<p>Mary - I think that choirs are named to categorize them in High School for two reasons - 1) the kids in the school understands the ranking and 2) working within local competition regulations. Our auditioned choir of about 60 used to be called Madrigals (when I was growing up, that usually meant a group of 12 that sang…you guessed it…madrigals!). However, we had a disproportional number of girls auditioning, and they decided to create a women’s auditioned group. They decided to call THAT group the madrigals, and renamed the existing group to Chamber choir. To add to the confusion - our show choir performs classical and pop, but no dancing or choreography. From what I understand, show choir in other areas of the country is almost like a dance team that sings.
Some schools award Varsity letters for chorus performance. Ours avoids that like the plague because they want to make sure the Board of Ed is reminded that choral music is part of the curriculum, and not an extra curricular activity.<br>
So, while there are no standards, I’m guessing that colleges will look for consistent participation in whatever your school has to offer.</p>