Achieve good result in Supplementary Materials papers and get admissions

Friday, September 14, 2012

You should think carefully before submitting supplementary materials with your Yale College application. Most successful applicants submit only the items that we require. There are cases in which too many submissions, or submissions that do not reflect a high level of talent, can actually work against a candidate. Because the Admissions Committee gives greatest weight to the documents required of all applicants, we recommend that you focus your energy primarily on those elements of the application.
Supplementary submissions may make sense for students with substantial and well-developed talent that cannot be conveyed adequately in the rest of the application. Due to the large number of applications that Yale College receives, we cannot evaluate all supplementary materials. Admissions officers and faculty members will be selective in choosing which submissions to review.
We will accept audio recordings, musical scores, art samples, writing samples, scientific research papers, and links to personal websites. We do not encourage you to submit additional letters of recommendation, resumes, or personal essays; these are less likely to shed helpful new light on your application.

How to Submit Supplementary Materials

If you are going to submit supplementary materials, please check the appropriate box on the Yale Supplement to the Common Application, Section VI, titled "Supplementary Materials."
Supplementary materials other than art or music may be attached to the Common Application as Additional Information or mailed to our office, clearly labeled with your full legal name as it appears on your admissions application, your date of birth, the name and state or country of your high school, and the subject of the materials. Please see the sections below for more specific information about submitting art, music, academic work, and web supplements.
While we cannot accept videotapes or DVDs of performances, applicants may include a link to a website or brief YouTube video in the space indicated on the Yale Supplement to the Common Application. In all cases, applicants should review the specific instructions below to ensure that materials submitted are appropriate.

Acceptable Forms of Supplementary Materials

We will only accept submissions of art and music through our online submissions website, in .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .tif., .png, or .mp3 files, or, for music compositions, .pdf files. We continue to accept all other forms of supplementary materials in hard copy.
Please do not send:
  • Submissions that don’t demonstrate an unusually high level of ability.
  • Unnecessarily long or extensive submissions. Succinct submissions often make a stronger impression.
  • Three-dimensional submissions such as scrapbooks or sculpture.
  • VHS tapes, CDs, or DVDs.
  • A video addressing the admissions committee directly.
  • Personal web pages from social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace.
  • Anything that is not your own work.
Please follow these instructions rather than those on the Common Application Arts Supplement form. You do not need to submit that form to us.

Types of Supplementary Materials

  • Art
  • Music
  • Academic Work
  • Websites
  • Extra Recommendations

Supplementary Materials - Art

If you wish to submit images of your artwork as a supplement to your application, you must do so at our online supplementary materials submissions website by the appropriate application deadline (November 1 for Single-Choice Early Action candidates; December 31 for Regular Decision candidates; March 1 for transfer candidates).
Here are some additional guidelines:
  • Submit no more than ten images of your work that demonstrate the fullest possible range of your talents. Try to ensure that your technical and expressive abilities are equally represented. You are encouraged to include images of your drawings.
  • When uploading individual files onto the supplementary materials website, please indicate the title, medium, size, and date of the work in the space provided. Also indicate if the work was done from life. (For example, "Girl with a Pearl Earring, Oil on Canvas, 17.5" X 15", 1665. Painted from life.").
  • The materials must be in .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .tif, or .png file format.
  • Resolution of . jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .tif, or .png images should not exceed 768 pixels in height and 1024 pixels in width.
  • To submit artwork, please check the appropriate box in Section VI of the Yale Supplement to the Common Application, titled "Supplementary Material."

Supplementary Materials - Music

Yale College does not conduct musical auditions for applicants. Music faculty members will review selected audio recordings or scores from advanced musicians, whether or not they wish to major in music as undergraduates. Please consider sending musical materials only if your accomplishments are truly outstanding for a high school musician and if your playing or composing is a strong and important part of your application. Submissions that demonstrate an average or merely competent level of ability for a high school musician will not help your application.
If you wish to submit audio recordings as a supplement to your application, you must do so at our online supplementary materials submissions website by the appropriate application deadline (November 1 for Single-Choice Early Action candidates; December 31 for Regular Decision candidates; March 1 for transfer candidates).
Here are some additional guidelines:
  • Submissions from instrumentalists and vocalists should consist of two or three pieces of contrasting styles (e.g. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern) that demonstrate abilities in the areas of tone, technique, and interpretation. Singers should submit at least one piece in a foreign language. Do not present selections from method books. Whole pieces or movements (as opposed to excerpts) are preferred.
  • Submissions from composers should contain scores and matching recordings.
  • Audio materials must be in .mp3 file format. Musical scores must be in .pdf file format.
  • Submissions of recordings and scores of popular music or jazz at a high level are welcome.
  • Although your recording need not be of professional quality it should be sufficiently clear of distracting interference to enable the evaluator to arrive at a judgment. Live recordings from recitals or performances are fine so long as the quality is high enough to discern the applicant’s musical abilities. Scores must be neat and legible.
  • When uploading individual files onto the supplementary materials website, please indicate the title and composer of each submission, including movements, in the space provided. (For example, "Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, Scherzo. Frederic Chopin.").
  • To submit recordings or scores, please check the appropriate box in Section VI of the Yale Supplement to the Common Application, titled "Supplementary Materials."

Supplementary Materials - Academic Work

If you have been engaged in advanced scientific research, you should consider requesting a letter of recommendation from a research mentor who has been involved personally with your scientific work. The letter should be sent to us directly from the mentor and include your full, legal name as it appears in your application and the name and state or country of your high school. If your research incorporated work from many individuals, or was part of a larger project, please indicate what specific contributions you made to the project. If you contributed to a paper on the work, you may also submit a research abstract or a full paper for possible review by a member of Yale’s science faculty. Full papers are generally more useful than abstracts.
Creative writers with very well developed talents may submit their work for review. Some students have been recognized at a regional or national level and many have successfully pursued writing opportunities beyond their English classes and school literary magazines. If you are thinking about submitting extra writing samples, you might consider sending a carefully chosen short piece rather than a long manuscript. Bear in mind that the required application essays are the most important “writing samples" in an admissions file.
All supplementary academic work and recommendations should either be attached to the Common Application as Additional Information, or be mailed to the admissions office. The materials must be labeled with your full, legal name as it appears on your admissions application, your date of birth, the name and state or country of your high school, and the subject of the materials.
To submit supplementary academic work, please check the appropriate box in Section VI of the Yale Supplement to the Common Application, titled "Supplementary Material."

Supplementary Materials - Websites

Students with a high level of talent that is best conveyed through a website or a YouTube video may submit a URL on Section VI on the Yale Supplement. This is an opportunity to showcase talents or abilities not covered in the categories above; this is not a forum to address the admissions committee directly. Online videos will be judged on substance rather than production value and should be brief. Please don’t send blogs, journals, or links to social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. These will not be considered.

Supplementary Materials - Extra Recommendations

If you feel the need to submit extra information, you may ask one additional recommender to write on your behalf. Please do not solicit this additional letter unless you feel it will add substantially to your application. The writer should know you well personally or have mentored you closely in some capacity. Please ask that person to include the following at the top of their letter: your full, legal name as it appears in your application, the name and location of your high school, and your date of birth. The letter should be labeled "Supplementary" to avoid confusion.
If you have been engaged in advanced scientific research, you should consider requesting a letter of recommendation from a research mentor who has been involved personally with your scientific work.

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