<p>Since I never submitted my screenwriting work to any official contests (and therefore have no awards to prove my abilities), would it be a good idea to send a supplement? </p>
<p>Yale says, "Do not submit submissions that do not demonstrate an unusually high level of ability."</p>
<p>Now I think my work is very good of course, but how would I know if it is good enough to be submitted as a supplement? Do they only want people who have won awards for their writing to submit it? (To me, this doesn't make sense because the awards themselves prove the quality, so why would a supplement be necessary?)</p>
<p>Also, "Do not submit unnecessarily long or extensive submissions. Succinct submissions often make a stronger impression."</p>
<p>What would be considered succinct for a screenwriting supplement? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>Also, would it be a bad idea to submit an excerpt from one of my scripts rather than a single short film script?</p>
<p>Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for any advice! :)</p>
<p>Since screenwriting is clearly VERY important to you, it might be a good idea to submit a sample of your work. I don’t think you need to have won an award in order for your work to be considered good; the admissions officer at the information session Yale actually mentioned an applicant who submitted a video of himself doing the rubik’s cube with one hand as an example of an “interesting” supplement which the entire office of admissions watched (clearly not an award-winning talent, and not TOO hard I might add). Although I probably wouldn’t recommending something as trivial as this example (even though that admissions officer liked it…), an excerpt would be very reasonable. In response to your next questions, basically think of it in terms of how much extra you would want to read if you only have a few hours and have already read thousands of pages. You should probably not submit anything longer than 8 pages (kind of a random guess, but hopefully you get the idea), double-spaced, unless it is truly mind-blowing. Either an excerpt or a single short film would be viable options; I would choose your best work, and if it is too long, just label the excerpt as an excerpt and choose a section that is at least semi-independent and somewhat representative of at least your style, but possibly even of the work as a whole. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I would also suggest submitting it. As long as you truly like screenwriting and you believe your work is good, it wouldn’t really hurt to submit it. I would assume its hard to show your screenwriting ability in any other way on the application (except in an additional essay), so adding this make just add another dimension to your application.</p>
<p>Also, think of it this way. If they don’t like it, the worst they do is disregard it and just look at the rest of your application. </p>
<p>And as Dan said, I would try to find one that you really love and that isn’t horribly long.</p>
<p>this isn’t quite true, while talking with a stanford admissions rep, i was told that some of the extra submissions they recieved were actually deal breakers, and while the good ones do help, be aware that if what you send is unimpressive it WILL detract from your application…</p>
<p>if you are a good screenwriter though it would definitely be a plus because it is good to show you are serious/passionate about somthing, so dont let the above completely discourage you from submitting some of your work. Just be wary.</p>
<p>" (clearly not an award-winning talent, and not TOO hard I might add)"</p>
<p>Really? Do YOU know how to do it?
There are international competitions for solving the Rubik’s Cube (held by the World Cubing Association) So it’s definitely an award-winning talent in my opinion.</p>
<p>I’d think that if I were an admissions officer who did not know how to solve the cube, I would find that definitely interesting and intriguing.</p>
<p>Which is why I sent a video of myself to Yale for SCEA as well.</p>