<p>if so, do you know if they have to do band in the spring, as well?</p>
<p>my dd (who is not at all convinced to do band in college) might consider marching band, but i don't think she wants to have to do band all year. for her, marching band (and football games) is fun, but concert band ... not so much.</p>
<p>Not mine, but my cousins. They are from the HS music teacher side of the family. Where they live, Texas, not only does a student have to be accepted at college, but must audition for band. One of their kids was acccepted to UT Austin (bsed on academics) but did not get into band, so went to LSU instead.</p>
<p>My niece participated in the marching band at a Div 1 school for four years. Her last year, she was in ‘management’. I think she auditioned during the summer before her freshman year. She also participated in the pep band that played at basketball games, but it was not mandatory and I think, because there are so many more basketball games than football, the kids signed up for the BB games that worked with their individual schedules. She was not otherwise involved in the university’s music program. It was a great EC for her - she was involved in the school and had friends ranging from freshman to senior almost immediately. This was a big public university.</p>
<p>Friend’s S did marching band in college. First semester was marching band–football games. After football season, there is a pep band that played at the basketball games, but he didn’t do pep band. Concert band is a completely different animal entirely…has its own auditions and mostly staffed by music majors at his college.</p>
<p>Each school is different re: auditions and committments. Marching Band season is football season. It is very different from HS marching band; it is performance at the games not competitions with other schools like the hs bands participate in. For most schools, other bands eg. pep, concert, jazz are voluntary and vary from school to school but are not mandatory for marching band kids. My d is considering marching band in college; everyone we know who has done it has said it is lots of work with tremendous rewards and always encourage others to do it. Some of the bands from larger schools do some travelling durning the season ( 1 or 2 games) and some have even gone abroad (UCLA went to China!).</p>
<p>A good friend’s D who attends the same big state u. as my S1, just finished her freshman year in the marching band. She did not have to practice in the Spring. I believe she auditoned for the band spring or summer of senior year.</p>
<p>Friend’s D is somewhat quiet, not party type. She was in marching band and concert band all four years of h.s. Joinning the college band turned out to be great for her…instant friends/aquaitances that made huge sch. seem smaller.
She also participated in the school’s jazz band.</p>
<p>This girl was considering transferring for a major this sch. didn’t offer but in the end decided she would miss too many things about this sch. that she loved. My friend credits the band with getting her D so invested in her sch.</p>
<p>At USC, unless you are getting a band scholarship, you are not required to do concert band or basketball band. However, most kids do one or both as they are fun. USC also has the option for brass to do Laker band. Yep, you get to play at Laker games and occasionally the Grammys and Oscars.</p>
<p>USC also does international trips every other year (those you have to pay for).</p>
<p>My son did marching band all 4 years of undergrad. It was only during the Fall quarter. A separate, smaller “Varsity Band” is fielded for winter and spring quarter, this is the band whose various members play at basketball games, water polo, etc.</p>
<p>College marching bands are a great experience for the students. They get free travel to selected away games, all bowl games, free season tickets for friends or parents, as well as participation in rallies, parades, and exhibitions at high school tournaments. It is a great way for them to make friends.</p>
<p>D did marching band her first year at a top university and loved it!!! Where else can you have 100,000 people cheering for you? She is counting the days to summer band camp. She auditioned during the summer after senior year. There is a huge fall time commitment (10-12 hours each week plus all day on game day) but as everyone else has mentioned, D made many friends from freshman through senior and in different majors. In addition, her group had many get togethers outside of band. Additionally, she took a one credit concert band class as her outlet from her more extensive classes. This was the first level band class and no auditons were required and she had a mixture of students in this class from music majors to those like herself. If your daughter enjoyed marching band in high school, I am sure she will find marching band in college equally and maybe even more enjoyable.</p>
<p>it really depends on the school, i think</p>
<p>you can either have hs band repeat, (such as ASU) with strict attendance and the like.</p>
<p>or you can have a more relaxed band. such as uc davis band-uh (my current band).
you only need to have 40% attendance out of ALL gigs for them to keep a uniform for you for football games. we are also the pep band. concert band is not related at all.</p>
<p>and im sure there are many bands in between.</p>
<p>S1 did marching band all 4 years at a small D3 school. He also did the symphonic winds year-round, but both were totally volunteer. Music majors had to be in symphonic winds, all others were there by choice. </p>
<p>He really enjoyed his marching experience and is not a sports fan, but the band made the games fun.</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter is in the marching band at an ACC Div 1 school. She told me that her child had to play for 6 basketball games.</p>
<p>well, her thinking now is that she wants to drop band. but IMO for the wrong reasons. mostly i think she doesn’t want to be a “band kid.” she feels kind of looked down upon as a band kid. and a couple things have happened lately where the band part of the show was introduced with something like … “and now at the other end of the social spectrum …” </p>
<p>i think the friend/community aspect sounds great. the time commitment sounds less than high school. football game days look like a blast.</p>
<p>I’ve got to say that when I was a student at USC, people thought students in the marching band were cool. It was very different than when I was in high school band. I wold imagine the attitude towards the band would be positive at any school with BIG TIME Football as the band is a big part of the pageantry of college football.</p>
<p>It was a great way to meet people in other majors as it works almost like a co-ed fraternity. For non drummers, there are 6 hours of practice during the week, with a Saturday practice and of course pretty much all day on a gameday. </p>
<p>I’d recommend talking with students who are currently in the band to see what they think.</p>
<p>i’m currently a freshman in college, and just wanted to comment real quick…</p>
<p>planning on doing marching band here in college all four years. here at the College of Wooster, it’s defintely laid back, but you still have to work. no auditions in the spring, whatnot (with the exception of those upperclassmen who want to try out for Drum Major). rehearsals for us are twice a week for two hours each of those days, and then a very brief warmup rehearsal saturday morning before the game. the band here is held in similar consideration/admiration just as the footballers and other athletes are, sometimes a little more. when we do our march/highland charge down the hill to do pregame, the guys are always walking up and cheering us on, just like we do for them. then we have our pipers circle up around the team at the end of the game and play “Scotland the Brave,” and it’s generally just a great time. most times, and i can attest to this, a band member can be walking down through campus in their kilt and have random people driving by to honk their horns and yell something like go band or whatever, it’s fantastic.</p>
<p>i can also totally understand where she’s coming from in not wanting to be referred to as a “bandie” or “band kid.” i despised that during HS, but now i don’t have to worry about it. in fact, i’m proud to be in the band because of the level of respect that exists between us, the various athletic teams, and the staff/faculty. i would strongly encourage your daughter to maybe go speak with/call/email the director, get into contact with some of the band members, and just give it a try. if she ends up not liking it, she will still have made a number of new friends at her college, which definately helped me out this first year. </p>
<p>-Laura :)</p>
<p>At Stanford anyone can join the marching band - the ability to play an instrument is optional… They are pretty goofy, but everybody loves them.</p>