Band ate my kid! What if he can't do more ECs?

Parents Forum
1

<p>This is my first post, so I hope I've chosen the right place to get advice. Beyond my stated question lie a number of implicit others, so I welcome any input and apologize if I've written too much.</p>

<p>S is a rising junior at high-level academic magnet school after magnet MS as well. GPA 3.77 weighted (very confusing notwithstanding explanatory posts here). By my calculation, he's an unweighted 3.5 in academic classes, and he's been firmly B+/A- ish since forever in all classes (honors and pre-AP to date). Still just barely at 50th percentile in his HS class. That doesn't bother him. He loves his school, classes, teachers and being with super-high-achievers. We agree that it's the best environment for him, a kid who probably wouldn't work as hard at a regular school. He puts in 3+ hours of homework a night and 10+ on weekends. I teach at flagship state university, and I can tell you that students here don't even come close to that.</p>

<p>Marching band season (late July-Nov.) eats up 20-25 hours week outside of school and now S is a section leader. He's taken private lessons (percussion) since 7th grade, practices regularly, and does extremely well during the spring State competition season as marimba soloist. Plans to continue with music in college--but as an ensemble member not a music major.</p>

<p>LACs with excellent teacher/student interaction will be the best fit for him. We've already got a well-developed list along the Denison/Rhodes/Beloit/Lawrence/Carleton/Grinnell spectrum, which I think are more or less realistic. (I'd love to identify some east coast schools that might be a fit but many seem either too selective, given S's class rank and projected SAT scores, or not quite challenging enough, given his preparation.)</p>

<p>Now, finally, the issue my post raises: the amount of ECs kids seem to do scares me. Mine just doesn't have time, between school and music, which even eats up half the summer. When he does have free moments, we can hardly begrudge him doing things he enjoys (lots of computer stuff, to my chagrin). Alas, reading has never been one of his pleasures, which is partly why school work takes so much time and why his PSAT scores aren't great.</p>

<p>Will S's depth and breadth of commitment and accomplishment in music offset the (almost total) lack of other activities? If the answer is only "sort of/maybe," is there anything meaningful he can do to beef up the resume given the daily time constraints? We are not into padding the resume but it almost seems as if one must.</p>

2

<p>I am of the opinion that the particular college that your S will attend has little influence on his life, as long as he graduates. I think the values that you have instilled in him up to this point will mean a lot more for him throughout life than the particular college he attends.</p>

<p>Your question is “what if he can’t do more ECs”, and my opinion is “he will turn out just fine”. </p>

<p>He may not get into the most prestigious or elite or selective college, but thousands of people graduate from regular, non-competitive colleges and do just fine in life.</p>

<p>He should do the ECs that he wants to do and enjoy his life in high school. If he can only do band, but really enjoys it, more power to him.</p>

<p>Life isn’t a contest or competition, even though it probably feels that way right now. Just because everyone else is doing 4 ECs doesn’t mean that your S should too if he doesn’t want to or doesn’t have time.</p>

3

<p>If your son applied to a school in my area, the admissions officers would know that at certain high schools, marching band is an EC that is pretty much all-consuming. Our marching band members - esp our drum line (which has its own competitions in addition to the ones for the whole band) really can’t do anything else, except for something like NHS or another club with infrequent meetings. </p>

<p>I think the worries come when you are applying out of your region. Our HS has blocked schedule (A and B days) and athletics, band, drill team and cheer are “double blocked”, meaning they meet every day and are 2 of the student’s 8 courses. When D graduates, a full one-fourth of her high school credits will be in drill team!!! I know that the schools nearby will think nothing of this, but she wants to apply at some schools pretty far from Texas and who knows what they’ll think!</p>

<p>One thing of comfort for you: Almost every application asks for the number of hours per week or month the student puts into the EC. 25 hours a week of band adds up to a lot more than one hour a month in 10 different clubs.</p>

4

<p>Most colleges factor ECs at most into merit aid consideration. The major admission factor they use is students’ stats and – for public schools – students’ state of residence.</p>

<p>Consequently, for all but the tippy top schools, your S’s ECs will have little impact on his admissions chances. The schools that do care about ECs care far more about depth of involvement than about breadth of involvement.</p>

5

<p>East coast schools I’d suggest: Skidmore, Dickinson, Bard, Trinity (CT), Conn. College.</p>

6

<p>

I think so. They want to know that 1) the child does something useful with his time, 2) he will be able to contribute to the college community. His band does both of those.</p>

7

<p>My S2 played football. With Spring work-outs, summer weightlifting and drills and full bore prac.starting Aug 1, then the season lasting until Nov., he only had about three months of the year without football for all four years of h.s. </p>

<p>He had no interest in sch. clubs. He volunteered at his h.s’s football camp as a group leader for mid. sch. boys each summer.
His only other EC was a p/t job as a gro. store bagger which he managed to keep year 'round from 10th-12th grades. They were great about working around his sched.
He also took a couple of dual enrollment night classes at the Comm. Coll.</p>

<p>Granted he was only applying to non-flagship state u’s but was accepted to all he applied to with a much lesser gpa than your S.
At any rate, he is a rising college jr. and happy where he landed. If your S loves band,let him make the most of it and don’t worry too much about the rest.</p>

8

<br>

<br>

<p>That is a good list! My son, who was eaten by theater, with same UW GPA as yours, good SATs but less competitive school (my S’s 3.5 puts him just out of top 10%) is looking seriously at Skidmore, Bard, Trinity and Conn. College.</p>

9

<p>After just going through the process with D1, knowing how much time band takes in my area & seeing what the college placement results were at our high school, I’m saying to D2 “follow your bliss” i.e. do things that make you happy, not things to make your application “look good.” </p>

<p>Your son can always address his involvement with band in his essays, and there are ways to develop leadership within the band. If he cultivates some relationships with the adcoms at those LACs during the application process, then he can bring that up during their communications. </p>

<p>Have you asked your local GC about how your HS school fares at LACs like these? Do they have Naviance? Can you chat up other band parents to see how their older kids have done come college acceptance time?</p>

10

<p>My son’s time was not only taken up with marching band, but also drumline, jazz band, and concert band. He loved every second of it. He found a way to work music into his volunteer work by giving music lessons to underpriveleged kids, playing music at outside fundraising activities, and working on projects to inprove the school stadium and band room. He did more of the same in college, music is a passion for him, and passion is what a lot of schools look for. He is now a PhD candidate—in Engineering, not music, but he still plays in a jazz band.</p>

11

<p>Your son is what is referred to as “well lopsided”. This will not hurt him. Schools like deep involvement in a given area such as music or sports rather than spreading oneself over many areas with only light involvement.</p>

12

<p>Yes, I agree with geekmom. S was in band for 4 yrs and his EC resume looked just as diverse as his non-band peers’. There were many events that the band routinely attended - community parades, grand openings, exhibitions. His involvement in band also spawned an interest in photography and a small business taking behind the scenes/on the field photos and videos. </p>

<p>His passion for band and music was apparent in his college essays - I could have never coached him to write so eloquently about an EC.</p>

13

<p>Thanks so far everyone (I already love this site and I’ll be in the 1000s with some of you in due course, I predict).</p>

<p>Missypie: yup, we’re in Texas and in drumline (Lone Star percussion winner in 08, whole band to State this year, S got 1s in TSSEC both years so far)–but, as you say, who knows what those out of state schools will make of it? Still, it’s great to know that you can put down time spent on an activity in the application because that truly will be telling.</p>

<p>And Northstarmom, thanks for your comment about ECs, depth of involvement, and merit aid–though based on what students seem to say they do, they would all get merit aid and that can’t be the case. S may qualify for minor merit aid (and free lessons) at some of the schools we’re looking at based on his musicianship, if he manages to impress at audition and commit to being in ensembles.</p>

14

<p>Tell me about it. We’ve been juggling conflicts and fighting this battle for ever so long. Ever have a swimmer? Or a theater kid? On in choir? Or even football. My son is at football camp as I type now. Then there is an “elective” camp next month, followed by practice season start which is regulated by the State. but the “elective” camp is under State supervision or restrictions. </p>

<p>For a lot of those activities, if your kid shows up on the day officially on the school calendar as the first day, they’ll be laughed out of the room unless s/he is some super star from out of town that just moved to the area.</p>

15

<p>“Well lopsided”–I LOVE IT! (Seriously, do admissions counselors use this term?)</p>

<p>We do have Naviance, RobD, and I just went on yesterday for the first time and saw how I can compare S to others from his school who have been accepted at the schools he’s thinking about. There’s not a ton of evidence, unfortunately, in the two years of Naviance for us since the mid- and upper-midwest LACs are so out of region, but such as there is suggests our school’s seniors do well in admissions at those.</p>

<p>UCLA Band Mom: that’s a great idea about giving music lessons to underprivileged kids or maybe just helping out in whatever way a director needed. S might do at his former middle school, which like many magnet schools, is in severely underprivileged part of town. He had a great relationship with that band director, and he’s very good with younger kids.</p>

16

<p>I think that standardized test scores will have a much bigger impact on college admissions for your S than his ECs will. I wouldn’t push him to pick up other ECs just for college applications sake. Some SAT/ACT test prep during the summer might be worth doing, however.</p>

<p>Other schools that come to mind that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Elon, Gettysburg, Macalester.</p>

17

<p>

yep! I heard it a few times in info sessions! :D</p>

18

<p>My D sang, swam and studied. That’s it. No community service, no addition clubs. And she was accepted by a top school. Let them do what they love.</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>Pay close attention to the music audition and application dates at his top schools. My '09 son applied for non-major vocal performance scholarships (a little bit of money and free voice lessons) at two schools. At one of them, the scholarhips application deadline was January 15th! (We about flipped when we noticed that in early January. It required rec letters from two choir teachers and we were begging to get them out in time.) One of the schools had three audition dates and the other had two dates, but all auditions were over by late February. If a student was waiting for an April 1 admissions notification to apply, he’d miss the boat!</p>

20

<p>I want to just reiterate what other posters are saying. In many ways doing one EC intensively is far better than spreading yourself too thin. Don’t forget that the Common Application will ask how many hours per week you spend on an activity - it will be clear why band is the major activity. FWIW, my older son who was consumed by computer programming, volunteered at the senior center, and did computer programming both for pay and for science labs. He also programmed a very popular mod for an online game and just messed around a lot teaching himself things. It didn’t hurt him too much. My younger son, who plays violin, similarly had various music related activities on his resume including music camp and playing concerts for the seniors.</p>