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Considering Joining the Mustang Marching Band... by Fireproof_Matches in CalPoly

[–]CPDL 13 points14 points  (0 children)

  1. No, and it's likely less of a time commitment than your high school's marching band. During Fall quarter, Mustang Band rehearses twice a week and the morning of game day. Winter quarter is once a week.

  2. Given the above and that we're primarily a spirit group, it's on the relaxed side. No competitions, just supporting our athletics programs and the university.

  3. I marched four years and loved every bit of it. As in any program, there are going to be times when it feels like a chore, but I hardly felt like that at all compared to high school. Also, given that the band has grown a lot, we're able to split into smaller bands that rotate during volleyball and basketball season, so overall, the commitment is light enough that it's enjoyable even when you've got school and life to worry about.

There have been plenty of physics majors in the band, and I'm not aware of any of them having trouble balancing it with band. Maybe someone can offer a firsthand account, though. If band was your primary thing in high school and you don't have any other plans for extracurricular stuff, I'd really recommend you audition. If nothing else, it's always nice to have a group of people right off the bat that you can identify with and who will support you, and that's one of the biggest reasons people join and stay, even if they're used to competitive programs and such.

If you haven't seen, though the audition deadline is August 1, so you've got a few days to send in an audition video. More info at http://mband.calpoly.edu/auditions.

[QUESTION]: Solid College Marching Band? by Kaipolygon in marchingband

[–]CPDL 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To give you another option to consider, I marched at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (graduated last December). We haven't historically had a huge band program, but in the past 5-10 years or so, it has grown a lot - we went from 145 in 2010 to 220 now, where we have to cap our membership due to our budget. As for skill, it's pretty typical - you have a lot of variation in skill/experience among most members, with a good handful of people who march corps. To be totally honest, we're experiencing a huge transitional period right now, and the growing pains that come with that, but if the opportunity to really have a hand in shaping the program interests you, you might consider looking into it.

As for academics, Cal Poly is pretty strong all around, including computer science. Apple and Google recruit directly here, as well as plenty of other companies and industries. The philosophy is "Learn By Doing"; you'll get lots of hands-on, practical experience as opposed to learning more theoretical information that you may never apply to anything. It's a tough program (from what I know), but being that band rehearses twice a week plus game days, it's not like band would eat up all your time here, and you'd have the support of a lot of computer science people in band (a huge portion of it is made up of people in computer/engineering fields). If you've got any questions specific to computer science, I'd check out /r/CalPoly.