<p>The answer to your question is simple - you do not compete against those kids for scholarships that are designed to reward the particular activities in which their activities are clearly superior to your son’s. You would do better to look for scholarships that reward the kind of things at which your son excels.</p>
<p>To paraphrase professor Tolkien, we all have to decide what to do with the time given us. In making the choices that he has, your son has positioned himself far better than most others for admission to audition-based music programs, and far better for consideration for certain music-related scholarships. The price for that is that he may be less of a candidate for scholarships that reward other activities. He cannot be all things to all possible scholarship sources and it is more than a bit late in the game for those sort of regrets.</p>
<p>Student musicians can do volunteer service in the form of benefit concerts, hospital and nursing home visits, and projects to benefit various arts organizations that need all the help they can get in these hard financial times. These kinds of things can be very effectively packaged for the right type of scholarship applications. They may not carry much weight on scholarships that are intended to reward excellence in the sciences or dedication to helping the homeless. Different choices, different outcomes.</p>