Rutgers Marching Band-Band Geek advice needed!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rutgers University
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<p>I'm going to be a freshman at Rutgers in the Fall, and I'm conflicted over whether or not I should join the marching band or not. I did marching band in high school, and I loved how it made me feel like I was a part of the school, and made some of my best friends through it. However it ate up ALL my free time, we had a very intense marching band. We met every day after school for a 2-3 hour practice. The games were hours long (we'd get there at 7 and get back home between 11 and 1 am) and the competitions were all day. I had no time to join any clubs, (pretty much my only extracurricular was band) and my social life during the school year was really limited with any of my friends that weren't in band. </p>

<p>So my question is, how big of a commitment is the marching band at Rutgers? Is it really intense military marching or more laid back? I don't really know about it's reputation or anything, and it'd be great to get an insider's point of view. I'm sort of worried about managing the college workload (I want to go pre-med) and marching band as well. I love performing, and think it would help me meet a lot of people my freshman year, but I also want to be able to join a bunch of clubs and hang out with people outside of band, keep up good grades and all that jazz as well.....bah.</p>

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<p>I hear marching band in college is a lot more serious and has less focus on the social/fun aspect, unless the only reason you like marching band is being able to play your instrument I guess…</p>

<p>That’s only what I’ve heard though. I also participated in HS marching band. We have performed in London/Pasadena, but I am not planning on participating in college.</p>

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<p>I participated for two years when I attended Rutgers. I had a love/hate relationship being in the band.</p>

<p>The Perks!

  • Met some AWESOME people
  • Traveled to Alabama and Florida for the bowl games (I think this year the band is in Orlando for the bowl game on Friday)
  • Attended every home game
  • If you participated in marching band, you can participate in pep band. If you loooove college basketball, do not pass this opportunity. I actually enjoyed pep band more than marching, actually.
  • The band, director, and other band staff being in a huddle before we march to the football stadium, singing the alma mater “On the Banks of the Old Raritan”
  • The adrenaline rush of playing in the middle of the field in front of a huge crowd during pre-game and halftime.
  • I don’t know if they still do this, but when I was there, we got two FREE tickets to give to family members and friends. Not for every game, but for two or three, depending on what the director chose. Usually seniors had priority for homecoming and the last game.
  • Playing in the stands during the game. We had our cheesy cheers and other game day shenanigans.</p>

<p>Your social life kind of becomes the band, but it is possible to make friends outside. It wasn’t unusual though to have your main group of college buddies or significant other in the band. But I knew a lot of people outside of the band.</p>

<p>Rehearsals were Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:30 to 6:30. Prior to the start of the new school year, you spend a week away at band camp.</p>

<p>In terms of the style, it was laid back. We had three halftime shows over the season. IMO, the hardest part of being in band was band camp. After that week was over, everything felt easy. Members who came from competitive high school bands did not like the “laid-back” style. They felt the drills our director created were too easy, so often these people left the band before or after the season was over.</p>

<p>But I do have to admit that it was a HUGE time commitment. Besides the three 2-hour practices, you had games days, mostly on Saturdays. Those took up most of the day. And times when I wanted to go to a club meeting or go to some event on campus, I became frustrated because I had to sacrifice it for band. The director was a nice guy, but he had his moments. When you commit yourself to Rutgers Band, you had to FULLY commit. You can’t miss a game or rehearsal for a family vacation or other commitments. I quit after my sophomore year. While I did cherish the moments when I was a Marching Scarlet Knight, I remember during the first week of junior year I had a huge sigh of relief knowing I didn’t have to trek all the way to Livingston for rehearsals three times a week, knowing that I was free to do whatever on Saturday and hang out with people instead of being at the stadium all day.</p>

<p>My advice? If you are interested in band, try it out during your first year. You might love it. You might hate it, but it will only be four months of your life. There are people who did it one year and moved on and others (albeit a few) who stayed for all 4 years. I think it is doable to join other clubs (maybe 1 or 2) since most clubs meet in the evening, sometimes after 6:30. In terms of academics, there were an array of majors: English, Pharmacy, Engineering, Psychology, Biological Sciences, etc. So people in the band would form study groups when there was an upcoming exam in Organic Chem or Calculus.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

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<p>Hey there. I’m currently a freshman at RU. I marched in high school for 3 years, and decided to go to Rutgers (out-of-state, I live in NY). Their marching band played a huge part in it. And boy, was it an interesting season.
I can’t imagine being at Rutgers now, without being in the band. It <em>is</em> a lot of work -we meet 3 times a week for 2ish hours- but it’s worth it. We just got back from a free to Florida for the (dissapointing) bowl game. We spend almost every Saturday in the fall at the games, lasting all day. I march sousaphone, and didn’t march this instrument in high school. So I’ve had constant ankle and knee pain for the past two months. But that’s not the band’s fault. It’s just a lot of hard work, and band camp is definitely stressful (a solid week of practice, away in PA).
However, there are a lot of benefits. Almost all the friends I have I met through band. I gained more confidence, I was involved (it’s really hard not to be, once in band!), and I had to learn to balance my time. I got to have a lot of experiences that a lot of other people haven’t had. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed being with the band. By being in the band, you are then eligible to join the Honorary Music Fraternity (if you choose to Rush it, I plan on doing that this spring). I am going to come back to the Rutgers Marching Band, and although it did cause a lot of stress, this spring is going to be hard. I’m going to miss the band. It’s a family.
I honestly just came across this page and joined just to respond to your post. If you have any questions, my email is fritalianglish@**********. Good luck making your decision!</p>

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<p>Wow, I just read the post above mine.
What instruments do you guys play?
I agree with everything they said, and in my section, there are at least five upperclassmen whose majors are some sort of Engineers. There’s nutritional majors, foreign language majors, people who want to be teachers of major in music, everyone.
Band camp is indeed the worst time, but you do make friends there (that’s how I met all the other non-sousaphone friends I have). And once you get through band camp, everything’s easy. I really reccomend it.
Like they said, it’s only four months. :)</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I’m gonna go for it :slight_smile: Why does everyone say band camp is so awful though? Is it too hot or too long or what? Just curious. </p>

<p>Also I’m kind of wondering what instrument I should play. I was a flute in my old marching band, but they don’t have flutes now, so I’m thinking I could go with either piccolo (which I already play)or saxophone (which I’ve always wanted to learn to play). Hmm decisions, decisions.</p>