<p>From what I know, the specialty schools like Interlochen, etc. tend to attract that type of student.</p>
<p>Given that you want to pursue a non-arts related undergraduate degree, a specialty school like Interlochen may not be the best place to graduate from to matriculate to a non-arts program.</p>
<p>try PMing MomOfWildChild. IIRC she has a child who went to Interlochen and can tell you more about what the students there go onto do in college.</p>
<p>Taking a step back and looking at the whole picture, you have a number of possible hooks to gain admittance and possibly (depending upon their need for your hook) FA.</p>
<p>Hooks I see are:
Trumpet - I assume you play classical. Having flexibility to play Jazz band in addition to classical can help.
Cross-country - How competitve are you where you come from? Top at your school? Competitive regionally?
URM - IIRC you fall under this category?</p>
<p>Strangely enough, being Canadian neither helps nor hurts you I think.</p>
<p>You don't have to have one terriffic hook to get what you want, but if the hooks you have are all needed at one particular school, you can make it work.</p>
<p>Schools have objectives they need to meet in any year. They need a goalie for their hockey team or an oboe player due to graduation. They have certain sports or other extracurriculars (debate teams/musical ensembles) that they take exceptional pride in. They also want diversity in their student body.</p>
<p>If they can achive multiple goals with one student, it can be worth something. They don't have to spend scholarship money on 2 or 3 students to achieve 2 or 3 goals.</p>
<p>Now to the strengths/weaknesses of you hooks. </p>
<p>Trumpet - Plenty of kids play the trumpet. But many of them don't play well. It is not an easy instrument to master. If you are better than most it is an asset. Otherwise, it is marginal in helping your case.</p>
<p>Cross Country - Lots of kids participate. If you are competitive with kids in your region and have physical potential (not too short as a runner, etc) to develop even better, it is an asset. Otherwise, it too is marginal in helping your case.</p>
<p>URM - I'll probably get a few comments for this one - Without meaning to offend, you present yourself in a fairly sophisticated manner which as a URM would be a huge benefit to your cause. You are culturally a better fit for the prep environment than those less sophisticated and allow somebody to check a box somewhere. I know that sounds cynical, but if a school is going to compare candidates who fufill certain objectives, they will take the one who is least likely to experience culture shock at school. Once again, I do not wish to start a debate nor offend anyone's sensibilities.</p>
<p>Personally, I went to a public high school that was about 85% URM. Most of my childhood friends were URMs. When it came time for college recruitment, the URM applicants from my high school had a huge advantage over me, although in the end, I did end up benefitting from affirmative action in a strange way.</p>
<p>Now - how to approach this situation. For efficiency sake, you will need to find schools that would benefit from your hooks (ones with orchestras) and then decide if you like them rather than finding schools that you like and then determining if you will be a preferred candidate.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, boardinschoolreview does not have a way to filter schools based upon music (which will filter out most schools) groups. So you are going to have to take the brute force approach as I would guess you would not get a thorough listing just by asking the CC community for suggestions.</p>
<p>Don't worry, my daughter took this approach when looking for goaltenting opportunities. She went to the wesbsite of every school that offered hockey and looked for their rosters and categorized every school as to whether or not they would be needing a goalie this year. Where that couldn't be determined a quick email to the coach often could answer that question.</p>
<p>I suggest that you take states where you would be willing to go to school (you can filter on geography) and look at the websites to ascertain whether they have an orchestra. If so, get the email address and/or phone number of the director or music department chair. Also try to get test score information (either SSAT for entrants or SAT scores from Seniors) to get a feel for how competitive the admissions will be. (We did this as well and used that information to screen out a few schools.)</p>
<p>I recommend storing this information in a spreadsheet. This is going to take several hours of concentrated work.</p>
<p>For now I would assume that all of these schools have a cross-country team, but surprisingly, if you can find out how competitive they are (check their team page), note how competitive they are. Strangely enough, you want to find a team seems to take pride, but hasn't been very successful. The great thing about your sport is that you are measured by a clock or tape measure, so if that would be a hook for you in college, only your times/distances matter anyway.</p>
<p>So you've got a spreadsheet of schools with orchestras, their music contact info (not admissions - they don't know enough to efficiently help you), their test scores, and how they rate as cross country.</p>
<p>Hopefully you've got some stats on your cross country performance that you can put together along with any honors you've received.</p>
<p>On the music side, that honor list will be necessary as well. Now if you haven't got an demo tape or video, you might want to consider making one. As a trumpet player, I would recommend recording a small ensemble (duet, trio, quartet, or quintet) piece not more than 5 or 6 minutes if possible with a group of quality musicians (perhaps teachers) where you play the lead part. </p>
<p>Now you can contact the music director at the schools on the list and ask if they will be needing any trumpet players next year. Offer to send your demo tape for review so they can determine if you would be a good fit for their program. (This is much cheaper than traveling out to audition and should screen out places where you don't want to waste your effort.)</p>
<p>Besides the screening out, it helps them to get a feel for you, which is a benefit. You come across as organized and professional.</p>
<p>Once you get your replies (this will take some time), you will have a list of schools where you can sell your talents for FA. If you come up with more than 5, I would take the ones that sound the most interested in you and with the weakest cross-country teams.</p>
<p>These are where you apply and visit. When you contact admissions, mention that you have talked to the music director and that s/he is interested in your application and that you would like a chance to sit in with their orchestra when you visit.</p>
<p>I know it sounds like a lot of work. My daughter's been there and done that on top of a busy hockey schedule (we were out of town every weekend except 3 from the end of September to the beginning of April last year).</p>
<p>I won't guarantee success, but I think you can be certain that you will have explored all of your possibilities and done your best.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>Of course, do listen to others' advice on CC. There are lots of different expeiences to be shared.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>