Even Better Bands

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So I’m a freshman at West Ranch High School in Southern California and I have no idea where to look / what to look for for college and after. I plan on going to UCSD, UCLA, Berkley, Caltech (don’t want to get my hopes up), or MIT (??… or maybe not).

What I need to know is basically… everything. I feel like I’m screwed because I don’t know what to take or do when I go to college. What is this major / minor and those Bachelor’s / Master’s / Phd / Doctor degrees? I plan on becoming an enviromental engineer (don’t know specifically which one) and I need a lot of help. No one taught me this stuff and now I’m panicking because I might not know what the hell to do when I get out of school.

What do colleges look for? Clubs? Grades (which ones?) Oh and I take marching band.
What kind of SAT score do I need to get into those schools and what’s the best / worst scores of
SAT? I think it was out of 2000 or something?
I take one AP (APHG) and I plan on taking more.
When do I need to apply for colleges and how? Do I need a resume or a application? – I know… I’m stupid.
What do I need to do when I go to college? I heard I need a major and minor but what is that and how many years of college do I need to get a good job? Again, what do all those degrees do (and what are they)?
What kind of school do I need to go to and how many colleges do I need to go to? A lot of people go to multiple schools for some reason…why?
Do I need to go to colleges, universities, graduate school (what is that), and more? For what?

I take these classes currently:

Honors English 9A/B – B+ for 1st semester and around A- to B+ ish for 2nd
Honors Geometry 9A/B – B for both semesters
(Regular) Biology – A for both semesters
Concert Band and Marching Band – A for both
AP Human Geography – B and B

Of course I will improve next year (hopefully) – is that enough for any of the colleges listed?

Thank you and… I know, I’m a retard.

I didn’t know any of that stuff either when I entered High School (graduated ‘08). Don’t worry, you’ll learn the vast majority of that right in school. I’m not sure how your school system works over on the West Coast, but we had an academic counselor we could talk to.

To answer some of your questions:

1. Grades are the most important thing, especially now that grants and scholarships are being cut you wanna make sure you keep your GPA up. Math and Science courses will be the most important, although obviously your goal is to do well in all subjects. Every school has their own GPA/ACT/SAT requirements which you can check on their websites. You’re clearly a great student so keep the good work.

2. Around Junior year is when you’ll start applying to colleges. Most universities have online applications that’ll guide you step-by-step in what information you need to provide. Fairly easy, if lengthy process. Don’t worry about it right now.

3. In college, same thing except the classes will be tougher and there will be more distractions and more chances to screw up, especially if you live on-campus.

3. Typically it takes 3-4 years to get a Bachelor’s degree ("Undergraduate"), then an additional 1-2 years to get a Masters ("Graduate"). Further education is variable. These days even a Bachelor’s is usually just the beginning and you’ll need at least a Masters to get a good $70k+ job. You could potentially start working full-time right after your Bachelors and do Masters part-time. Or stick all the way through and start working once you finish Masters. It’ll be up to you.

4. Your "major" is your main course of study (so it might be Engineering or Environmental Science or something else for you). "Minors" are additional, optional, courses of study that you can do. People usually do those either for personal enrichment or to give their degree a little more "flavor."

5. People change schools for several reasons: Some people don’t get into the school of their choice right away so they go somewhere else for a while and then reapply and get admitted later. Other people go to a cheaper place first to save money and then transfer over after two years so that their degree still comes from the more prestigious place. Some people get bored of their major and switch to something else.

6. You can go to as many colleges as you want though there’s a limit on how many credits each college allows you to transfer into their school. Of course you’ll keep whatever credits you’ve earned, you just may not be able to use them all towards completing your degree requirements. Expect to go to 1-3 universities to finish all the through to your Masters.

7. Other things: Keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. It’s one thing to wind back and relax but don’t let someone else’s irresponsible behavior jeopardize your ambitions. Watch who you hang out with because you’ll become like them. This can be both good and bad so pick your friends accordingly. Also, get on good terms with at least a few teachers so they can write you letters of recommendation. You shouldn’t kiss up to them but do show them you are interested in their subject.

*Whew, hope that helped. And congratulations on going into the environmental field!

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Description
Honors Eng 9 A

Honors Eng 9 A

Honors GeometryA-

Honors GeometryB+

Adv Biology A-

Adv Biology B+

Spanish I A

Spanish I A-

Concert Band A+

Concert Band A+

Fresh Jazz EnseA+

Fresh Jazz EnseA+

World Study 91 A

World Study 91 A

Team Indv SportA+

GPA:4.2176Total Credit:7.2500

Year:2010-2011 School YearGrade:10
CourseDescriptionFinalCredit
Honors Eng 10 A-

Honors Eng 10 A-

Honors Alg II B

Honors Alg II B+

Chemistry I-10 A-

Chemistry I-10 A-

Current Issues A

Spanish II A-

Spanish II A-

Symp Band White A+

Symp Band White A+

Marching Band A+

Jazz Band A+

Jazz Band A+

Entrepreneurship A+

US History 1st Sem A

US History 2nd Sem A+

GPA:4.1512Total Credit:8.2500

Year:2011-2012 School YearGrade:11

Description
Honors Eng 11 B+

Honors Pre Calc B-

Honors Physics B-

AP Government A-

Spanish III A-

Symphonic WindsA+

Marching Band A+

AP Psychology A-

GPA:4.1567Total Credit:3.7500

GPA Rank
Weighted GPA4.166545 / 663
Unweighted GPA3.8293

Yep, that’s my transcipt until now. I now grades aren’t the only thing considered…. but just based on grades would I have a chance at University of Southern California, UCLA, NYU, or George Washington University?

I would say that your chances are much higher than the average. There are many students who apply thinking that what they have is enought, but your grades demonstrate a "considerable" applicant, if that makes any sense. Furthermore, I am a huge USC fanatic! and based on the research I have done for the past 5 years, I have seen that USC accepts those with at least 4.0 in terms of their unweighted GPA, so so far so good. They also are big on community service, make sure that you are involved in and out of school. I once asked a USC Alumni what it takes to get into USC and he said, "Get high test scores and save the whales." By that he meant that you must work really hard at work and be that cliche "well rounded student." USC wants to make sure that who ever they accept, will be able to contribute to the USC community. They accept those who they know will contribute to the Trojan Family once they have graduated. Now, UCLA on the other hand is a different story. I have a few friends who were accepted from fall 2011 and one of them was our scholar of scholars, three of them were valedictorians, ASB members, track and field athletes, took about 8-12 AP classes throughout High school and pretty much got 4s and 5s on them. They took all honors classes and really were well rounded. The average GPA for UCLA students for the fall 2011, at least at my school– those who were accepted– was a 4.2 GPA (weighted of course). Now NYU, they pretty much care about your test scores, like any other school does. My friend got a 30 on the ACT out of 36 and she pretty much got a full ride there, but she was also in cheer and song, NHS, was enrolled in AP classes, etc. All in all, I suggest that you continue strong throughout your senior year….don’t slack off! Just tell yourself that senioritis doesn’t exist, it just can’t happen! Make sure that you receive high test scores, I mean the highest you possible can! You don’t want April and May to come and recieve rejection letters and say to yourself, "Man, I know I could’ve done better." You want to make sure that you apply knowing you did all you could. I wish you the best of luck!

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Hello. I am a Junior music education and performance major at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. My long time hobby (since early 2007) has been arranging marching band and concert ensemble versions of popular "hot 40" and "Top 100" songs. I have began to think about selling my arrangements but to my understanding you need a copyright for that. Im not exactly sure how accurate this is but I want to sell my music LEGALLY. Also, I have heard that you have to obtain special permission from the artist to arrange a song, for example if I want to arrange "TGIF" I have to get in contact with Katy Perry or whoever owns the rights to the song. I’ve also been told that I could get a copyright from BMI or something like that. Can anyone please help me do things the RIGHT way. Do I need to get a different copyright for each song? Do I copyright my name or create a "pen name" and affix that to the arrangement? I have so many questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If you are manufacturing and distributing copies of a song which you did not write, and you have not already reached an agreement with the song’s publisher, you need to obtain a mechanical license. This is required under U.S. Copyright Law, regardless of whether or not you are selling the copies that you made.

Mechanical licenses are available via, for example, the Harry Fox Agency linked below.

http://www.harryfox.com/public/MechanicalLicenseslic.jsp

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