All State Orchestra vs. AP Psychology

<p>Hello everyone.</p>

<p>I am currently a high school junior so I will be applying for college next year.</p>

<p>I have pretty good grades and a relatively strong academic resume: eg. 3.88 GPA, 5's on 4 AP's, 2340 SAT I score, 800 on math SAT. I'm also planning on taking 3-5 additional APs, 2-4 SAT IIs, and 2 IB exams before I apply for college.</p>

<p>One of my hobbies is playing violin. I am relatively good at it; since freshman year I have been in one of Maryland's top youth orchestras, MCYO. And I have been in the Maryland All State Orchestra in freshman year and this current year. In order to be able to audition for the All State orchestra, I would need to be in my school's orchestra. I was able to accomplish this last year and this year because my school's music director offered 8th period orchestra (we rehearsed during lunch). However he's getting rid of it next year so if I wanted to audition for all state, I would need to take the class.</p>

<p>The problem is that my parents refuse to allow me to take orchestra no matter what; they instead made me take AP psychology. Making all state orchestra is one of the greatest indicators to colleges that I am a good violinist; MCYO is pretty good but isn't the best orchestra in the state. Moreover, if I were to do music in my senior year, it would show the colleges that I didn't do violin just to get into college and that I did it because I'm serious about it and I enjoy doing it as a hobby.</p>

<p>If we assume that I must take orchestra for one of my 7 classes in order to do all state, should I do it instead of AP Psychology? </p>

<p>Additional information that may be a factor is that I don't plan on majoring in music and that I absolutely love all state and fervently want to do it next year.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading through my ridiculously long thread and responding. :)</p>

<p>All-State Orchestra is definitely the better choice. AP Psychology is one of the easiest APs, and it will add nothing to your application if you are already taking multiple other APs.</p>