How Does Music Compare to AP Classes?

[Keilexandra]

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@SimpleLife

9-10 APs or 13-14 APs (that’s about as many as most kids can get here, given all the other required curriculum) – won’t matter for admissions in the vast majority of places (or ALL places?), particularly when you have music or some other passion to back up the smaller number.

My argument is that 9-10 APs + musical passion vs. 13-14 APs + musical passion is a difficult handicap to overcome. In reality, many students with the “smaller number” are competing against classmates whose extracurricular profiles are equally strong, with a just-slightly-stronger academic rigor profile. If the 9-10 APs student is NOT stronger in ANY other significant way than the 13-14 APs student, why not choose the quantitatively “better” one?</p>

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@clapuma

I could imagine almost no scenario in which taking 1 incremental AP class in and of itself would be the hook that gets you into a school like Stanford (especially if doing so causes you to drop a subject you are otherwise passionate about). It is quality, not quantity that matters.

Actually, the scenario is more like an extra 4 AP courses (1 course per year), and the valedictorian also plays cello at an equally high level–but orchestra is structured differently than band, so s/he didn’t have to sacrifice the course slots.</p>

<p>In even-more-anecdotal fashion, I conjecture that liberal arts colleges are more likely than universities to adjust for lower course rigor due to fine arts pursuits. Most of my 4-year band friends are attending excellent-by-any-measure colleges, but not HYPS-level (unless hooked in other non-academic ways). A French horn player went to Columbia, but he skipped two years of band class to take APs. The valedictorian went to MIT, but she did orchestra outside of formal school hours (an option not available to woodwind players, except for the extremely time-consuming marching band).</p>