Hi-my d22 is applying to LACs, Ivies etc and submitting a music supplement. Through slide room she will attach her music resume as requested. Our understanding is that what is submitted through slide room goes directly to music department and AO would not see. If she has some awards, summer programs, other musical activities on this resume that do not fit on common application actives section should she attach her music resume to the common app add’l info? what have other done? thx.
She could if the university accepts resumes.
But not for nothing, if they were not important enough to list in her app, why should an AO spend time reviewing a music resume.
And she should double check to see what can and cannot be submitted on a supplement as each college differs.
And it should go without saying that any music supplement should be top-quality, and not suited simply to submit more stuff.
I would call the colleges. Also post this in the music forum.
I am PM’ing you.
The music resume and letters of recommendation can be as important as the recording/video for these schools. I would call each school.
The music dept. websites seem to have info. For Harvard. Perhaps @parentologist can clarify how to submit the resume and LOR’s.
You may submit optional supplementary media materials (e.g. videos, audio recordings, or images) electronically via Slideroom. Details for submissions in art, dance or choreography, musical performance or composition, will be found on the Slideroom website. There is a small submission fee, but if this fee causes you economic hardship, you may request a fee waiver at the point of submission. You may also contact us to request a fee waiver.
Scholarly articles, research, creative writing or other documents of which you are the primary author should be submitted in the Upload Materials section of the Applicant Portal. This is the most efficient and direct method of submitting these materials, because they will be added directly to your official application. All submissions should include a list of any individuals with whom you collaborated in the production of the work. If appropriate, please identify your research sponsor, mentor, and/or laboratory or research group leader and provide a short description of your particular contribution to the work.
I wonder if a thread on submitting a music supplement would be helpful. Some schools don’t accept them. You have to set up a SlideRoom account before submitting the Common App or Coalition.
Just ran into this: Most colleges use the online portal, SlideRoom, which is integrated with the application systems and can automatically add your uploads to your application. Each college has their own SlideRoom site, and submission costs $5 per application. The platform is very-user friendly, and you only have to create one SlideRoom account and upload media materials once. SlideRoom accepts images (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .tif, .tiff, .bmp, .tga) under 5 MB, audio files under 30 MB, documents under 10 MB, and videos under 250 MB. Since colleges expect your files to be professional and clear, if you want to submit larger files for greater quality, the application fee will increase by 20 percent. SlideRoom also has a References section for you to add in any teacher recommendation.
@skieurope, the Common App only allows you to list four awards (if I remember correctly). So that’s where the music resume would be helpful, if the applicant has more than that (and I’m talking about national level, so I think those would be important).
@Cloudybay23, are you saying that the musical resume and YouTube recordings uploaded to Slideroom would not be seen as a regular part of the application? I didn’t know that.
I have never heard that slideroom submissions go directly to the music department and always thought they went to admissions first. It would be helpful if anyone could share this info.
For the universities with which I am most familiar, admissions forwards music supplements at its discretion; most never see the light of day. Admissions certainly sees that there is a Slideroom submission, but will almost never look at them since that is not their expertise.
I am unaware of any non-conservatory school which gets all Slideroom submissions directly.
That is what I thought. Just want to add that I think the the music resume and letters of recommendation may be a major factor for admissions- without anyone listening to a recording or viewing a video .
I have never been sure if that evaluation of resume and LOR’s happens with admissions staff only or if music faculty are then consulted. In some cases, I would think music faculty input might not be needed to establish qualification for admission.
On at least one university application it says that anything attached in slide room will not be reviewed by AO only by music department.
So what are people’s opinion of whether national awards in music would be a hook (or bump or whatever you want to call it) for regular non-consservatory admissions? (I guess at the very least it shows depth in an extracurricular and sustained effort). If not intending to major in music, should an applicant even bother submitting anything to Slideroom?
1 Like
We loved the way Pomona handled it, in a kind of nice and unstructured way - following their official advice from the website, we reached out early to a specific person (who in the meantime became Dean of Music so she may delegate it now, I’m not sure), D talked to her via Zoom, she liked what she saw and heard, and she added her blessing to D’s application, with the usual “don’t expect miracles, the rest of your application must be sufficiently strong.” She said that generally, it works much better for ED (1 or 2) than for RD.
2 Likes
I have to believe that it does. All of the kids that go to our high school that are exceptional musicians (national orchestra, youngarts winners, attend precollege at conservatories) have the best results of their class, even when they are not the highest ranked acadamically.
1 Like
Music is not technically a “hook” but for those with talent, it can significantly help chances of admission at some schools. For many reasons: commitment to music involves discipline and hard work; the schools need musicians; musicians contribute to the mix of interests in a class, and so on.
You do not have to plan to major in music or even participate in extracurricular music, for the music supplement to be helpful. When submitting a music supplement, there is no requirement that you plan to continue music in any way.
3 Likes