<p>I am from Montana applying to the following schools: Yale, Brown, Princeton, Amherst, Dartmouth, Haverford and Middlebury. I have fairly good scores (SAT I Math 780 Reading 760 Writing 750, SATII MathII 800 Chem 800 Lit 720) and my main extracirricular strengths are Debate and music. I have played the oboe for several years and have been the youngest member in our local symphony as well as getting the highest rating at the state music festival every year. Nonetheless, I don't have any national recognition and have not been practicing as much lately so I am not ready to make a recording of anything (it is too late anyway to start working on anything) :/. But I still want to play it up as one of my strengths and am considering asking the conductor of the symphony (who likes and knows me) for a supplemental letter. If I were to put oboe as a main activity for me and had a letter but no recording would colleges think I was trying to pad my application with stuff about oboe playing without any real substance in the form of a recording or would it be ok?</p>
<p>I'm doing the same thing for clarinet! I don't really have time to make a recording, but I think it's okay. I never had any doubts about asking my wind ensemble director for a supplemental recommendation. It'll definitely show a different side of you that they won't see in academic recommendations, whether or not you include a recording.</p>
<p>By the way, your scores are more than "fairly good"...!</p>
<p>anything else?</p>