<p>The son of a friend of mine plays the harp. His parents have been told that it will be very easy for him to get a scholarship to any school he wants to go to. Does anyone out there know if this is true? Are harp players in great demand?</p>
<p>I think it is an exaggeration to say that this student could “get a scholarship to any college he wants to go to.” However, expertise at the harp could certainly enhance the applicant’s chances at many schools.</p>
<p>With respect to scholarships, many schools do not award merit scholarships, only offering financial aid based on need. So for such schools, only admissions, not finances, might be enhanced by the appliant’s prowess with the harp.</p>
<p>Other schools do offer music scholarships, for which a strong harpist could be in contention.</p>
<p>At selective colleges, a strong harp player may be considered to have a “hook,” because it is an unusual talent. The student would still need to have a profile in the ballpark for the school in question, however. The harp-playing could put a borderline candidate over into the admit pile. That may depend on whether the orchestra director had made a request for a harpist, which often is seen as a nice addition, but not an essential, for a school orchestra. </p>
<p>In any event, I have heard that students who play the harp have plenty of opportunities to earn money by playing for functions and parties, etc. So with or without a scholarship, money may be available!</p>
<p>I don’t know about <em>great</em> demand but there are probably quite a number of schools for which playing a harp would be a plus if not an outright hook.</p>
<p>The student should take great care, however that he does not have to say on his app that…wait for it…</p>
<p>…he left his harp in San Francisco.</p>
<p>Being a good harp player can be a hook, but he’s not a lock on any school or scholarship nor is he the only good male harp player in the country. I even know an excellent male harp player, tough curriculum, good grades…</p>
<p>Still, my area sent two harp players off to Ivies a few years ago. What’s funny is that there really are not a lot of harp players in my small area. It just seems that the few are brilliant, excellent harpists and have great grades.</p>
<p>I was wondering, other than my IB music theory class, in highschool I have done nothing formal with my instrument talents (although in middle i was in all county for 2 years and got like 9 medals). I still play them and practice them often, but I don’t play in a band or anything formal (sorry for the repetition there). Could my talents in this area still be useful on a college resume? I play guitar trumpet saxophone baritone and ukulele.</p>
<p>I think it matters where you apply. Because Asians seem to value classical musical education a great deal, the elite colleges get lots of applicants with extensive musical educations. In fact, music may be the most popular EC of Harvard applicants, and of Harvard students. Unless one is doing music at a professional level, it’s unlikely that participation in music will cause one to stand out in that kind of pool.</p>
<p>My guess is that simply taking music lessons and playing music might be impressive to less competitive colleges where applicants have very few ECs and few applicants pursue music-based ECs.</p>
<p>If you want to try to stand out, though, you could try teaching music to disadvantaged kids or starting a fundraiser to raise money to provide music lessons or concert tickets to disadvantaged kids.</p>
<p>thats a good idea. and i wont be applying to any top notch schools, im actually only going to apply to state schools, so that should be good, thanks!</p>
<p>–if you look at my thread titled “Where should I go” – it says what schools im considering, if you have any suggestions at all they’d be greatly appreciated.</p>