<p>At some colleges, the marching band doesn’t take up too much time–but it may be less serious than a good high school marching band, which may not be what some kids want. My son is in the Yale Precision Marching Band, which is one of the Ivy League “scatter bands.” One music rehearsal a week during football season, and then Saturday at the Bowl. Less during other times of the year (they also play at hockey games, but there are fewer kids.) But it’s still a lot of fun, the kids get to play, and it’s a good social bonding experience.</p>
<p>Engineering school is usually very hard and especially so freshman and sophmore year.</p>
<p>If my kids were going into engineering school, I’d encourage them to not to the time intensive marching band until after their first semester of college. This partly depends on whether he has completed AP Calculus or AP Physics or AP Chemistry. </p>
<p>Many students that found high school easy are extremely surprised at the difficulty of college. It’s a lot different than many other majors where freshman year is pretty easy.</p>
<p>With that said, I know a lot of engineers that did marching band.</p>
<p>bigtrees - I understand your concerns. Obviously, whether the time commitment of a band makes sense very much depends on the individual student.</p>
<p>My son - future ENGR student - is currently taking AP Physics and AP Calculus. On the recommendation of the professors, he will NOT take any of the credits he may earn from the exams. So basically, the Calc and Physics he will take next year will be significant repeats of what he is doing now. He will also go in with 18 hours of credit (from dual credit and other AP), so that will help reduce his load. On the other hand, he will have Honors College classes to take…</p>
<p>At my son’s college, engineering students make up 1/3 of the band, so obviously they are able to balance school and band quite nicely. Same thing with the college my other son is looking at for next year - again, the highest percentage of members are engineering majors.</p>
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<p>I suspect many bands at engineering schools are low key. I know that is the case for CO School of Mines. At our Case visit, the tourguides said that Marching Band counts as PE. </p>
<p>Even when studying hard, it is helpful to break things up with friends and exercise. Marching Band fits the bill.</p>
<p>re all the engr students in band…
LOL! Must be a “right brain-left brain” thing!</p>
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<p>WOW! 1/3 engineering students?! I find that very interesting.</p>
<p>Grcxx3, my son played trumpet, but it has been several years since he graduated.</p>
<p>Singersmom07 - Oh, we LIKE trumpet players in this house! My DH played for over 15 years. When we visited the Penn State band facility last summer…my DH and son were practically drooling over those 64 matched Bach Stradivarius trumpets!! My son has a Bach (he’s now on his 3rd trumpet) and he loves it!</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - it’s not uncommon to have lots of engineering majors in the band. That is why Engr departments are so willing to work with the band folks to help the students with schedule conflicts, etc.</p>
<p>College marching bands are used to having students who are serious students. They handle it by learning most of their routines at summer band camp. Camp is held for a week or two just before school starts (longer camp if you are in drumline, or are a freshman, and shorter camp for returning students). My son met several good engineering friends at his Freshman band camp, it was nice to make friends before all the other students showed up and classes started. </p>
<p>His professors were always lenient with the band members when it came to re-scheduling midterm exams and finals that coincided with important games. One Physics professor even let the band members skip one of the midterms, and weigh the other exams higher so as to let them all travel up to the Stanford game.</p>
<p>Marching drills take less time to learn in college, because the students are much more experienced. What took 3 weeks to learn in high school only took an afternoon in college. And the freshman had the music mailed to them over the summer so that they could learn their parts ahead of time. Actual weekly practice wasn’t very time consuming, more of a refresher of what was learned in band camp.</p>
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<p>Sorry but since American Pie I can’t look at a phrase like that the same way ever again. I know low brow and crass…so sorry ;)</p>
<p>I was in the USC Trojan Marching band. It was the best thing I ever did in college. I marched a Rose Bowl, some of the kids who attended later marched multiple Rose Bowls and other BCS games. We also did other gigs, including a special with Fleetwood Mac. And what I loved was not having to do any more fundraisers. </p>
<p>Like others, there were a TON of engineering majors and other science majors. We rehearsed 3 days a week 3:45 to 5:45 and during Football season every Saturday. Colorguard and the drumline had more rehearsal time. The funny thing is I tended to do get better grades during the Fall as I was required to manage my time better.</p>
<p>I took concert band and it was fantastic! To be part of a group of kids who WANT to play…so exciting! It’s an experience totally different from HS. We all did it for fun.</p>
<p>My son also thinks band was the best thing he did in college. Band camp was great, it let him get all settled in the dorm before everybody else got there, and he met all kinds of friends.</p>