I’m an incoming senior who has been in marching band for 3 years. I quit this year because of my intense courses, and was wondering if colleges would view this negatively. Thanks in advanced!
ECs are not important except at the very selective colleges, as you can see from Common Data Set reports. So at most colleges it won’t matter provided it isn’t your only EC.
At very selective colleges they want to see leadership and achievement. Merely being a participant in this or that activity isn’t a competitive EC. So for them, it won’t matter.
Since it won’t matter for either set of colleges, you can safely conclude it won’t matter.
At some level you have to do what is right for you, and find a university that appreciates that. You can’t let your life be ruled by your guess or anyone else’s guess regarding what Harvard or Stanford or some other big name school might want you to do.
Quitting marching band to focus on academics seems like a good plan to me. If it feels like the right plan to you, then that is what you should do.
Don’t think twice unless you really want to continue marching band in college (or think you can get a scholarship doing so).
Do what’s best for YOU and quit worrying about what colleges think. And I guarantee they’ll love academic success more than marching around the football field.
Depends what type of school you are aiming for. Most selective schools like to see a level of EC involvement. If you don’t enjoy marching band and prefer to spend your time elsewhere that is fine, if you have other significant activities that is fine, but if you plan to go to school then go right home and do homework all afternoon/evening every day then your should probably rethink your “intense” courses as that schedule will not be healthy for your nor will it play well for top colleges.
I slightly disagree that ECs don’t matter or that you must be a leader. Or that this is always about academic success
But the bottom line is that you have been in matching band for 3 years, you did commit and follow through, it’s very time intensive, no one gets to just show up and sit there.
Any impact from being in MBand is accomplished. Any adcoms who will be impressed, will be with the 3 years. While it might be nice to do the 4th year, you can make your own best decision. No worries.
Thanks you guys! You made me feel a lot better about my decision. I don’t have many ECs, but this is not my only one. I’m not aiming for schools of that level, I’m only trying to get into the UC’s, specifically UCSD.