| If you are a potential music major, colleges that require a recording usually have very specific requirements listed on their websites.
If you are submitting a CD as a supplement hoping that your musical abilities will be a hook to get you into a school, you need to consider the needs of the school and who will be listening to the recording. What instruments are we talking about? What schools? Why might the schools need any of the particular instruments that you play? If they like what they hear, who can most effectively argue your case with the admissions office? If you can do some research to find out the answers to these questions, you will then know what to put on the CD and to whom to send it.
Then there are the practicalities of recording. Do you feel comfortable making the recording yourself, or will you be hiring someone to help you? If you are doing it yourself, do you know the best place to record your instrument, and the right microphones and recording equipment to use? Will you be recording solo or have an accompanist?
The folks on CC can offer lots of advice, but I think we need to know some more specifics to be really useful at a detailed level. | 
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