<pre><code> I am a current sophomore and I am going to do my school’s IB program my last two years of high school. I have calculated my rank how it will be multiple times. Because of me taking orchestra as a class all four years, and someone else not, I will be number two in the class instead of number one.
So the question: Is taking orchestra, even though I want to be a Biology major, worth being number two in the class?
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<p>(I want to apply to Ivies, Johns Hopkins, etc.)
(I would be the principal violist in an orchestra that gets 1-5th in the state every year.)
(It is a public school with 537 in my class.)</p>
<p>Do orchestra. You’ll need extracurricular involvement to be competitive at highly selective colleges (and doesn’t the IB Diploma require a fine arts credit?). Your second-in-class with EC’s will look better than a first-in-class who didn’t do anything outside of the classroom. Moreover, you shouldn’t sacrifice two years of doing something you enjoy for the sake of moving up ONE rank in your class, as it really isn’t a big deal at all; you might find later on that you regret missing out on orchestra.</p>
<p>Also, don’t get ahead of yourself assuming you’ll be first in class at all; a lot can happen in two years and someone might beat you out for the position regardless of the single GPA point you’ll be missing out on.</p>
<p>Planning your life around something so mundane as being #1 or #2 in your class is actually rather pathetic, especially if you are willing to give up something you love over it. Furthermore, you have no idea if you’ll be able to maintain an all A average in all your remaining classes over the next three years. One slip up and you’ll have given up orchestra for something you weren’t going to get anyway. Being #1 is great, but so is doing what you want rather than following some unnatural plan because the credit gods decided orchestra was worth less than some other class. Take orchestra, be happy, do the best you can while taking a reasonably rigorous course load.</p>
<p>Think about it this way, do you really want to go through life with the pressure to absolutely be #1, because eventually you won’t be. As the dean of the college we just dropped D off at said yesterday, 95% of the new freshman class were in the top 20% of their HS graduating class and she can guarantee that in a year, 50% of them will be in the bottom half of their college class. Happens at every Ivy each year too.</p>
<p>I doubt it is seriously going to make that much difference in the long run. The valedictorians for the past two years, one was in chambers and the other one was in agriscience, two non honors or AP courses that took a spot in their schedule from day one. They still got into good schools.</p>
<p>The real question is, are you passionate about music? Can you do the EC but not the class? Do you enjoy the class itself?</p>
<p>Being eventually honored with val or sal is a very nice honor if it’s awarded to you. Chasing after it, at any stage, is for most people a MAJOR turn off – a major “eiewwwww”. We’ve seen people like that in our families, neighborhoods, classrooms, workplaces, churches/temples/mosques. They are rather ridiculous. And the honor is ephemeral. You may be #1 in your little pond, but just over the hill is a bigger lake and their #1 makes you look rather shabby. The reality of being in the rat race is this: even if you’re the top rat, you’re still a rat.</p>