<p>Hey guys, I’m currently a HS senior and I’m applying to conservatories this fall/spring for flute performance. I’m in an AP french class which has gotten unbearably hard with a terrible work load and I really really want to drop it (think… 3 hours of hard work per night and extreme stress- I’m dying to get out of this class) however it may sadly be too late in the year. </p>
<p>I was wondering, if I somehow did get a way to drop the class it would show up as a withdrawl-passing on my transcript but will this greatly affect my conservatory applications?</p>
<p>My thought would be not really, since getting in is mostly audition anyway and my grades are pretty decent overall. It’s just french that’s killing me and taking up my time that I really need for college apps and auditions… Any comments/experiences?</p>
<p>Also, if I wanted to apply for music ed. would it affect my chances greatly also?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>My personal opinions and observations is that on occasion, something may well have to give.</p>
<p>For someone intent on a performance pursuit, I would put the audition prep as paramount, particularly if you are applying to the staight conservatories, where for all intents and purposes, it IS the audition.</p>
<p>I will temper this to say that if you are (also) considering the attached programs, Rice/Shepherd, Northwestern, Oberlin, a state flagship, and others where academics play a role in audition to the audition, I would counsel you to make sure you will have fulfilled ALL the necessary requirements, particularly the foreign language requirements. You may want to see if you can drop the AP to an honors level or standard french option, where typically less rigorous coursework is required.</p>
<p>Academics do play a role in music ed admissions. “Pretty decent” can encompass a wide range. A better definition numerically/statistically would be more appropriate. </p>
<p>Flute is highly competitive. The counterargument can (and will be) that if a decision comes down to two candidates, both equally qualified musically, then the nod goes to the more academically strong candidate. Part, but not all of the equation. Personality, teach ability, and an interview (particularly in music ed) are also factored in, and in some cases a studio teacher may have some significant input.</p>
<p>Just my $.02. Take it for what it is.</p>
<p>@Plumeria - check your high school policies; it may be too late, making the whole discussion moot.</p>
<p>My daughter’s in the same flute-boat, but for AP Spanish. It was past the official drop date, but the school approved the change for her. It would not have made sense to drop to a different Spanish class; she’s already covered that material and scored well on it.</p>
<p>M d’s courseload, even without the AP Spanish, is still very rigorous with 4 other AP classes. Her counselor will send a revised transcript to any colleges that she’s already submitted applications to, showing the schedule change. The colleges and conservatories KNOW how much work the AP classes are; I’m fairly sure that you and my daughter are not the first ones to do this.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about music ed.</p>
<p>As for fulfilling the necessary requirements… our review was that the higher end schools wanted 3 years of language, which was already done. If they want more, she felt she would have needed a 4 or 5 on the AP to place out of any college-level requirement, which would not have happened without extreme stress, so she’d have to take a language in college again anyway. Bottom line: there was no point in continuing.</p>
<p>If applyling to stand-alone conservatories, dropping AP French should have very little or no impact on your chances of admission, other than giving you more time to practice and a less stressed existence which should both result in a better audition and thereby increase your chances of admission. If you drop AP French, you are less likely to be one of the “equally qualified” candidates that violadad mentions: instead you are likely to be ahead of that other person.</p>
<p>Chiming in to agree with Violindad.</p>
<p>I know someone who dropped AP history in her junior year and exchanged it for Honors history. The school made it extremely difficult to do this – we had to bitterly fight every step of the way all the way up to the principal. But we ultimately prevailed. It helped that the week before we went to the principal, the TV Show, “Boston Legal,” had an episode about a student who got into a car accident due to exhaustion resulting from studying too hard on AP’s. Oh well, that’s TV. </p>
<p>The schools have a vested interest in not having kids drop AP classes because they are nationally ranked based on the number of students passing AP tests. In addition, I sense(but don’t know if it’s true) that the schools may get a kickback from the organization that runs the AP programs (is it Princeton?) based on the number of students participating and taking the AP test.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted into six out of seven schools with generous scholarship offers from all of them. All of them were among the top music schools in the country. Before she dropped the AP, I actually contacted her top three or four choices to see if converting an AP class to honors would make a difference and they all said that it would be better for her to do well in an honors class then to get a “C” (or lower) in an AP class. </p>
<p>That’s my two cents. I wish you good luck and suggest that you try to substitute your AP with an honors. Life is too short to mess it up with unnecessary AP classes.</p>
<p>Neither of my kiddos dropped a course their senior year…but neither of them took a foreign language after 10th grade when they completed Honors Spanish Four. Same reason…too much time…too much stress. PLUS they felt they weren’t learning Spanish (DD found out just how true this was when she took college Spanish years later). </p>
<p>As noted some schools require academic admittance to the university as well a acceptance to the music program via audition. Schools we know of that have this policy in addition to the ones listed above: UMichigan, Boston University, UMaryland, Duquesne, Carnegie Mellon. My guess is that MOST music programs within a university setting will have an academic admittance requirement. Check first.</p>
<p>Can you drop the course at the end of the first semester?</p>
<p>Hey everyone! I’m back with good news :)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your inputs and views on this. It was very helpful in deciding. </p>
<p>I went to my guidance counselor and I was happily informed that I was able to drop the french class without having it show on my transcript. I felt that it wouldn’t make sense just to drop levels, because it’s essentially the same class but with slightly less work (it actually would be the same EXACT class but with slightly different requirements). And I wouldn’t want to take French 4 again because well, I already took it and did pretty well, plus I had already fulfilled the language requirement with extra credits anyway.</p>
<p>Good to hear that it worked out for you!</p>