Hello! I’m a junior looking at colleges, and Purdue is my top choice. I’ve looked at their website but there are still a few things I don’t quite know/understand by just reading it.
How hard is it to get into the marching band and the concert bands? I looked at the concert band audition music and it looks hard but not impossible hard… is marching band audition music the same level of difficulty or easier to get into?
I saw that it takes place during Boiler Gold Rush (which is basically orientation right?) so how does moving in and stuff like that work? Would you just move in the day before band camp?
And lastly (for now at least) how much extra does marching band/concert band cost?
My daughter was interested in Purdue bands and found somewhere on the internet a PDF from 2013 that described all of the band options, when the auditions were, expectations etc. You can probably Google for it. What was appealing to my daughter is that Purdue has no school of music so all members of any of the bands are majoring in something other than music. You aren’t competing against music majors who have a lot more time to practice built in to their schedules and the scheduling and support from the music programs really encourages participation. You can also try for different groups or ensembles depending on what fits your schedule and change it up from semester to semester. Marching band was the only one that seemed uber time consuming and might be really challenging for some majors. You do go to band camp instead of BGR for orientation and/or try out for other groups during STAR or BGR.
Yes, Band Camp takes place instead of BGR…this is directly from the Marching Band Welcome Letter, “A reminder to all freshmen that you will participate in the main sessions of Boiler Gold Rush as a part of your Marching Band Workshop schedule. DO NOT REGISTER FOR BOILER GOLD RUSH – you are already scheduled for your sessions through the Band Office”. New Marching Band students will probably move into their dorms the Saturday before Band Camp starts (Sunday). Band students will be responsible for an additional housing fee for that extra week for staying in the dorms since the housing contract doesn’t begin until the following week. They will also be responsible for their own food as the meal plan doesn’t begin until the housing contract begins. Some band functions will provide a few meals. We were billed $100 AAMB activity fee, a $70 Band Special Course Fee, and $25 fee for AAMB Polo shirt. Students are also responsible for purchasing the following items (usually from the Band Closet): Band Shoes, White Gloves, Lyre, Spats & Suspenders. They are also required to have decent gym shoes for practice everyday and they’ll need plain black shorts for Friday Gold Day rehearsals before game days. There are also optional purchases that come up during the season, i.e. section t-shirt, pictures, misc. For more information and specifics, take a look at the aamb section on the Purdue website using the following link. https://www.purdue.edu/bands/ensembles/aamb/
That seems like a lot of money but it probably adds up to a bit more than band costs right now. How much do things like shoes and the other things listed cost? Or if you dont remember how much they cost individually, then how much did it cost to do band total for the first year?
How competitive are band auditions? 50% accepted? 10%? 75%? Any statistics or anecdotes about this?