I’m submitting a music supplement for Stanford, and my letter of recommendation from my arts instructor is extremely strong. We have a close connection and he told me it’s one of the best he’s ever written; it goes beyond talking about my musical proficiency to talking about who I am as a person. However, it’s to my understanding that the music department evaluates music supplements, not the admissions officers. Is that accurate?
Does anyone know exactly whether or not the AOs will get to see this letter? I really want that to be the case.
A rec letter will be read by the admissions officer. The supplement may or may not be passed to someone qualified to comment on its quality – I would not presume that the music dept judges every single supplement that gets submitted. I’m sure Admissions would only pass those along for students whom they are otherwise already interested.
I was told that the dance supplement my DD submitted on Oct 15th would be reviewed by the dance department in the Oct 15 to Nov 1st timeframe. They would make a recommendation based on the supplement (but not see the main file with the essays, etc) as to whether they are interested in you or not. THEN, the main file is reviewed along with the dance dept recommendation starting Nov 1st. If you submitted a video/CV on Oct 15th for any supplement this should be the process…
The music department will review the supplement. For example, if the supplement is jazz trumpet, the jazz director will review it. The letter won’t mean much. The music professor’s ears are what matters.