Does he have to stick with this to the end?

shawbridge
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:08:13 +0000

My first bit of advice to most kids concurs with others: Follow your heart. Do what brings you pleasure or meaning.

But, we do have to look at the instrumental as well as the intrinsic value of activities. Does it matter enough to college admissions if your child does band for one more year or does something else that shows verve and passion? I’d say no. To the extent that EC’s are evaluated at all, some schools look for passion or and others look for well-roundedness.

On the passion side, at the high end, they are looking for “angular students who come together to form a well-rounded student body.” Do one thing extremely well and invest time and energy in it. If so, doing something you like but don’t love and your effort does not show something exceptional, skip it.

If on the other hand, a school is looking for well-roundedness, your child already has demonstrated that and substituting band for something interesting but less intense is unlikely to hurt.

So, for both intrinsic and instrumental reasons, I don’t see a compelling reason to continue.