Hey everyone. I’m a high school student going into his sophomore year… tomorrow actually, and I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For a while now I’ve been pretty sure I want to study ethnomusicology at UC Riverside. I wanted to go to UCLA at first, but considering that I have to balance general school work with other activities (ie band,) I just don’t know if I’ll be able to do all the honors courses that most UCLA students have done. I have a high GPA and I ranked pretty far up in my class last year, and I think I got around a 20 or so when I took the ACT test in 8th grade, so those aspects seem quite attainable, but again, I have not taken a whole lot of AP classes (two last year, one this year.)
I am young though, so I don’t really know how much honors courses matter, so maybe they won’t end up mattering that much in the end, or maybe it’ll be the nail in the coffin. Anyway, Riverside just seems a lot more doable, and it’s close to LA which is where I want to end up in the long term. However, ethnomusicology is an odd field. A lot of people either becomes field workers or professors, and while I wouldn’t HATE those jobs, I would really like to be involved with the local music scene of LA, possibly as a radio host or just as a musician.
I don’t know if anyone can provide me with some advice on this, because my passion in terms of study is ethnomusicology, but my ideal job isn’t really to be a professor. Should I get a degree in a field more aligned with my ideal jobs or would I still have opportunities for those jobs even if I didn’t necessarily study them in college? Do I need all those honors courses or would a high enough GPA and ACT score be enough to be accepted into UCLA? Thanks for any advice you might be able to give.