Marching band, has anyone done it in grad school

[prospectivecsgrad]

I've been reading about how grad students need a hobby/activity or two outside of their department to stay sane. I'm considering applying to PhD programs for CS, mainly at schools that are much bigger on sports, including football, than my current undergrad, so I'm pretty sure I might do/try out for marching band when I get to grad school. Has anyone successfully done this? Is it doable, and would it raise flags with advisors? 

[juilletmercredi]

Your advisor doesn't have to know what you do in your spare time. You don't have to tell your advisor everything that you do. Therefore, it won't necessarily raise red flags with your advisor.

However. I did marching band in high school and considered it in college, and am friends with lots of band geeks. Whether or not you can do this successfully depends entirely on the kind of marching band you are attempting to join. My husband was drum major of his university's marching band, and it was a pretty low key affair that only played at home games and didn't practice every day. That kind of commitment would probably be fine and doable in graduate school.

But if we're talking about one of the big D1 or HBCU marching bands? They practice every day for several hours a day and travel to away games during football season. (My HBCU's marching band practiced M-F from 5-9 pm and also on Saturdays. That's why I chose not to join.) I think you would find it very difficult to do that along with graduate school, especially in your first year.

I'd wait until you decide where to go to grad school, and then I'd contact the marching band and ask some questions about practice schedule, travel, expectations, etc. That'll help you decide. There are lots of other music-related hobbies you can do - you can play in the orchestra or concert band, or an ensemble, or a community music group in the city you're in that's built for working adults.