<p>@meekchun - My D has routinely missed school because of music activities. She is in one of the metro region’s youth orchestras and they sometimes perform for elementary schools as part of a music outreach program. For every regional and state festival she participates in she misses one or two days from school. When she went to the ASTA National High School Honors Orchestra last year she missed an entire week of school. She missed 10 days of school just this year alone due to travel for auditions. However she continued to maintain a straight-A average throughout her rigorous high school program (IB) and is ranked 6 out of 600 in her HS.</p>
<p>Today she found out she got into several Ivy’s, including the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange program. In my opinion, the ability to take on extra activities that you love, which may require skipping days of school, and then make that up and maintain a high level of academic performance, is what the top schools, including the Ivys, will be looking for.</p>