A lawyer friend in town told me that his wife has helped Lake Travis high school students with the college admissions process over the years, and said that in her experience band kids had some of the highest college acceptance rates. I think a lot of admissions staff know that band kids work their asses off, and that level of discipline looks good on a resume.
My son is a freshman in the McCallum High band, and last year was lucky enough to get "called up" to be a part of the McCallum band as an eighth-grader for the football season. That included early morning band practices at McCallum starting at 6:50 a.m. before husting to Lamar, Friday night football games, and a lot of Saturday UIL competitions that lasted most of the day. He absolutely loved it, and as his father I was damn impressed to see him work so hard. He thinks he might want to join a college marching band at a big school, maybe Texas, maybe somewhere out of state like Oregon where his sister is. But I do wonder if by the time he goes to college, after five years of intensive marching band, he'll get burned out by it. It's a grind.