How Does Music Compare to AP Classes?

[Keilexandra]

<p>^If the 9-10 AP student is val, then I assume that there aren’t any other students at his/her HS who takes significantly more AP courses with equally high grades–otherwise the math doesn’t work out. For the record, I don’t believe that 9-10 APs vs. 13-14 APs from different contexts makes any significant difference in admissions.</p>

<p>

@SimpleLife

Rarely do two students of that caliber present themselves as entirely equal except for one, single factor – the number of APs.

To the contrary! I’m not talking about musical prodigies, just normal students who are good enough at music to send in a supplement CD, for example. And I say “equal” in a subjective context, as admissions might “rate” students on a 1-5 or 1-9 scale (even LACs like Williams do this, and their rating system has been written about though I haven’t the time to look for a link). So if two students are both extracurricular 7s–in the “match” range for acceptance but by no means a sure admit–but one is an academic 8 and the other an academic 8.5 due to exceptional course rigor… it can make a difference.</p>

<p>

@SimpleLife

Colleges say they look at each student individually and holistically, with regard to what is available to each student at their individual schools.

Indeed. But colleges also assume that all students at a particular high school have the same access to course rigor, and thus the same opportunity to craft an AP-heavy schedule. Note, this is an ASSUMPTION, but a common one, IMO.</p>

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@SimpleLife

If you can excel in 10 APs, become the valedictorian, and have excellent musical achievement, and complete the most rigorous academic course load available (considering that you took 4 years of music and really excelled in that arena)

Similarly, many colleges do NOT consider music to be a rigorous academic course. Instead, it’s considered an elective. TBH, my band course was not academically challenging at all, though time-consuming because of my outside commitment to music. </p>

<p>Basically, Candidate A from Podunk HS has 5 “solids” each year while Candidate B from Podunk HS has 6 “solids” each year, and they both have excellent extracurriculars (“soft factors”). Their “outside” excellence doesn’t have to be equal musical talent–maybe one is an actor who has excelled in theatre. It distills to the same (literal) number in admissions.</p>

<p>

@SimpleLife

That 13-14 kid could obviously fit 13-14 in his/her schedule, for whatever reason, and the other kid couldn’t.

Or, the first kid made academics his top in-school priority and “somehow” managed to juggle music/theatre/etc. on top of it, while the second kid is pretty great too but hasn’t proved himself as much the multi-talented star since he got an entire extra period to work on his music during school.</p>

<p>I exaggerate, but is such a thought process so implausible?</p>

[SimpleLife]

<p>^Keilexandra, you’re making a lot of assumptions. The 9-10 student IS the val, and lots of other kids DID take more APs. The math DOES work out. I know it does, because this is a current reality. If the 9-10 student is an all 100s student and the 13-14 student has a lot of 92s or 94s, or what have you, the math DOES work out. In a huge, rigorous public. Maybe you’re generalizing your own high school’s experience to be everybody’s high school experience.</p>

[Keilexandra]

<p>^If Student A has better objective grades than Student B, then number of APs obviously won’t matter. (And at some high schools, a 93 and a 100 are both counted as ‘A’ for GPA purposes.)</p>

<p>I agree that I am generalizing my own high school experience; so are you. Neither of us can claim to represent more than our personal anecdotal experiences.</p>

<p>FWIW, at my high school, there were 10-20 kids at the top of the class with 3.9-4.0 UW GPAs and excellent extracurriculars, with musical passion being a popular choice. All-State Orchestra and All-State Band both received regular representatives from my school, despite us not having a music department; but the orchestra kids went to district orchestra for 2 hours one night a week, while the band kids either 1) did marching band for 15-20 hours a week during season, or 2) took band as a regular-period course. Uniformly, the students who played strings or didn’t participate in music had taken more APs than the students who played woodwinds and committed to band. Considering the same division among those with excellent grades, those who took 4 more APs appear to have benefited in admissions against those who took 4 years of band.</p>

<p>This was the situation at MY high school: Student A with perfect grades, 10 APs, first-chair viola in All-State Orchestra. Student B with perfect grades, 6 APs, first-chair flute in All-State Orchestra. Same high school, so the “availability” of APs seems comparable. Although the GC rates both students as “most rigorous” courseload, when there are 5 Student As and 5 Student Bs, the college has to choose 2 people to admit by SOME measure.</p>