I started playing the violin when I was around 4 years old. My parents pushed my two brothers and I to adopt and instrument, which soon become part of ours daily lives as we pilled up orchestra, chamber music, summer camps competitions and private lessons. It was only natural for me to continue my 8 years of orchestra, which I had done back in Brussels. Having arrived at Carleton, I initially signed up for orchestra for fall term but then opted out as my fears of not being able to keep up with the academic rigor pilled up during International Student Orientation and NSW. After taking some time to adjust to the workload I realized two things. First of all, I did in fact have time to play in the orchestra and secondly Carleton requires 6 credits worth of “Arts Practice” which orchestra fulfills. In consequence, I joined at the beginning of winter term but ever since day one of site-reading our sheet music, I have wavered on quitting. As tomorrow is my registration time, I am once again forced to decide whether or not I will sign up to be in Carleton’s orchestra again.
Orchestra rehearsals for the string section are every Monday and Thursday from 6:30pm to 8pm. In terms of opportunity cost, my next best option would be to spend this time doing schoolwork as normally feel like packing up my violin and walking out of rehearsal when I have a significant amount of homework. There have even been times where I have skipped orchestra, as I felt overwhelmed with work. Orchestra is also at a very inconvenient time, my chemistry prefect sessions usually occur at that time and so will the ones for next term’s chemistry class. It also forces me to choose between eating extremely early or vary late. As foolish as that may seem, I have noticed that I work well at an interval of +/- 3hours after/before I have eaten. Orchestra shortens the time for which I experience maximum efficiency. To compensate for this I have to use Sayles dollars to be able to not have a stomachache at around 10:30pm instead of saving them for all-nighters, late-night studying and exam periods.
On the other side, orchestra is an amazing opportunity for me to take a break from work. It is an almost therapeutic experience as I am generally a very stressed person. It also gives me the opportunity to be part of team and to be surrounded by people, which is a very positive and uplifting environment instead of staring at a computer screen insolated in the libe. Apart from having a good impact on my morale, orchestra is one of the only times I get to practice and play on my violin. To determine which option has the lowest opportunity cost, I have to consider the fact that I am in College to first of all study, so to get the highest GPA it would be better for me to drop orchestra so that my academics can thrive more.
Even though one of the main reasons I joined in the first place was the credits, I did not take this fact into account when I looked at the explicit and implicit costs for each decision as I no longer value the importance of this 1 credit. This is because I spend as much time in orchestra as I would in any given class but only get 1/6 of its credit value and there are many substitutes that I can factor into my decision for fulfilling the requirement. An almost perfect substitute for orchestra, which would take away the large time component, is Chamber music. By taking this musical option, I would still obtain my 1 credit and reap the benefits of orchestra while being able to decide on rehearsal times with the other musicians in my group. The only drawback is that I have to find my own group members, and many musicians, or the ones I have talked to at least, seem quite reluctant about stopping orchestra and starting a chamber music.
Then of course, I could just opt to take one of the many 6 credit “Arts practice” courses that Carleton offers. By taking this option, I would finish the requirement in one term instead of letting it linger over time. The problem with this is that I would only be able to choose two other courses that term. In addition, we take on average a total of 36 courses during our stay at Carleton. I have no AP credit or credits that I can transfer as Carleton does not recognize the French lycée system, this means I need to take 35 classes, as that would give me the 210credit minimum to graduate. Part of the College experience is going abroad for one term which I plan on doing in my junior year, this would mean I would lose a maximum of 18 credits as I will probably under load while “campsing”. Club tennis and Alpine Skiing will give me a total of 8 credits and there are 9 trimesters left (8 where I can gain credits) so I would have to do orchestra during all the trimesters when I am on campus do be able to graduate, go abroad and fulfill Carleton’s requirement.
After having gone through this thinking process, it is clear that I either need to take Orchestra or sign up for Chamber music for every term to come. Since I would prefer not taking orchestra, yet I have determined that I have to if I am going to study abroad, Chamber music is in fact my option with the lowest opportunity cost. Chamber music eliminates the schedule and time problems that orchestra posed, while allowing my to graduate according to plan. So, for my registration today, the real question now is whether or not I will be able to find chamber music partners before I am due to register. So wish me luck!
I hope that you were able to find partners for Chamber music! I think that you made an excellent choice. In my time at Carleton, I’ve found that the smaller the group the more benefit I’m able to take from the activity. I was in Choir for two terms and had many of the same issue that you raised in your blog post. While I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, a more intimate group would have allowed us to become more in touch with each other, providing a better experience.
I’ve played in the Carleton orchestra for three terms now, and I participated in chamber for a term as well. Based on this experience, I just want to forewarn you that chamber can be just as time consuming as orchestra (if not more). The pressure in chamber tends to be higher especially as you work toward the final concert and need more rehearsal time. But chamber is fun, though! And if flexibility in meeting times is what you need, I say go for it! Good decision making.
This seems like a very solid analysis of your decision-making choices. It looks live you have thoroughly examined the costs and benefits of joining the Orchestra or opting out. As a freshman, I personally have not taken a lot of extracurricular courses, mainly because, as you have mentioned in your post, I feared I would lose time to study and endanger my freshman academic performance. Now that the year is over and that I look back at my freshman year, I certainly wish I gave more time to do other stuff than studying, such as playing sports or instruments. I now realize that there is always time, but it is just a matter of how well you utilize your time (one of my resources here at Carleton). For next year, I have decided to join the Carleton swimming team. Of course, this will have a huge opportunity cost, but I think it is worth it because I will be in shape, more disciplined to study, and mostly because having less time to study will actually benefit me as I would be able to use my time effectively and efficiently in the future. Good luck with Chamber Music!
I think this article provides a very good analysis of decision making in substitutes. Ofcourse, prices is not involved, but time is also a cost. I am also at the stage where after freshman year I am going to pick up a lot of extracurricular next year, such as clubs, sports, and music lessons. I think this is a really relatable discussion about the cost of time and the amount of classes that can be efficiently used to fulfill credits and substitute.