<p>I think your main problem is that you’re not being very flexible. Your approach to this seems to be very “all or nothing”. Either you become a full time orchestral bassist, or you don’t play music professionally. Either you get into the best music school, or you don’t bother training for a professional audition. Either you do well in school, or well at music. When in reality, nothing is that black and white. You can do both things, if you’re willing to be a little flexible. I think you’ve gotten a lot of good advice here about a wide array of ways that you can make music and academics work together, both in college and in your future life.</p>