soccerguy315 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 No dispute about any of that....I was just mentioning that while drum corps is definitely more expensive than it ever was.....the cost of not working over the summer hasn't changed (believe it or not, we even had internship opportunities back in the stone age of the 80's ;) ).Peace, Curious Me I remember the 80s... a little bit :P ok... a very very little bit. I consider myself very lucky that cost was not an issue for me (though I still gave up all the other summer opportunities like everyone else), but it is definitely very expensive. But it's also definitely a good deal. I belong to the group that thinks if you want to do it badly enough, you will be able to do it. Maybe not as many years as other people, but you can figure it out (heh... $2 to the kids in my corps for that one...). When you're young is when it's time to make the decisions that might not really make sense in the long term... but that's when you still have time to recover. At least that's what I'm telling myself... hoping to go backpacking in Europe this summer since I won't have football fields to march on :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nguyenbr Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 (edited) Drum corps has always been one of the best deals, financially, despite rising tour fees. Housing and meals are taken care of, and let's not forget top-notch instruction on your chosen instrument. You can also view it as a sort-of vacation if you consider that one free day you get in some distant touristy location :-). I would say it's comparable to a summer semester spent in college paying for tuition and books, although I will concede that finding scholarships for drum corps isn't as streamlined as it is for school. But as people have said, the money is out there. In fact, I know that some corps offer need-based scholarships to march. Along those lines, I think it's overdue for some rich corps alum to set up a scholarship foundation to help out kids who can't march due to finances. I call BS on whoever thinks that delaying an internship by a year or two will cripple their future finances. You have your entire life to work, and it's not like while you march you will mysteriously forget everything, making you a less-qualified candidate for your future career. Financially, maybe you'll retire at age 66 rather than age 64. You can't seriously argue that you'd trade those memories of aging out for an extra year of the rest of your life. Edited November 20, 2007 by nguyenbr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 (edited) I call BS on whoever thinks that delaying an internship by a year or two will cripple their future finances. You have your entire life to work, and it's not like while you march you will mysteriously forget everything, making you a less-qualified candidate for your future career. Financially, maybe you'll retire at age 66 rather than age 64. You can't seriously argue that you'd trade those memories of aging out for an extra year of the rest of your life. What about current finances of the potential marcher? Had a room mate in college who joined the Army right out of High School. He would have loved to march with a corps, and Crossmen were right next door, but family had bunch of mouths to feed. So withing a week of getting his diploma he was getting his head shaved and an olive drab outfit. End result was one less mouth at the family table and he pretty much had college paid for when his hitch was up. It all comes down to personal priorites and to say anyone is wrong because they don't have the same priorities is narrow minded at best. In my friends case his top priority was his family and anything that added to their financial load was NOT worth it in any way, shape or form.... Edited November 20, 2007 by JimF-3rdBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 No dispute about any of that....I was just mentioning that while drum corps is definitely more expensive than it ever was.....the cost of not working over the summer hasn't changed (believe it or not, we even had internship opportunities back in the stone age of the 80's ;) ).Peace, Curious Me actually it has. the cost of not working a summer can be directly connected to rising tuition costs, and other costs when it comes to college. there's more of an importance on earning money during the summer if your school costs are rising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 ...It's not as though they're raising the price to make a profit; I don't think anyone's getting rich off of drum corps.. ... I'm not entirely convinced that that's true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Yes but the size change to 150 is going to help offset that. One of the reasons they moved it up to 150 is that there were empty seats on the bus. 15 extra people paying $2000-2500 = an extra 30,000 in income to help offest all this... Ohhh no, the size change will not help offset members' tuition. It'll help offset the corps' expenses! They may not be paying more for vehicles and fuel by adding 15 people, but they'll be paying for more food, more equipment, maybe even more staff. So the extra 15 people will bring in more money, and add expenses that in theory should be less than the amount the new people brought. Where will the surplus go? Back to the members? If that's true, I'd like to see actual evidence of a corps doing this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martybucs Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Maybe they'll say the tours that are thousands of miles are too much. Maybe local circuits will start up and local competitions will make more sense. Maybe this would make it affordable for more kids to participate. Nah, that's silly, I know. That would make it too much like drum and bugle corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuriousMe Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 actually it has. the cost of not working a summer can be directly connected to rising tuition costs, and other costs when it comes to college. there's more of an importance on earning money during the summer if your school costs are rising. The cost of working can be directly connected to rising tuition costs? Yeah, sorry....I'm not sure about that. I'm currently a full time student (I did go the first time around but there were other, non drumcorps, things going on in my life that took my time and attention) and my tuition costs are such that if I made enough money in the summer to make any kind of dent during the school year, it would disqualify me from need based aid. There might be cases where a lack of working over the summer is the reason a member can't swing drum corps, but that was the case back in the day as well. If anything, I think tuition has swung so out of control, that working the summer isn't going to make that much of a dent. I'm in the camp that says, in most situations....because there are always exceptions....if you want to march, you can find a way to make it work out. There are always sacrifices to be made to march in a touring competitive corps. Peace, CuriousMe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niteblaze102 Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 (edited) . Edited October 7, 2008 by niteblaze102 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Agreed. I edited my other post, but seriously Ben, how was my post offensive? If you aren't willing to spend $4000-$5000 for the summer, then you think it's a waste of money. wow you really gloss over the fact that not everyone is in your situation. you automatically assume everyone has $4000-$5000. this isn't monopoly, not everyone starts with the same amount of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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