Quitting Instrument in high school

Applying to College
1

<p>Will not playing an instrument in high school seriously damage my chances for the Ivies? I am currently a freshman, and I have decided that I will not be taking Orchestra this year. I played violin, and I was decent (concert master in middle school all the time, but not good enough to win awards for it, make all-state, play solos on big stages, etc.), and I kind of enjoyed it a little, but I think that an instrument like Violin is too difficult, with respect to how much you're actually getting out of it. You could waste time practicing hours a day, but then fail to audition into all-state. You could have been using the time to get in community hours, more ECs, studying.... Too much hard work goes unrecognized, and your time is wasted. </p>

<p>Furthermore, Orchestra isn't weighted as a class, so taking Orchestra even for a single year would seriously damage my GPA and class rank, since I go to a school with hardcore grade inflation, and almost a 100 kids in my year have 4.0 uw. Taking a nonweighted class when I could be taking a weighted one will definitely notch my class rank down a few steps.</p>

<p>Also, I'm Asian, so I really thought that an instrument like violin would not help me significantly in the admissions process, since so many Asians will be applying with violin as their primary instrument, and most of them will surely have better violin related awards than me. Also, since I'm not even good enough to use my violin accomplishments to put any significant bulk on my app, I just thought than violin would overall be a time/energy waster, and it wouldn't really set me apart from all the other violin-Asian stereotype kids who get rejected at a depressingly high rate. Overall, I thought it would just be better for me not to do violin in high school, and instead show my capability and direction through other ECs.</p>

<p>But the thing is, not having fine arts in my app (I am taking AP music theory soph year, but I'm not in band, choir, art, etc.) will create a hole in my application. I'm quitting violin to make room for other social-studies ECs, and show what sets me apart from other applicants. But the fact that I don't play an instrument is sure to set me apart from other students in a bad way as well-- I'm sure a number of applicants with dead-perfect SAT and AP scores, along with a sport and instrument, with great ECs get rejected all the time. I'm really afraid that my lack of an instrument will just make it easy for the admissions to cast me aside into the throwaway pile. It just feels like any small flaws in selective school applications really become amplified in the admissions process.</p>

<p>Do you guys think I'm making the right decision? Do the benefits of quitting actually outweigh the drawbacks of quitting? I have one last chance to email my counselor and put orchestra back in my schedule. I was previously really confident in my decision, but my counselor personally recommended that I stay in Orchestra, to have an instrument on my app for college. I really don't want to make a decision I will regret senior year. What you think?</p>

2

<p>If replacing orchestra with other EC’s in order to choose EC’s that are more aligned with your interests, prospective major, that is fine, IMHO.</p>

<p>If you are dropping orchestra because it is not weighted and you are playing the GPA game, you will set yourself up for heartbreak.</p>

<p>While your school may use weighted GPA for rank, be advised that many successful applicants to top schools go to high schools that do not weight and do not rank. Colleges will generally only view your UW GPA, or apply their own weights, since many schools weight differently.</p>

<p>Bottom line, follow your passions, but do not try to game the system.</p>

3

<p>^ I agree totally.
Just think what would make you standout from the crowd in a good way. By dropping orchestra would not help in that sense and may go the opposite way too if most of your classmates do have years of music/art.</p>

4

<p>only do music if you’re really passionate about it. in your case, I would suggest dropping orchestra for something else. </p>

5

<p>1) If you replace orchestra with other ECs no school will care. 2) Don’t run your life for the sole purpose of gaining entrance to an Ivy League school – take a good schedule of classes, study hard, do ECs you are passionate about, and see how things play out.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for all the input guys. I wasn’t aware of the colleges “re-weighting” your classes. This may impact some of my decision in the future.</p>

7

<p>Yes, many school would recalculate your GPA and mostly likely would not use the same weighing system as your school. many school would only count the grades from the 4/5 cores.</p>

8

<p>Also, in addition to what everyone above is saying, I don’t think that not being involved in the fine arts will reflect poorly on you. Not every student is a “fine arts” kind of person, and it certainly will not cause you to be tossed in the “throwaway” pile. </p>