My D wants to double major in vocal performance/music ed. She is a sophomore and is currently taking honors precalculus and chemistry and plans on taking honors and AP English as well. She is on track to take AP Calculus her senior year. As a music major, how important is it to take such challenging math courses? I personally think statistics would be more practical her senior year. Those of you whose children have been accepted into music programs, I was wondering if you could share the highest level of math completed in high school?
Thanks
Our son, who is now on his way to grad school, did a very demanding course load in high school. (Could have gone to school free with stipends on other majors!) Anyways. He found it paid off in college as he was able to exempt out of his required math due to his score on his AP courses. Made room for other requirements and helped on that “graduate in four years” rule we put on the table. It also paid off in the academic award he was given as he entered college. You can stack academic and music!!!
For most students not pursuing STEM, Statistics should be the capstone math course in their high school career.
Calculus is appropriate and valuable at the college level.
My daughter was on the same track as yours, and had algebra ii, trig, and geometry in high school. She elected not to do calculus as a senior. In fact. she did not take math at all this year, as she had enough credits for graduation. She missed so many class days due to auditions that keeping up with high level math would have been extremely difficult and caused more stress than it was worth.
Thank you everyone! Yes, songbirdmaman, that is a big concern of mine. Not only missing school because of auditions or travel to auditions but taking time away from practicing her audition repertoire and piano. I don’t want her stressed-out. Your experience has really been helpful. ClarinetDad, thank you for clarifying this for me. I agree. Classicalpermom, thank you for your input as well. It is something I was struggling with. I know it would serve her well to take calculus but I am just not sure it is worth the stress. Glad your son was able to handle the load,
My junior son is taking the same strategy as songbirdmama’s D - he didn’t think he could handle audition season AND either AP Calc or AP Stat, which would have been the logical progression for him. He doesn’t need another math class since he has 4 years of math incl. algebra in 8th, but he and his counselor felt he should have some math in his schedule so he is taking a non-AP statistics course senior year. He was going to do AP Stat but after talking with the teacher felt the pace of the class would be too difficult when he would be missing so much school for auditions.
Thank you for asking this question. My sophomore daughter is on a similar track. Her senior year math choices will be between AP Calc, AP Stats, or no math at all. I don’t believe she will want no math, because she likes math almost as much as music. She has already planned to terminate science at Physics Honors, and social studies at the required Civics & Econ class, so that she can go through Spanish V (no AP option), take music theory dual enrollment, and still pursue AP in math & English.
A statistics class, or a "math for financial literacy"or “math for citizenship” class, would work for your daughter’s profile. If IB is offered at her school, “IB Math Studies” is designed specifically for her profile - high-achieving students who don’t want to/can’t take calc, or for whom it’s pointless to embark on the calculus track. Math Studies covers statistics, applied math, precalculus, over two years, and makes students think mathematically about the world.
(Note that it’s NOT Math SL, which is a different class.)
As others have said, unless a student really wants to take calculus, a prospective BM music student heading for conservatory/music school does usually not have to worry about taking the most rigorous math curriculum and courses. The audition is really important, and a taxing math class may take away from practice for some, and audition season takes time away from academics.
I want to add that for some students who have done music in high school at a level that makes them attractive to selective schools or BA programs in general, who are looking for music talent as part of their student mix, it may also not be necessary to take the most rigorous math classes. Even schools like Ivies appreciate the time and energy high level music requires and may even view the lack of math rigor as a sign of commitment if that is what the big picture shows.
The group of students who are talented in both music and math, and enjoy both, might want to take calculus out of interest or in case plans change for a major. Students thinking about a double major or double degree would want to take calculus. There might be merit aid ramifications at some schools- not sure, and music often wins merit regardless. And some may want to pursue a BA or BS in math or science or CS or engineering and still do music seriously via lessons and extracurriculars.
So the answer varies 
For a kid who is absolutely sure she wants to go to a conservatory, it is fine not to take a rigorous math and if graduation requirements are met, and basic admissions requirements are met for the conservatory, then it is fine to take no math at all. You can ask specific schools to be sure.
My D just went through the audition season as a vocal performance major and was on the same math track as yours. She opted for Honors Calc for Jr year and AP Statistics for Sr year math, and no one raised an eyebrow, even at the tough academic admission schools. So I agree with the majority… Statistics or even dropping math senior year are viable options if she’s planning to pursue a B.M.
My daughter, like RKopera’s did Honors Calc and did all the AP Science, AP English and AP History classes and was able to use those to cover all of her get eds at her conservatory which required a full compliment of academic classes. That enabled her to take extra languages and Poli-Sci classes during the first two years (when she had the time!).
My answer is it is going to depend on the school she would be going to. At many “straight” conservatories taking a heavy math load above what is required to graduate (ie the math requirement) may be overkill, at places like NEC and Juilliard it won’t gain you anything in terms of admittance and from what I know of their liberal arts requirements they likely won’t get you out of anything. If the music school is within a conservatory, and if the kid takes an AP test in a subject and they are willing to use that towards their core courses, it may be worth it (the school I went to, NYU, would grant you credits for AP classes, but would not use them to get a student out of core course requirements). In terms of getting someone into a BM program, taking heavy academic courses won’t help, and it can hurt you, with the homework requirements of many of those classes, it can take away from practice time which can hurt the student, given that for a BM, the audition is pretty much the be all. If taking advanced standing courses can mean taking less classes in college then it may be worth it, as @mezzo’smama said, but if taking those kind of classes, specifically AP, is going to take away from her preparation or auditions, then it may not be worth it…and at some schools, it may not matter one whit, it all depends on the school. I can’t speak of music ed, it could be academic rigor helps get you into that, but the best piece of advice I heard was tailor your academic load to the minimum you need to do with a BM, that unless it was absolutely required and/or had a proven benefit, better to spend the time on preparing the music, practicing, rather than spending it trying to keep up with an advanced level class.
Ditto to the above. Be sure to use your heart and gut instinct too. If it’s too much of a load (many of us have experienced that) don’t do it. The class is not necessary to enter a BM. If it works, great. If it causes too much stress don’t do it. Senior year only happens once. Be sure she enjoys it.
It all depends upon the kid and the major too. Instrumentalist must practice far more than singers, so by default, the latter have more time for academics even with their performing factored in. My D would often have several shows in various stages- reads, rehearsal, on stage- and competitions, but still took all honors, AP and dual credit courses and graduated in the top 5 of her prep school class. Might not have been possible had she been a violinist or pianist, but as a singer she was good and ran on a couple of hours of sleep every night from sophomore year through senior!
My D is in AP Calculus AB but she loves math and is considering a math minor. She has two other AP Classes but also two off-periods. She has kept up well though it was a little stressful in January/February during auditions.
I would agree with the advice given so far. Your D should not need AP Calc for her proposed major. My student decided to do AP Stats because she is a dual degree in Anthropology in addition to VP and thinks she’ll be more likely to use Stats. She’s going to Northwestern.
"Instrumentalist must practice far more than singers, "
I do wish to start anything, but please be cognizant that this is a gross generalization, generally best avoided.
D3 - not a math person - took AP Stat senior year because she was thinking of double majoring in a social science, and found that the class was populated by the math geniuses who were taking it as an “easy” elective. YMMV.
@cmb1828-
It isn’t a gross generalization, it is a reality of the voice, there are limits to how much someone can sing in a given day without wrecking their voices. Even in instrumental music, violinists and pianists can practice 4 hours or more a day, a wind and brass players can’t do that kind of thing due to physical limitations, you would blow out your lips doing that kind of practicing on a trumpet and so forth. I can tell you that on the violin, that kind of practicing is mandatory with the kind of competition that is out there, and the same is true on other instruments relative to what they are, and with singers they need to practice as much as they can without destroying their voice,it is just as competitive, and I don’t think anyone meant that as a knock.
One of the things I can tell you from experience is that the high powered academics very much affect the ability of music students to keep up, my son went through Juilliard pre college and a lot of the kids there were both musically and academically up there, but as time went on there was a kind of divergence, the kids who were heading more into the academic track in college generally had their playing fall off, and those who were heading into music tended to not take the high academic track (there are always exceptions, of course, this is in general).
S1 only took geometry and Algebra II, and only 2 lab sciences. Higher level math doesn’t come easily to him-he always ended up doing well, but it took a ton of study time and work, and during sophomore year, math/science were cutting far too much into his practice time. He decided not to take AP’s and took just a few honors level courses in ELA/History that he enjoyed and found interesting. He maintained an A average with this schedule, had enough practice time, and was even able to get enough sleep and have a bit of a social life.
Not electing the most rigorous schedule had absolutely no effect on his admissions at the conservatories he applied to. However, he made the choice to drop trig and not take a 3rd year of lab science with the full knowledge that decision would eliminate some colleges from his application list. Those schools were not top choices, so it was fine in his case.