<p>I will be submitting a music supplement for piano this fall. Will it be reviewed by faculty from the Department of Music, Yale School of Music, or possibly both/either? I will be a music major so I presume that this part of my app will be important. </p>
<p>It will not be reviewed by anyone from the School of Music, because that is strictly a graduate program–no undergraduates at all. At least some supplements are reviewed by faculty from the Department of Music–although I don’t know if all music supplements are automatically sent over by the admissions office.</p>
<p>As for the importance of the supplement, it could be important if you are very, very accomplished. You probably know that there is no performance major in the music department, but Yale likes to have accomplished musicians.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that the music supplements are only sent over to the Dept of Music if the overall application itself is worthy of admittance. In other words, if the rest of your application isn’t extremely strong, your supplement won’t even get a listen. It most likely won’t make any difference that you indicate ‘music major’ because majors aren’t declared until end of sophomore year, and as Hunt said, there is no performance major. But if the rest of your application makes the cut, certainly a stellar music supplement could be the thing that gives you the final edge.</p>
<p>To put it another way, if you are such a musical star that Yale might overlook weaknesses in your other qualifications, that will be clear from multiple things in your application–i.e., you were in a prestigious pre-college program, you were at prestigious music festivals, you’ve won awards, you were on From the Top, etc.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever gotten feedback about the supplement? I don’t think D did. As Hunt said, she had other items in her application that reflected her musical accomplishments. The personal note from admissions mentioned her essay which was not about music at all.</p>
<p>My son never got feedback about his supplement (composition), until after he had graduated, when a professor he knows well told him that it was highly rated by the department. How much impact it had on the decision to admit him is unknown.</p>
<p>Okay. The reason I ask is because my mom has had professors from the School of Music (Boris Berman and others) and I was wondering if they were the ones who would be listening to my recording. </p>
<p>Are you a legacy then?</p>
<p>Actually I’m not…she had them for various summer music festivals/masterclasses/etc. She might have taken a few lessons at Yale. She didn’t graduate from there though. She had a particularly good musical connection with Berman but it’s been at least fifteen years since they’ve seen each other. I would presume that they would have some faculty members from School of Music help out with reviewing the supplements, no?</p>
<p>No, I highly doubt it. The School of Music is completely separate from the Department of Music–different buildings, different staff, different admissions process. Any music supplement that Admissions deems to be from a worthy candidate would be sent to the undergraduate department for assessment.</p>
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<p>In the last admissions cycle my D’s friend was deferred in the early round, so her GC called Yale for feedback, and the only feedback given was that her music supplement ‘did not help her’. She is very talented, but did not put a lot of effort in to her recording. She basically taped it the weekend before it was due. Probably not a good idea.</p>
<p>^^^ Talented for a high school student? Or talented as a world class musician? Many high schoolers underestimate their competition, not realizing that hundreds of students have performed solo at Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the pre-college division at Juilliard etc. Those students have the talent, experience and money to put together a high-caliber music supplement – something that is of “on air” quality that demonstrates ability and range. A music supplement taped in one weekend without high end recording equipment is not going to have the same firepower and will sound weak and lackluster by comparison. Definitely not a good idea!</p>