4
2 years ago
Admissions Advice

Can explicit music affect my admissions?

I make rap music but it sometimes contains vulgar language or inappropriate references. I also saw this can be a strong EC if I can get a significant amount of streams, but I'm worried that since the music is not "PG or Family Friendly", they will see this poorly. I want to mention that all my music is made through the poetic voice, and I do not directly support or condone any of the references that are in my music (substances, behaviors, violence, etc.). I simply enjoy making music that is similar to what I would listen to. I believe that I can reach 10k streams on one song, but I don't know if it's worth it to mention in my app if it's going to hurt my chances/instantly reject me. My other ECs are strong and I have a 4.0 uw and 4.55w so that may factor into the believability of the "poetic voice". Anyone that has added self-made music achievements to their application, please let me know what you did.

11th-grade
music
4
1

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1 answer

3
2 years ago[edited]

The number one mandate and responsibility of deans, provosts, and admissions offices at all top colleges is to make the college look good. Issues like being champions for the 1st Amendment or "freedom of speech" is secondary.

If you scan the newswires you will see that top colleges are firing tenured professors, not because they have crossed the line and said inappropriate things to their classes, twitter accounts, or in public but because their right to exercise their own voice and opinions makes the colleges have bad PR. Anything that jeopardizes the colleges PR is not a good thing. So what am I saying? I'm saying that colleges do not care about your writing, your songs, your poetry or your performances. They care about whether anything you have done, are doing, will do in the future, will shed a positive or negative light on the college. There is a difference you see.

Therefore, you should research colleges that you want to apply to better and see whether there is a supportive space for you at that school and whether that is evidenced by how they treated other artists in the past who had to put warning labels on their content.

It doesn't matter if you have 10K streams or 1 million streams, if the content you produce is counter-cultural to the school you are applying to, they will sit in judgement of you against other equally qualified applicants and take the less risky path.

If you study rappers that have college degrees you will see certain schools seem to support them more than others specifically NYU, Moorehouse, Adelphi, USC, St.Johns. These are all colleges in large urban cities like New York, Atlanta and LA. I don't think applying to conservative Ivys or Elites or certain Liberal Arts Colleges will form a symbiotic relationship for you.

You can at your own choosing completely hide your passion and make no mention of it and apply anywhere. But then you have to weigh the cost/benefit of being closeted with your craft just to attend the college(s) that may not be supportive of your artistic expression.

Good luck.

3
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Unweighted GPA: 3.7
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SAT: 720 math
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| 800 verbal
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