<p>My DD is a junior in HS and like many mentioned above - as a instrumentalist her music obligations are enormous, but her gpa has been affected. As parents we are trying to make sure she strikes a balance between music shool and play. She dropped HS sports, she rarely spends both weekend nights "socializing" or doing something that does not involve music, and next school year she will have one open period the entire year and will lessen the academic load by not taking a 4th year of language and only taking 2 AP classes, 2 honors classes and 2 "regular" classes. She still seems to have an active social life and luckily, she has a job that she can work as few as 4 hours/week. We agreed with her decision not to do the SATs, but to concentrate on the ACTs and then didn't fuss when she spent little to no time studying for the ACT either time. THere was just too much going on. Her scores are ok and uw gpa ok(hanging in there with a 3.5, but there may be a C-her first- in her foreign language this time or maybe a new boyfriend which always seems to result in lower grades) Almost all extracurriculars the last 2 years are connected with music and even her mentorship has to do with music. Hopefully, the grades, scores, ecs are good enough so that the audition will be the deciding factor. She attends a very diverse, medium size public high school with a great honors program. Guess I wish the teachers were as sympathetic with the serious muscians (there are only a few)as they are with the kids on athletic teams. One reason for dropping the foreign language is the amount of grief the teacher gives for her excused absences. Couldn't imagine what would happen next winter when auditions begin. Doesn't seem to be a problem for those participating in a sport.</p>
<p>She is looking forward to college when at least two thirds of her credits will be in music and I won't around to harass about the non music academic subjects/grades. She probably will not have the highest gpa in college. </p>
<p>When it comes time to upgrade to a performance level instrument, we plan on taking out a boat loan.</p>
<p>I will say that DS loves college. He says he has lots more time for his music now. He spends most of his time with other music majors and so his "time commitments" are shared by his friends. He loves that his job is music related, and that his ensemble participations are part of his course of study and not EC (although this year he has played in a number of civic orchestras both as a regular player and as a substitute). He never has to worry about a teacher not understanding his absence if it is for an audition...that is alway excused in his music classes in college. He has only one more liberal arts course to take and then he's 100% music unless he chooses to take elective courses outside of the College of Fine Arts. Just an FYI...DS didn't participate in sports after 10th grade. Musician's can't afford to injure their hands, and most sports involve hand use and potential injury (with the possible exception of swimming...but DS was NOT a great swimmer). He played tennis in 9th and 10th grade, and did some skiing then too. BUT he decided the risk of injury was not worth it after that.</p>
<p>We homeschooled entirely on our own until S was in 6th grade. Then we enrolled him in our school district's alternative independent study for college bound students (secondary homeschooling option which yields a transcript that is indistinguishable from any other in our school district). Students meet for class at most once weekly for two hours. Except for lab sciences, class attendance is optional. Completing the work, however, is not optional. Many of the students at this school have a compelling EC passion either in the arts or sports. </p>
<p>To ensure a rigorous education, S took all of his sciences and a year of calculus at the local community college and ended up with 22 college credits. In addition, he took several AP courses to challenge himself and incidently, to help his GPA. (I volunteered for three years teaching the advanced placement English courses because none of the hired teachers could meet this need. S and friends are used to parental involvement. Everything went smoothly and I had the time of my life! I am going to do this again for d who is 14.) S completed a significant number of high school courses while still in middle school which gave him some breathing room this year. </p>
<p>The flexibility of this arrangement was essential because S participated in 11 opera productions from 9th through 12th grades. In addition, he had voice lessons, clarinet lessons and as of last year, piano lessons. He also sang in an active adult master chorale. </p>
<p>We were pleased that despite the untraditional nature of his education, S was noticed by adcoms, had good auditions, and had several great choices for college both among conservatories and their academic counterparts.</p>