Hello,
I’m a sophomore in high school and have had somewhat of a rough year this year. I was in the hospital (psychiatric, for depression) for a few weeks while already falling a bit behind, and everyone around me was telling me to drop chemistry (honors), because it was my biggest stressor. I was very hesitant to do this because I am an overachiever, and the idea of having to take it with sophomores when I was a junior was not at all appealing to me. However, after talking to my guidance counselor, she explained to me that I only have to have taken 3 lab courses to graduate, not necessarily chemistry. So I guess my question is, if I decide to forget about chemistry altogether, will it hinder my chances of getting into music colleges? My dream college is Berklee College of Music, and I figured that considering I’m not going into anything close to science-related, they wouldn’t care, but I’d like to make sure. I don’t want to do anything to potentially lessen my chances of getting into that school, or any other music school for that matter.
Thank you in advance.
It looks as though you just need to meet your HS requirements.
https://www.berklee.edu/admissions/undergraduate/supportingmaterials
Send them a note to verify.
Music school admissions are very different from standard admissions criteria. The audition is paramount, and if you don’t pass the audition, then high stats, course rigor, or ECs will be irrelevant.
While a good GPA and/or test score is always a plus, especially at universities, the academic expectations are generally a little lower at music schools than for general admissions. They understand that balancing course rigor and hours of practice time is a challenge for a musician. That said, some good music schools care more about academics than others. Some schools have minimum standards you need to meet and at that point it is up to the music school admissions committee whether to admit you or not. Some music schools decide together with general admissions whether or not to admit a student, schools with conservatories (like Eastman @ U of Rochester and Peabody @ Johns Hopkins) may have an admissions process completely separate from their university admissions so different standards will apply. Berklee is strictly a music school, so likely to care less about course rigor than many other schools would. You may wish to check out the Music Major forum here at CC - lots of good info there from parents and students who have been through this process. There are several parents of Berklee students who post there on occasion: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/