myau

Where do music-related honors and awards belong in the college applications (supposing it's a general college application, not a conservatory-related)? Some apps say "list all your honors and awards" - so, you would assume they mean ALL awards - academic, athletic, artistic etc.

And some say "list all scholastic h. and a." or "list all academic awards" but do not ask about any other kind of achievements. So, does it mean they don't care about music or anything else artistic? Or do they include music into "academics"?

So, if the student has some musical honors (like All-State Honor Choir or Orchestra, Panel Honor Recital etc.) - where on their apps should they write about it?

Another small dilemma is about leadership which also is a big thing colleges care about. When the students list their ECs, there is usually a space provided with the question like "list honors earned, position held" etc. Therefore, if you are, say, a section leader in the orchestra or choir which is your EC, you have an opportunity to brag about it in your apps.

But what if you are a section leader in a school choir which is not an EC but one of your classes? Where on the apps should that be aknowledged?

Did any of your musical kids had that kind of dilemmas? How did they solve them?

ImperialZeppelin

We broke the "Award" section into 3 areas, "Academic," "Music" and "Community" and filled things out accordingly.

As far as principal musician, we usually put it in the "Music Awards" section, unless they specifically requested "Leadership." AFAWWC principal is a principal, EC or in-school so it was always cited.

edad

It has been too many years since my D did her common app. I do remember it was difficult to list many of the EC's and awards. I do recommend that you do a separate resume listing all major activities, accomplishments, scholarships, and awards. She found this very useful for interviews and informal lessons with college faculty. It was also helpful as a reference for completing various scholarship and other applications.

euphgal

I listed euphonium under the activities list graph thing, and then next to is where it said list honors, I listed by all-states, area all-states etc. Since all of thm wouldn't fit, I also attached a seperate resume with all of my activities and the extended list of honors.

Also, in the activities list, I listed euph, trombone, pep band, and jazz band as seperate activites so that I would have more room to list honors.

binx

The Common Ap only gives x number of lines, so you really have to prioritize what activities are most important. If your S or D is applying as a music major, chances are good there will be a separate music application - at least a page. That is what happened with D's applications, making it obvious to spell out the musical accomplishments there.

For the common ap, I believe she lumped Music Honors onto one or two lines, and wrote allstate, youth orchestra, etc. on the explanation. (There aren't many lines to explain these things.) Under employment history, she was able to list gigs, and under volunteer activities, she was able to list things like church performances. Under "activities" she listed her lessons. There is also a section (or there was last year) to explain other things, and you can be more detailed there.

So, on the regular ap, the music got split up. On the music ap, it got detailed, like on a resume.

If he/she is majoring in music, then music honors, IMHO, qualify as academic honors. (If it's not academic, why does she need to go to school for it?) If she is not majoring in music, then you need to be careful that the music stuff doesn't dominate the application, or folks will say, why in the world isn't this kid majoring in music?

shennie

We decided to put most of my younger son's stuff on a seperate resume. He was heavily into music and theater but did not want to major in either. However, we wanted to show the depth and breadth of his committment. The music section of the resume listed his music activities both in and out of school. It was here that we listed a local composition award he had won.

In the drama section, we listed all the plays he had been in along with the role he had in each play. Somehow, just writing on the applicaton that he had been involved in drama club for 4 years didn't seem to really show the depth of his involvement.

I would put what you can and what makes sense on the common app and spend some time creating a one page resume that highlights the non-academic activities and awards that you want to highlight. And I think it is OK if there is some duplication between the 2.

violadad

Our approach was much like shennie's.

Son's school choices required seperate applications or supplements to both the school and conservatories. In addition to music, he had a number of other awards and EC's. He did a music related seperate resume for the university apps and kept the non music ECs and awards on the general app.

For the conservatory supplements, he used the music info on the form, and listed non music on a seperate resume. It was clean and easy and worked in all cases.

He never had the need to deal with the Common Application.

myau

Some colleges (like Stanford, for example) specifically ask NOT to attach a resume or any other additional pages to the apps. And they specifically ask about academic honors and awards.

And what if a student is going to double-major (having music as one of the majors) or to minor in music? Will his/her musical awards count as academic (or scholastic) ones then?

thumper1

DS also did what Shennie's son did. In all cases, his colleges asked for a separate music resume as well as a repertoire list. All of the music awards were listed on the resume. He was not applying as a double major.

DD listed her music honor/leadership on the regular application. Neither of my kids had huge lists of ECs. Both had a few things that they did extensively. That made doing the application a bit easier.

binx

Myau, I looked back at the common ap from last year that D used. The section titled "Extracurricular, Personal, and Volunteer Activities" is where my D listed her musical endeavors - there is a single line on the right to explain any honors, positions, and awards. There is space for seven activities; D wrote out all her activities, and divided them up into seven categories, and ordered them according to importance to her.

D used the common ap for all her schools. She applied to six schools - two of them as music majors with the intent to double in something else; at the others her intent was to minor in music. Even the schools where she didn't major (except for one) she applied for music scholarships. So, at 5 of the 6 schools she had a separate music application to go into more detail. Those schools either provided their own form where she had to go into detail about her activities and personal rep, or they asked for a resume. None of her schools wanted rep from orchestras.

The section listing academic honors was essentially left blank for D (She studied in Germany, where scholastic honors are not generally awarded. Even if they were, she would not have qualified, studying in a foreign language!) I think she wrote something like "not available" or "not offered." Some "academic" music honors you might be able to list might be the music honor society Tri-M, or lettering (at our local HS, a letter is given to musicians who perform at a certain level academically.)

The next section is Work experience, and that's where she listed gigs.

The next section is the opportunity to write a short paragraph about one of her activities, and she wrote about violin. The bigger essay she reserved for explaining her German education.