Deciding between Gifted Math Program and local youth orchestra

@innosong16 I hope you will do orchestra. When the time comes you can do a music supplement with recording/video, musicresume and music letters of recommendation. Music can help a lot with admissions (at least as much as math in many cases) but the main thing is that you love it and it makes you happy. The orchestra sounds like an oasis for you.

Do you take lessons and have you studied theory at all?

Does your school have a math team that doesn’t’ conflict with orchestra?

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I would say that you should go with the regional youth orchestra. First of all, you love it. It will be life-enriching, You may really like the other music kids that you meet in orchestra, and you’ll still do math at school and reach Calc BC by the time you are done. Or if you are farther ahead than that, you can take advanced math at a nearby college, outside of any program. Most colleges will let you take one class a semester in senior year for free, if you ask nicely. So you might be able to have it both ways.

Second - if you play an instrument that is in high demand (tubas, I’m looking at you), it can give you a big leg up in admissions. Colleges that don’t have conservatories still have performing arts on campus, and they need musicians for that, so musicians can get a leg up on admissions.

Third - some people hit the wall at a certain point with math. They get to the point where they can go through the motions, but they don’t understand why, and then farther along, they cannot do it, since they don’t understand it. You might hit the wall in Calc - it has happened to plenty of good students. So you might not wind up continuing in that superb math program, anyways.

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