Should I Quit Band?

(Just a Quick Note: This is from the perspective of a high school freshman girl. I may not have the experience that older people do and this may sound naive and childish but please hear me out and know that my parents aren’t bad people or trying to pressure me into doing this exactly, they just want the best for me and I put too much pressure on myself.)

I am a high school freshman with big dreams of going to Columbia University for either Journalism or Creative Writing. I am in the International Baccalaureate Program, Student Government, Beta Club, and Band. I wish I could be in other clubs such as the school newspaper, Model UN, Debate Club, etc. but Marching Band just takes up too much of my time in the Fall, when all the clubs are starting. The problem with starting a club in the middle of the year is that everyone would have already been in that club since the start of the year and have gotten experience and made friendships, while I would be coming in as an outsider in the middle of the year. I have a 3.85 GPA at the moment and in my first PSAT, I got a score of 1150, which I hope to improve upon. I am in AP Human Geography, which is the only AP class that is offered at my school to freshman. It is difficult to do clubs in as a freshman as well because my high school has a separate freshman campus and you would have to take a bus to the main campus after school and it is a lot more complicated, whereas if you were on the main campus it would be much easier. I do a lot of community service. I hate marching and concert band. It doesn’t interest me at all and it bores me. I joined the band with one friend from middle school and have made 2 or 3 others, all of which are quitting band next year, including my original friend. I have never once come home from a band rehearsal or practice or football game or competition and said, “wow, I had fun, I’d like to do that again.” Every time I would come home, exhausted, saying about how my band director was mean and I was tired and how I hate playing the flute. It’s also not like I’m great at the flute and that is what’s putting me over the edge, I am the last chair. I am not good and I have never made it to All-State or All-County Band, maybe that is my fault for not practicing, but can you blame me? I don’t like playing it in the first place. I just worry that if I quit, I won’t get into the school of my dreams and I will always look back and wonder if I had just stuck with this thing I hated maybe I would have gotten in. But on the other side of things, I also worry that I will stick with it and I will hate my entire high school experience and I will miss out on a bunch of great opportunities because I had band practice and I still don’t get into the school that I wanted to. I also don’t want colleges to look at this and think that I am not committed because I quit after freshman year, but if I had had this conversation with my parents a year ago I know for a fact they would have just said that I have never even tried it and I should at least give it a shot. But now it looks like I am being uncommitted. Not to mention Band brings down my GPA. I am not sure if I did quit what I would do in its place. I was thinking Debate Class or perhaps another science or AP class. I would want to take something that relates to what I want to do in college which is Journalism or Creative Writing, but I am not sure if there is anything like that offered at my school. Band just makes me very stressed out, spends my time doing something I hate, wastes my parents’ money because band costs $100-200 a year, plus private lessons, and distracts me from focusing on my studies and other extracurricular activities. The only cons of quitting that I can think of is colleges not liking that I quit after one year and disappointing my parents. My parents say that they have talked to many adults who say that Band was a very positive experience for them and they made lots of friends, but I just haven’t had the same experience. I will say though I have only been in Band for one year, but from what I’ve heard from older kids in band, nothing changes as you get older. The other good thing about Band is the leadership positions it offers, but if I am no good anyway, I am not going to get those leadership positions. It’s not even that I just dislike the marching part of band, I even dislike the concert band.

I guess my final question would be: Knowing all the information that you do now about my situation, is it worth it to do something that I dislike just to (somewhat) please my parents and get into a good college (that I’m not even guaranteed to get into with doing band)? Any experience or advice you could give would be extremely helpful.

quit it and find a EC you like. Colleges, especially selective ones want to see that you’ve been a leader and gotten very involved with something unique to you in your 4 years of high school. Band clearly isn’t the place for you to do that.
Read Cal Newport’s book “Applying Sideways” ?? I don’t know if I got the titile right, its late sorry but it will give you some insight into what colleges are actually looking for

I have a similar problem actually. I’m not in marching band, but I’m in concert band, and I don’t like it at all. I know some of my classmates and my mom had really positive band experiences and I feel bad that my high school band experience hasn’t been good.
College-wise, I think that colleges would care more to see you invest time in clubs that actually interest you, and if you don’t want to play band in college, you won’t have to worry about that aspect. And if band brings down your GPA and you never have fun, maybe you should try something else you like. If you quit now, then you’ll have more time to figure out what other clubs interest you and to get involved in them and you wouldn’t necessarily have that opportunity if you stuck it out another year.

What else could you do that you’d probably enjoy more?

I let my D quit cello and the orchestra after freshman year. She switched to chorus and select choir and was much happier. In college, she went back to cello for fun. Ironically, her current bf is a phenomenal cellist and she is thinking of taking lessons again as an adult. She is 25 now and has told me that if I had forced her to continue in HS, she would never have gone back to the cello in college.

So, if being in band makes you miserable, talk to your parents about it. It might be that once you are at the main campus next year, it will be better or it might not. I personally don’t think it’s worth it if it doesn’t make you happy. As for joining a club mid-year, go right ahead. My D tried out for field hockey in 10th grade, in a district where the other girls had all been playing since 6th grade. She wound up loving it and made friends she wouldn’t otherwise have made because she would never have associated with the sports girls.

i’m thinking that that next year i would take debate class and newspaper.

Both are very valuable too.
What did your parents say?