<p>My S has been accepted, also invited to Capstone. He will be a biology major/pre-med. Interested in music program (went down to audition for possible scholarship, haven't heard back) He is still on the fence between USC, U of Pitt and VATech(which we haven't heard from yet) anybody want to give him some info about music program, pre-med, capstone etc. Thanks!!
By the way, we loved columbia and have visited the campus twice, I think it is #1 on his list now</p>
<p>S has friends in Honors College who are science type majors and also do marching band. He'll have to be good at scheduling/prioritizing, but its doable.
He does have one friend who dropped out of marching band,for her it was just too much.
Music lessons,ensembles are avilable to non majors,but if your S auditioned he must know all that already.</p>
<p>BB,</p>
<p>I don't know anything about the music program specifically, but you can go to Youtube.com and search Gamecock band and get a number of clips of the marching band in action. My daughter has little interest, but as a former marching band person myself, they look very good and quite entertaining. I would think that it would be a fun extra-curricular to participate in.</p>
<p>The "pre-med" at USC is one of the strongest factors influencing my daughter's decision to possibly attend. You can check out the pre-professional advising website at USC here. <a href="http://www.sc.edu/oppa/med/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.sc.edu/oppa/med/index.shtml</a> Special advising and support for pre-med students exists at most universities but we found the offerings here to appear exceptional when compared to the other schools she is accepted at. My daughter is particularly drawn to the minor in medical humanities offered at USC. Although one could easily design a similar curriculum at another large school, it was appealing to see something like this already in place and that the University recognizes the importance of it.</p>
<p>DD (who was also accepted to USC last year, but chose to go elsewhere) was also very interested in the music programs at USC (instrumental...she plays oboe and English Horn). We found Jennifer Jablonski (the music admissions person) to be a wonderful source of information. Our daughter also auditioned at USC, and took a private lesson with the teacher. She was told that ALL students regardless of major can audition for any ensemble (sorry...don't know anything about marching bands as there is no oboe music for marching bands). The music building is state of the art...very nice. Students can also minor in music, something that is not offered at all schools. And from what we were told by many, the music department takes very good care of students who are interested in performing there. This was one of the huge draws to USC as that is not the case at many schools. If you haven't already connected with Jennifer Jablonski, I would heartily recommend you do so. She is wonderful.</p>