<p>I am considering graduating from high school a year early to focus on playing the double bass. I already have more credits than are needed, and I definitely want music to be my life. I am currently a sophomore and would like to decide now, so I can take my required extra English course online. </p>
<p>I have around a 3.7(?) GPA (did have a 4.0 freshie year) and am taking very challenging classes (the pre-IB curriculum here is ridiculous... I'm in IB Math Analysis as a sophomore.)</p>
<p>I have an excellent bass teacher, and plan on auditioning for conservatories, so I was thinking of graduating junior year (which wouldnt be difficult for me) and focusing almost entirely on my bass and possibly taking a few language courses (I like langauges haha).</p>
<p>This strategy may work for you under a couple of conditions. Are you disciplined enough to practice several hours a day? While it sounds strange, people are often much more disciplined when they have too much to do than they are when they have too little. You would have to set up a practice schedule each day and be able to stick to it religiously. Second, if you are no longer in school will you still have access to high level ensembles? Are you currently in youth orchestra? Can you continue in youth orchestra if you are not in school? Do you currently play in small ensembles or chamber groups? Again, can you participate in those if you are not a student? Don’t discount ensemble participation. Music, especially on the bass, is rarely made alone.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat. I’m a junior now and have been debating graduating a semester early (so that I’d be finished in the beginning of January of my senior year) and have much more time for practice/ traveling to auditions. I’m not positive yet though… I’ll have enough credits (8 courses of language, 4 of math, science, history, etc- honors & AP), will be able to participate in any clubs or class activities, and will be in the top 10% of my class still. My only concern would be if conservatories would look negatively on this (but if the audition is the determining factor, why would it)? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>musician34: Why not take a reduced load for both semesters of your senior year rather than finishing half-way through the year? Many music schools conduct some of their auditions prior to the end of January, so having half a load in first semester would make those auditions easier. </p>
<p>As well, most of your practicing of audition repertoire should happen in first semester–your auditions will probably be over within a few weeks of the start of second semester, so it doesn’t make sense to have no courses in second semester. Any practicing you do in January and February should just be to maintain selections which were well-honed prior to Christmas.</p>
<p>Pruneface: Have you considered taking reduced course loads for two or three semesters (i.e. doing all your classes in the morning or finishing by 1 pm or 1:30 pm) rather than finishing school a year early. If your course load is demanding, you may find yourself stretched for practice time and therefore could benefit from taking fewer courses per semester. </p>
<p>If you are only able to fit in a couple of hours a day prior to your junior year graduation and then suddenly increase your practicing by a few hours per day, you risk all kinds of playing injuries. As well, practice time that is spread out over three years is far more beneficial than the same number of hours compressed into a single year (the brain needs time to process things–as the number of hours per day increases, the benefit per hour decreases).</p>
<p>I already put in about two hours a day (between that and one and a half) so that shouldn’t be a problem slowly adding more and more “work” (or fun I should say! ) but my school is unusual. It is closed campus, it only allows you to “skip” one period if you’re on track for graduation during your junior and senior years, and that is useless. It’s either out at 1 or in at 8. It is rather frustrating… But maybe I’ll be able to talk them into something…</p>
<p>Do the schools have any vocational education programs? Sometimes you can convince them to let you do music through this if it is supervised. Our district finally developed an arts track for the afternoon that lets a limited amount of time for arts focus, but student shave to leave cmapus and go to the other center where the supervision is provided. .Maybe this could be done through a community college?</p>
<p>You could consider dual enrollment classes at community college (which count at high school), or online classes, to solve some of the scheduling problems. You could also check out programs such as North Atlantic Regional High School, which grant diplomas without physical attendance, by compiling all of your credits.</p>
<p>We have visited some conservatories (for dance, actually) where a GED is seen as a sign of commitment!</p>
<p>I realize you are on track for graduation from a “traditional” course of study, including honors and AP’s, but just want to make the point that for students who are headed to conservatory, there are many paths to take.</p>
<p>There is a special program at the University of Southern California which may fit your needs. It is a competitive honors program called the Resident Honors Program. Students selected, usually between 27 and 33, may enter the university at the end of their junior year. </p>
<p>USC is looking for a student who has shown emotional maturity and ability to adjust to college campus life both socially and academically. These students will receive the Dean’s Scholarship and be enrolled in the Thematic Option Honors program. National Merit Scholars will receive a half tuition scholarship, if admitted.</p>
<p>For those who wish to enroll in the Thornton School of Music an audition is necessary. Students must complete the regular USC freshman application.</p>
<p>Chairman of the strings department at Thornton is Midori. Some strings faculty are Ralph Kirshbaum, Alice Shoenfeld, Suli Xue, Peter Marsh, Pamela Goldsmith, Donald McInnes, Peter Stumpf, Alexander Suleiman, JoAnn Turovsky, David Allen Moore and Visiting Artist Paul Ellison.</p>
<p>More information: [University</a> of Southern California](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.usc.edu) Resident Honors Program</p>
<p>If you do take classes at a community college and those classes count for college credit as well as high school credit, you may need to be a bit careful. If you take too many credits, you might be considered for transfer admission rather than freshman admission at some schools, and the odds of being admitted as a transfer student are sometimes a lot worse. Obviously, this will vary from school to school, so doing some research before taking more than a couple of community college classes would be a really good idea.</p>
<p>I don’t think graduating early and taking that time to practice would hurt your chances of getting into a conservatory program. It is not unknown for graduates who graduate ‘on time’ to take a gap year to get ready for their audition, to give themselves extra time, so I doubt you graduating early would be a problem. Even if you decided to graduate early and apply to conservatory right away it probably wouldn’t hurt you, as long as you meet their requirement i.e have a high school diploma, they don’t care whether you are 16 or 17 or 18 from everything I have heard and seen directly.</p>
<p>Put it this way, a lot of serious music student pursue alternative tracks from the standard so conservatories have probably seen a lot of that. There are a lot of music students in high school who homeschool, for example, to have enough time to practice and also not to deal with the evil eye from often unfriendly school administrators when it comes to things like auditions or performances that happen during the school year. </p>
<p>In the end, as is said tirelessly on here, the only thing that really matters with conservatory admission is doing well enough on the audition. Things like honor classes and AP’s and the like probably will only matter if you are applying to a music program in an LAC or a joint program like Indiana or Rice, straight conservatories for the most part don’t really care about that from what I can tell.</p>
) but my school is unusual. It is closed campus, it only allows you to “skip” one period if you’re on track for graduation during your junior and senior years, and that is useless. It’s either out at 1 or in at 8. It is rather frustrating… But maybe I’ll be able to talk them into something…</p>