EC Dilemma

I’m going into my senior year next month and I have a dilemma with my activities. I have done band for the past 3 years and I’m worried about it causing too much stress next year as it requires a SIGNIFICANT amount of time during the school year. Additionally, I’m not very interested in music or my instrument at all and I’m just worried it would look bad for college apps if I quit. If I do quit, I can take 2 more classes instead of band which would be APCS and possibly early release to continue working during school (btw I will also be taking 4 other aps and 2 honors classes). I’ll have time do my homework, time to continue working at my ice cream shop and support my family, and time to focus on other EC’s if I quit band. I also earned a spot at my schools selective independent study program for next year that will allow me to independently study engineering (major in college) with a mentor and create a final project taking up a lot of time conflicting with band. I am also officers of 2 other clubs (president and founder of one), I participate in other clubs, and I regularly volunteer outside of school and have great stats.

TL;DR: Want to know if quitting band would look bad for college apps (T20 schools) and instead take AP Computer Science, gain a mentorship with a professional engineer and develop an independent project with them, and take an early release class to maintain a job during the school year to support my family.

Oh and here is my schedule for next year

-AP Lit
-AP Physics C
-AP Gov/Econ
-AP Calc AB
-Honors French III
-Independent Study and Mentorship
-Band (double blocked)

And if I quit band
-AP Lit
-AP Physics C
-AP Gov/Econ
-AP Calc AB
-Honors French III
-Independent Study and Mentorship
-AP Computer Science
-Early Release possibly?

I would go ahead and quit band. You don’t like it, so why flog yourself through another year of it? Senior year is already stressful enough, and dropping band gives you more time for all of the other awesome stuff you’ve got going on, plus college apps.
(Full disclosure: I dropped orchestra with glee.)

You have other ECs and a job – it is perfectly fine to quit band.

It is fine to quit band…
But think about:

  1. Is much of your social group from band?
  2. Will you miss not being able to do any Senior honors that your band does?

Thanks for the advice all! I have decided to quit band and enjoy senior year!