a local orchestra?</p>

4

<p>The above two posters summarized it fairly well, but to add more detail, it will be very school specific and will carry more weight at schools assessing admits on more holistic rather than stats/grades based parameters. For the most part, think LAC’s rather than larger university programs.</p>

<p>A primary question is do you intend to pursue composition as an undergrad? If the answer is yes, than you need to spend extensive time in CC’s music major forum. If you are looking at this from the standpoint of an admissions edge, consider it a potential data point or three, school selection contingent.</p>

<p>One composition alone is not necessarily worth much; the factors involved in your interest and training/experiences in music theory, composition may be equally or potentially even more important than the end result. If the piece was a competition placer/winner, played semi-professionally, or professionally, used commercially, it will carry far more weight (in the programs that care) than one that was never played, or played only by a high school or youth orchestra.</p>

<p>The posts I cite in my post <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065187134-post6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065187134-post6.html&lt;/a&gt; as well as the linked thread there will give you further input and insight, as will this <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/789177-fine-art-supplement-how-good-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/789177-fine-art-supplement-how-good-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;