<p>I Know that Harvard recruits for athletes, but does it recruit for singers (i.e. state finalist for tenor)???</p>
<p>Judging by the huge number of very talented singing groups (who had to audition for the extracurricular level) at Harvard I suspect one would need national/international level accomplishment and exposure for it to be a “hook”. Have never heard of recruitment for singing.</p>
<p>But it would be a lovely extracurricular on your application.</p>
<p>As a junior, my son placed 5th (1st amount the males) at the national Classical Singer High School competition. He was waitlisted for Harvard. Academic stats were middle of the road for Harvard (i.e. not a reason to accept him, but not a reason to reject him). He got into NEC, Eastman, and Indiana for Vocal Performance.</p>
<p>If Harvard was hard up for singers, he would have been a shoo in. Also, whether you believe it or not, Harvard states that departments do not have influence on the admissions process.</p>
<p>I am not sure why there are two identical posts by andioleary, but in my reply to the other post I said:</p>
<p>“I agree with Coureur that Harvard is not going to recruit singers per se. If you want to make it a little better than a “nice EC” I would recommend that you send in a CD of your singing. I believe that it will be forwarded to the Music Department for their critique. If the Music Department is suitably impressed, I believe that they will put in a recommendation to the Admissions Department. I don’t know that it counts for much (minor tip or hook?), but it can’t hurt. When my son auditioned for the University choirs, he was under the impression that the directors knew who he was and had heard his CD.”</p>
<p>OperaDad - If your son’s academic stats were “middle of the road” (an admittedly very high road at Harvard), I would submit, knowing nothing else about your son, that his waitlisting at Harvard is a result of his singing excellence. Harvard has many excellent singers and they are definitely not “hard up” for singers, but I do think that they pass a singer’s CD along to the Music Department for their opinion.</p>
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He posted the same question on a lot of other school’s forums.</p>
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<p>That’s the assumption we are working under. We are definitely submitting additional info - recommendation from a Harvard alum that plays for a local symphony orchestra, etc. We didn’t think to make a full court press on the talent with the original application. Just sent the audition CD with a resume.</p>
<p>I second what Hat said. After contacting the choral director as a prospective student, my D1 was invited to see him and audition. She did and also submitted a repertoire list and CD. When she checked in at Prefrosh she met her admissions rep, who recognized her and called her by name. D1 said “You know who I am?” and her admissions rep responded “Of course I do - you’re our soprano!”</p>