I am about to enter junior year and have been seriously considering quitting band. While many of my friends are in band, I find the overall experience to be miserable, mainly during the fall semester when we are forced to do marching band (the rest of the year is bearable). I have talked to my director and they will not allow me to do concert band in the spring without also doing marching season in the fall. I don’t really want to go through another year of band, but am worried that quitting after two years will look bad on a college application. I am also one of the leaders of my school’s Music Honor Society and am involved in, and will continue to be involved in the theatre orchestra (playing for the musicals), piano outside of school, and I will be in the city orchestra next year (and senior year). If I quit, it would allow me to be more participatory in other extracurriculars like academic UIL and HOSA, and I would likely join debate as an alternative to band (as you can do this at my school, but I’m not sure I would). Please let me know if this would affect my college admissions negatively, thanks.
Then go ahead and drop band. It’s not worth doing something that makes you miserable.
Life is short. Don’t do things you hate.
It seems like you have several other ways of communicating your ongoing involvement with music, so dropping band wouldn’t be such a big deal.
I think mostly anyone would understand why someone would quit band. Winning a piano competition would look good
It’s really unusual, very unfortunate, and totally unfair that you are required to do marching band (an extracurricular) to participate in concert band (for which you are graded and it is academic, right?)
I don’t want to advise you how colleges will react to your quitting as I do not feel fully qualified, but I would recommend if you want to stay in concert band you discuss this with your guidance counselor – don’t let the music teacher alone (with his self-interest) stop you from doing what you want.
Of course if you would PREFER to do other activities, then yeah, do them.
I feel bad you have to make this decision! Good luck!
Stopping an activity that makes you miserable is a good choice. You will free up time to do other activities, you will have more time to study and you will be happier.
First off, at most schools ECs are at best considered rather than important, and in many cases don’t matter at all. You can find out for some schools you are considering (or may potentially consider) by looking at their Common Data Set report. It’s only the most selective schools that mark the “very important” box. So you’re probably worrying for nothing.
Next, for those schools that really care a lot about ECs, the level of comittment that is “member of this and that” does not really stand out. Schools like this are looking for leadership and achievement.
Since you say you do not enjoy it, my advice is to quit and do so with a clear conscience that you are not harming your college chances.
It is fine to swap activities,especially if one of them is making your miserable. And you have plenty of other music-related activities.
If band is a class, you aren’t quitting band; you’re just choosing to take different classes. That’s what your transcript will show.
My wife’s HS had the same requirement. She balked, continued to play for the community orchestra, took lessons and was much more musically accomplished than 90% of the HS band members.
My brother studied music at one of the top conservatories for his instrument and quit band after freshman year of high school (also because of marching band requirement). He was already competing at a national and international level (and participating in high level groups) so there was no point in continuing with the school program, especially when it was making him miserable. He got into every school he applied to, including the competitive non-conservatory schools.
My high school did not have a marching band requirement, but i had a pretty miserable time in concert band my junior year and first semester senior year (long story short, I was last chair in the top band during this time frame because of some very unfair circumstances even though I was one of the top two players in my section- evidenced by me being first in the district and first at all state, among many, many other accomplishments. That probably unfortunately sounds very arrogant, but I assure you, there’s much more to the story). I almost quit in the middle of junior year, but toughed it out. Was planning on only doing spring semester senior year, but due to scheduling issues, had to do full year, and again was so miserable first semester that I almost quit. I literally had already contacted my counselor to switch when I found out I was co principal for spring, so I stayed. More bad things happened and I ended up be miserable again in the last half of the semester. Sometimes I really wish I had quit concert band because it definitely took a toll on me emotionally (I was a wreck junior junior. Not just because of band but I was having issues with some teachers, was overwhelmed by several of my classes, and was also have issues with one of my outside music ensembles). I had plenty of other music activities (2 school choirs, school full orchestra, 2 school jazz band, outside orchestra, outside band, etc) that it probably wouldn’t have mattered for me either if I quit concert band. I would have still been eligible for districts and all-state auditions even, since I was also in the curricular jazz band. Mainly I just didn’t have the guts to do it (the director was actually pretty great despite his flaws, and I didn’t want to burn bridges, since I was still in several other groups he directed, including the jazz band class). I’m on a full tuition music scholarship at my university and am minoring in music, so I didn’t let the bad experience stop me in the end!
You’ll be fine if you quit. You’re still going to be involved with music. It’s not worth staying if you’re miserable- I’ve learned that from experience, especially seeing how much of a difference (or lack there of) it made for my older brother.
I am a senior who did band (including marching band) for my first three years and dropped it this year to spend more time doing cross country and working.
I wouldn’t sweat it, think about it as “customizing” your HS career.
I don’t think that it would cause any harm to your application. You have other things that show you participate in music. I think as long as you replace band with other extra curricular activities you’ll be fine. Do something you enjoy.