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

<p>Yes, admissions counselors use and love the term “well lopsided” and often prefer these kids to “well rounded” kids. They love to see kids follow their passions. Good for your son, OP, and for all of the other kids referenced in this post who do all of these great things!
Maybe he could get a few percussionists to be street musicians and collect for a charity (maybe one having to do with music education for underserved kids, for example), or take the other poster’s suggestion and teach some kids the drums - maybe some special needs kids, or the middle school kids that you mentioned. Keep up the great work!</p>

<p>There should be a place on the application for additional notes like, “During those two weeks of band camp in August when everyone else was still on summer vacation, it was 105 degrees outside.” Again, folks in Texas would already know that, but I don’t know if admissions officers in the northeast could even imagine what it’s like marching around on the concrete parking lot in those temperatures!</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. "</p>

<p>Most schools don’t offer merit aid. The ones that do offer it use it to get the kind of students that they want, and may not get otherwise. If your son applies to a school that offers merit aid and desperately wants marching band members, that college may offer your son a good deal.</p>

<p>My D’s band also has a community service built in they call “play it forward”, where they collect instruments from those upgrading or from families with kids who have totally dropped playing and provide them to a middle school in a nearby town that is much more underprivileged than ours. The amount of time of the band officers/section leaders (and band booster parents) varies but includes placing notices in all PTA publications, at local music stores, with music teachers etc and identifying collection points. Then periodically getting the instruments gathered up and delivered.</p>

<p>Parking lots in Wisconsin in July get pretty hellish, too!</p>

<p>My D1’s AP English teacher once said that he said you hadn’t learned what life was all about until you worked for 2 years in retail or spent 6 months on a drumline. She proudly raised her hand and said she’d spent the past 3 summers playing snare in a competitive marching band, and after that they were great buddies. </p>

<p>To this day whenever she tells people she did 4 summers of drumline their jaws drop (she’s kind of little, and you wouldn’t think it of her), especially when she tells them about the heat, the hours and the scars on her hands and legs (when you fall, you save the drum - it’s worth more than you are!).</p>

<p>She had high stats, but also had 90% of ECs in music. She applied ED to an elite school and was accepted. These schools are reaches for anyone; I do think they appreciated her clear dedication and passion (although she had no plan to be a music major).</p>

<p>I don’t mean to sound like only these kind of self-punishing single ECs are impressive. I just think something that is meaningful and done with passion will be noticeable and will help a lot. And she deliberately did not write essays about marching band - she felt it was too personal, and maybe too obvious. She figured it spoke for itself, so she talked about other, smaller things she’d done.</p>

<p>You’re not kidding about the heat missypie–and more like four weeks marching on asphalt in August plus this week, like cptofthehouse’s son in his football camp now. It does make me wonder whether my S could even survive in the upper midwest, when it’s 100 degrees cooler for as many months! Are we nuts? He wants to see seasons; can’t say I blame him, not being from down here myself.</p>

<p>I know merit aid is really hard to come by, Northstarmom, and that we wouldn’t be good candidates overall, but some of these LACS do have tiny bits of it for musicians who will commit to ensembles (few LACs have marching bands, thankfully!). I wonder whether good keyboard percussion specialists aren’t as common as drummers.</p>

<p>Glad to hear that the Op isn’t into padding a resume,
particularly since student is a high-school student and not a job applicant.
High school extra curriculars are a great way for a student to have fun and to get a more rounded high school education.
Student should take what interests him, limited of course by his available time. Congrats to your student on pursuing his real interests and not trying to deceive.</p>

<p>Advice would be different if this were a high school student who was padding his high school accomplishments in an attempt to fool a college on how active, or how well rounded he really was.</p>

<p>Many schools allow musically and artistically talented students to submit portfolios/CDs/videos as part of their application. Where I teach, these submissions are evaluated by the art, music, theater, and band faculty–whoever seems most appropriate for a particular case–and the faculty recommendations then become part of the applicant’s file with the Admissions Committee. Demonstration of such talent can sometimes mitigate a less-than-stellar test score or a lower-than-average GPA.</p>

<p>Also, some schools give scholarships to select members of the marching band. The ones I know about are big schools with high-profile football teams, maybe not the LACs the OP is primarily interested in. Still, it might be worth checking out.</p>

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<p>My drill team daughter has also ruled out the entire south. (Again, who outside of the south is going to understand a fourth of the applicant’s credits being in drill team?)</p>

<p>If you go to competitions, did you perhaps see our HS’s 2008-2009 show that was based on Guitar Hero (or maybe it was video games in general)? It was the coolest thing ever and won nationals.</p>

<p>S was also a Texas band kid. When we did college rounds, several schools stressed wanting to see dedication to an EC and leadership. Both of these are built into band. S also did debate but that was because he wanted to. Over the summer I encouraged him to do community service that he would enjoy, he loves animals and volunteered at a shelter. It worked out great. If there was this sort of thing that yours enjoyed this could be a good option just to diversify. I always got the impression that showing dedication was preferable to a laundry list of activities.</p>

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<p>A most emphatic yes.</p>

<p>My son is also in a similar situation that he is in Band and this Band is extremely time consuming. However during different times of the year the hourly commitment is different. For example Football Season is extremely time intensive. So how do you complete the amount of hours on the Common App when from season to season these hours differ?</p>

<p>Most admission folks know that Marching Band in Texas is not like most Marching Band any where else. (Of course the same can be said for Indiana too) Just because the “8 hour” rule is king in Texas, there is not one Texas parent on this board who have kids in sports or fine arts that know the loopholes in that legislation. Not to mention that games and competitions do not fall into that 8 hours. My d is a rising senior and of course the heat is about to be on. But we feel really good about her music heavy life and I agree with the other posters that say let them do what they love. How your son does in the All State audition process will have a huge impact.</p>

<p>If your son loves the world of percussion, (and I know this is not an East Coast LAC) have him check out Florida State. One of the best percussion programs in the country and a hands on director that enriches the lives of the kids in his program (I have a current relative in the program) Plus they do give merit aid. :)</p>

<p>Overwhelmed, I can’t remember how much flexibility you were allowed in the Common App. You could write (2-10 hours, varies) or if the Common App program won’t let you do that or doesn’t have enough room, you can attach a separate resume that clarifies things. Or you can just calculate an average.</p>

<p>Like UCLA Band Mom, back on page 1, my son is an engineering student at UCLA. His various band activities (marching band, wind ensemble, etc) were his only EC’s as the music program at his high school was very time consuming. The schools that he applied to all seemed to appreciate his level of commitment to that one activity. I think too many students sign up for every EC they can just to have a long list…and that isn’t necessarily what the school are looking for.</p>

<p>onlyone, something nobody else has mentioned here is that male applicants are URMs at some LACs. All else being equal, many schools on your son’s list might pick the male over the female, just like HMC, MIT and CalTech might pick the female applicant.<br>
One passion is worth more than 12 clubs that he’s just a member of.</p>

<p>My youngest had only her extensive band activities (and a cricket club started by one of her Indian friends that lasted just one summer) for ECs and a seasonal job that lasted 3 years. Got into all the schools that she applied to (similar list to your son’s) with merit aid.</p>

<p>Being heavily involved in band activities taught my son to take charge of scheduling his time to make sure he got all his homework done. That discipline came in REALLY handy once he got to college, and he was able to organize his time to get much more done than others who were not in band. Band is great preparation for the stresses of college.</p>

<p>I’ve heard so many visiting admissions officers say that they are looking for excellence in one EC vs participation in many ECs. Well rounded is out!</p>

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<p>The regional admissions officers from top colleges will know what Texas drill teams are all about - it’s their job to know and it adds to the social diversity of the class.</p>

<p>'Well rounded is out!"</p>

<p>Nope. Admissions officers at top schools still love the rare students who’ve pursued a variety of passions in depth and with notable achievements. Those admissions officers just aren’t interested in students with laundry lists reflecting superficial involvement in ECs that the students did just to impress admissions officers.</p>