Hi, I wonder if it’s feasible to be doing Marching band at a college in my city and majoring in nursing at the same time. I wonder how much commitment marching band would take up. I did band all four years in high school and really enjoyed it. I would like to continue doing band in college as well but I don’t know how time consuming it is to major in nursing and do marching band at the same time. I am taking about 14 credits my first semester in college. I also want to keep grades up so that I can keep my scholarships. I don’t want to too overwhelmed while I’m in college. Does anyone have any experience with doing nursing school and marching band at the same time while in college?
Try it. The commitments at every school are different so nobody will be able to answer that question but you. If you love it - try it. What is the worst that will happen? You won’t be able to continue. If you love it, you should do it. You need to be more than a student who studies. Enjoy!
Is this a direct entry nursing program?
If so, what GPA do you need to maintain?
If not, your grades will be very important to get you into nursing.
Do you have to do any clinical things that would interfere with marching band time/schedule?
Is marching band a class? What happens if you have to drop out? Are you able to?
Are you good at plannign your homework and doing work on a bus?
Would you go to away games? if so, how far away are they?
If you did marching band (not just concert band) in high school and you’re going to a school with a small to medium sized music program, you will probably be familiar with the amount of extra time it requires; it really won’t change that much other than the level of skill expected of you from the start. However, medium to large music programs with large numbers of music majors will be a different story, especially if the band is well known (Indiana University, Ohio State, etc). These will require a lot of time away from school (as @bopper mentioned) and will eat up a lot of your recreational time.
I’m in biomedical engineering at a medium-sized tech school (read: 2 music majors in the whole school), and I’m a section leader in concert band, the principal in orchestra, I take private lessons, and I do pit for our musicals–this adds up to 6-20 hours a week and I’ve maintained a very good GPA while taking 18-20 credits a semester. So yes, it can absolutely be done!
I actually will be participating in band at Boston University so it is a quite big school there
For high school marching bands, most public performances occur during halftime shows at home football games, which typically occur every week or two during the fall. It may be quite different at a school like BU, for the simple reason that BU doesn’t actually have an NCAA football team.
Since there are no football games at BU, the marching band may perform on a less frequent basis than your high school marching band, which could reduce the time commitment.
They seem to do competitions:
https://www.bu.edu/bands/bands-and-ensembles/athletic-bands/
Contact someone in the band program you’re looking at and ask how often people are pair nursing with marching band. It’s similar to asking the coach of a sports team if the required commitment really allows both. They’ll usually be pretty honest since they don’t want members quitting in mid-season.
And Boston University does not have a nursing school. Do you mean Boston College?
She didn’t say that she went to BU…just that she would be in the BU Marching Band which is " open to college students in the Greater Boston area who do not have a marching band at their institution."
But I agree with asking if there are other nursing students in the band…and also contact your academic adviser to see if there are nurses in the marching band.
@TomSrOfBoston No, I don’t go to BU. I go to UMB for nursing. I’m actually gonna join the BU concert band instead of the marching band cause I don’t like the feeling of walking and playing at the same time.