<p>I like band, many of my friends are there and we had a lot of fun. but it's a regular course, A is 4 , not 4.5/5 as Honor/AP. It will pull down my GPA if I stay in band at junior year, should i give up band? Is 4 year band very important for college applications(top schools)? how's about just 3 year band?</p>
<p>Thx</p>
<p>If you like band, take band. You only go through high school once.</p>
<p>run your life for you, not for some college admissions committee</p>
<p>Thanks you both, but junior GPA is the 1st. thing college look at. I need it too. my band teacher never gives an A+ (4.3) to anyone. I got A, but is only 4.</p>
<p>Look, I think that everyone on here will tell you the same thing, do what you like. Obviously, if your school offers AP and honors courses take them, but make time for classes that you like (band) too. I hate band, so I opted to not take it. However, I do like economics. We don’t have AP economics so I took a 4.0 course as well. While it was an “easier” class, the stuff I learned from it allowed me to win first in state at various economic and finance contests. So, if you are passionate about what you do, it will be a positive to college admission officers.</p>
<p>Four year band is very important on college applications, but if you are just in it for the grade and not taking leader roles or making a difference in the band get out.<br>
You have to do what is best for you. Will the 4.0 vs the 4.3 REALLY make a difference in your life?</p>
<p>Most top colleges will not even include band when recalculating your GPA, so do what makes you happy, not what you think colleges will want.</p>
<p>i’m taking art even though it’s pulling down my gpa
but i love it and you can’t force me to give it up
do what you love and good things will happen naturally
you don’t want to be the person who dictates their life around college admissions, i think they can see through that</p>
<p>
Most colleges have their own system for weighting GPAs. The strange grade-inflating metric your high school uses is likely irrelevent.</p>
<p>Colleges care about UW GPA a lot so if you get an A in it then it will help your UW GPA which is very important.</p>
<p>If you like band, take it. Stop worrying about how it looks. Trust me, it looks good to take classes and participate in activities you enjoy. Simple as that.</p>
<p>why do people care so much about weighted gpa?</p>
<p>unless you want to major in music your band grades won’t even matter when colleges look at it because they are interested in how you did in your core classes. And colleges will calculate it unweighted so your gpa in their eyes is lower than what you might already think.</p>
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<p>It could make the difference in class rank (being in the top 10 percent of the class is important to admissions in some states) or merit scholarships. That someone might consider dropping a course because of that reality is sad.</p>
<p>…Take band, please.</p>
<p>Four years of band will look a lot more impressive than a tenth or two higher on your GPA. It shows dedication and passion more than your GPA can.</p>
<p>It was said before in this thread but maybe not quite clearly enough: your numerical GPA makes little to no difference when applying to schools that don’t use a simple SAT/GPA cutoff system for admissions. They will look at the letters on your transcript, not whatever combined score your school uses.</p>
<p>I’m with the camp that says if you like band, take band. You can’t run your life based on what you think college adcoms will be looking for. One suggestion, though. If there are a lot of top students in band, go to the band director or head of the music department and ask if there’s some way of getting an honors option built into band and/or orchestra. My D’s school did that. It involves extra work, but it keeps the top students with an excessive GPA focus in the band and orchestra for four years.</p>
<p>Our band students have this problem every year, highlighted by the strict competition for things like valedictorian and salutatorian. Last year, both were band students. A couple years ago, they allowed them to audit band classes so they could take more higher level courses for credit. Now they can take AP Music Theory as their band class and get credit too, at least for one year. So, if you can handle it, audit band, continue in marching band and/or symphony and concerts bands and ensembles and still stay at the top of the “scale” ;></p>
<p>What you asked is everything that is wrong with the American education system. Do what you like, please. >.<</p>
<p>Yeah, Band is amazing! how could you drop that!</p>