<p>My friends in high school told me many of them had to give up band (class) because they wanted to take as many honor/AP as possible, also they have to do tech ed, etc. I really would like to keep taking band, but I also want to be ranked high academically. Did anyone here have problems like that? How did you resovle it?</p>
<p>Look, if you enjoy band, just stick with it. I have friends who dropped band for that very reason, whereas I did not drop band. I assume the reason you are considering dropping band is to avoid losing an edge for college admissions. The end result for us was the same. We got into different but roughly equal caliber schools.</p>
<p>Okay, for my school, band is 0 period, which means you go to school 1 hour earlier than everyone. So they can take the usual 6 classes per year. Now, I am not in band, but I will be quitting football next year for the sake of my own sanity. The years of football have taken its tole on my grades and body. I really do not think I can survive next year. So… Your choice.</p>
<p>I agree with NulliSecundus. If you enjoy it, please stay in it.
A few of my friends dropped band but still got into MIT, Penn, Caltech, USC, Rice, Emory, etc.
It’s up to you.</p>
<p>I enjoy band. I’ll stick to it, at least for a while.
You can tell my real question is, those who DO NOT drop band, where do they go? because we’ll lose some academic courses. (that’s what I guess.) </p>
<p>I get stuck in a bad middle school, high school will not be super good either. The consequence sucks! (It’s not that I’m not able, it’s just where we are located…) I’m sooooo determined to go to a good college, at any price. If I have to give up band, I will. But if I don’t have to, I would love to keep playing my instrument in the band.</p>
<p>I gave up jazz band but that was also in part because the ensemble was considerably weaker than my own playing.</p>
<p>Freshman and sophomore years (I’m a sophomore now), no. I dropped the mandatory health/gym class so I could take it. Now I’m in freshman health as a sophomore and will be stuck in gym senior year. Yes, that’s not exactly a dream, but for me band is worth it. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to take it next year, but I definitely will senior year. Taking band means less electives, but colleges know how dedicated you have to be to be a student-musician. Good luck:)</p>
<p>A couple of my friends dropped band because at my school, they require you to take Marching Band AND an Ensemble class such as Symphonic or Jazz, so if you want to take band, it would take up 2 periods. They dropped band because they wanted to take another AP/ Honors class. </p>
<p>^^^ I agree! If you are interested in music, go for it! =]</p>
<p>I gave it up for AP stats. Band wasn’t really that enjoyable for me anyways and the only time I looked forward to it was after our summer concert when we got to play video games all hour.</p>
<p>I really hope I won’t be giving it up, many of my friends are because they want to play a sport. And since we’re required to march, that takes a LOT of time.</p>
<p>I’m planning on dropping it next year (my senior year) because of a lot of reasons:
-band is about $400 to participate (including marching + or - a couple hundred dollars)
-I play oboe, which includes buying like $20 reeds every couple months
-I have to play in the pit for marching band, which is the worst thing I’ve experienced.
-It took up so much of my time that I can’t attend AP study sessions, because our director was so keen on making band our number 1 priority.
-I have to be in symphony which is after school tuesday and thursdays for two hours (another time commitment issue).
-I would much rather take another course than take band.
-Marching band camp takes up half of my summer, which means I have to pay a lot of money, and can’t even earn any for college (job wise).</p>
<p>And honestly, the only thing I’d miss are a couple of my band friends, and the state competition (which is exciting because we were state champions last year). But that’s it, so I say it’s not worth it for me.</p>
<p>I am facing this dilemma for orchestra for next year as well, and the unfortunate situation I am in is the dreaded BLOCK Schedule, in which we only have four classes per day, everyday, for the whole semester. So orchestra is a REAL burden on my schedule, but I love it so much!</p>
<p>I did give up art, which I guess is sort of like band. It wasn’t because I wanted a better ranking but just because there were a lot of academic classes I was really interested in taking. I did take art during the summer though. I really do think you should try your hardest to stay in band if you can make it work.</p>
<p>At my school we have to take an instrumental music class if we want to take band as an extra credit class, in the morning an hour before actual classes. That’s what I’m doing this year, but next year I won’t have room in my schedule. However, there are some people in grade 11 who are in our grade 10 band because they dropped music but still wanted to be in band without the credit. Maybe find out if that’s an option for you?</p>