<p>I am helping my son’s high school music teachers argue for honors credit for their capstone music classes for choir, band, orchestra and jazz. I am looking for other high schools that have done this and would like to get a list of their honors requirements. Because my son’s school does not offer this now, the music classes are not part of a student’s academic gpa and I believe the music students are at a disadvantage when applying to college and competing with other students at schools that offer honors credit. I would love your thoughts on this.</p>
<p>This is an older document from NC, but lays out requirements for Honors Arts Courses:
<a href=“http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/curriculum/honorsguide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/curriculum/honorsguide.pdf</a></p>
<p>The classes would have to have pre-requisites and auditions and I’d assume that your state would have to pass judgement on all of it, which would take some time.</p>
<p>I don’t think that having honors or no honors for music classes taken in high school makes much difference to music conservatories. However it is odd that the music classes do not count in the students GPA. For most students, music classes can help boost the GPA up. The disadvantage is in not having the classes count in the GPA.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school had no honors music classes, and in fact had no honors classes at all at the school. It didn’t make any difference.</p>
<p>At our school AP classes boosted the GPA the most, followed by honors. There were no AP or honors music classes, so if students took any music classes (or played in the band or chamber music or orchestra) they got credit for regular college prep classes but no extra weight, like honors or AP students get in their classes.</p>
<p>Therefore, some students who were at the top of the class worried a lot about the effect of band,theory etc, since any music class actually pulled the GPA down. I think they complained but nothing much was done.</p>
<p>I learned about this after the fact. My kids never knew their GPA and didn’t really worry about it. They ended up doing fine with college admissions. They love music and one of them is a music major so it was certainly worth it…</p>
<p>At your school, I wonder if there is a similar issue with art, drama, film etc?</p>
<p>One point to remember, 6 of the 8 schools my D is applying to do not calculate weighted GPA. So although my D has over a 4.0 at her high school because they award 5 points for an A, 4 for B, the colleges calculate it unweighted; 4 for A. So her GPA is less than 4 for them. I had an admissions person tell me not to worry about the GPA, they look at strength of schedule. So a student with all B’s in AP classes would be given preference over a student with all A’s in regular classes. She also mentioned that class rank is important. Colleges also include electives in their calculations. As far as Honors Music, the only honors music I have heard of is AP music theory.</p>
<p>High schools specifically designated as a “Performing Arts” schools often label courses as Honors, but from what I’ve seen, it matters little when applying to top conservatories. Everyone there has been the best where they come from so it’s back to a more evened playing field.
My D went to a rigorous prep school and took AP, dual-credit and honors courses, but her performance classes were not labeled as such. It was the 5s in those APs and the leads in shows that counted on her transcript and resume.</p>
<p>My D is a first year senior at Interlochen. They don’t weight grades and they don’t label music or academic classes as honors. But her classes, both academics and music, are as tough as the Dual Enrollment/ Honors/AP courses she took as a Jr in public school.
Leilajean, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the honors thing. ACT/SAT/AP scores and the audition carry more weight with schools an GPA. GPA is too variable between schools and different state standards.</p>
<p>leilajean, If your son is applying to conservatories I would not spend effort getting music classes recognized as honors courses. If applying to academic schools, maybe, if it would have some effect on his class rank (because honors are weighted more than regular courses.) But colleges tend not to count performance courses when they recalculate GPAs, as noted below.</p>