I am wondering how much other kinds of extra curriculars and honors societies matter for music education admissions? My son’s activities, predictably, center around music stuff (lessons, marching band, orchestra, district band, drum corps etc.). He played a sport for two years but will not do it this year - no time. Do other activities matter much? I am a little concerned that there is not much else on his “resume” other than music, and very little in the “leadership” categories because he does not have much time to dive deeply into other activities and keep his grades up.
I can’t speak directly for music ed, but a lot of music students don’t go the route of a ton of EC’s and student government and so forth, and the admissions people understand it is very different for kids into music.I suspect (and hopefully those with experience specifically with music ed will comment) that having those outside activities will be a plus…not to mention that drum corps and district band are ‘out of school’ activities and they count, so will the sports…
When we went to an audition day for Ithaca college many years ago, the music dean welcomed everyone and said congratulations you are now in an auditorium full of "music nerds. ( I am paraphrasing.) They looked for kids who live and breathe music and spent as much of their day in the band room as possible for their music ed majors.
The other activities may help with academic and leadership scholarships available for students attending music schools inside a college or university. Academics and the audition will have the most impact on their acceptance for music ed majors.
He can show leadership through being a section leader of his band/orchestra or an officer of a music honor society. He may want to volunteer to work with kids in a camp or other program to see if he likes working with children. This will help during the interview portions of the music ed admission process so he can show evidence that he understands what it takes to teach kids. Also, it helps when applying for that first music teaching job to show evidence of working with children. Good luck!
Thanks, these responses are very helpful.
In our experience, EC’s seem to matter Little – especially for performance majors. The expectation is that you spent most of your time concentrating on your instrument. And frankly it seemed to all come down to the audition. Talent wins out.