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Roswell, Georgia, is one of the most highly educated cities in the state. Census data shows roughly 65% of adults here hold a bachelor’s degree or higher — nearly double the statewide rate of about 34% and well above the national average. It’s a community where parents think hard about what their kids’ time is spent on.

This week, hundreds of Roswell High School students spent their days on the practice field instead of the couch, working through drill formations and sectionals for marching band camp. And talking to parents, students and educators, one theme kept coming up: band isn’t just fun — it’s preparation.

College Board data has long shown music students scoring dozens of points higher on the SAT than their non-music peers. Researchers debate how much of that is music itself versus who chooses band in the first place. But ask the people actually living it, and the case sounds less like a stat and more like lived experience.

“You get to meet all kinds of new people,” said Cooper Glaspy, a sophomore French horn player and section leader. “You can be in the leadership, learn how to lead, learn how to communicate. I think it helps with other things like school because you learn how to manage your time.”

Parents see it too. “There’s also just the discipline aspect — to be able to be on the field and march a show, you have to practice,” said Tara Glaspey, whose two sons play in the band. “You can’t just show up and make it happen.”

And for seniors like drum major Sydney Godoy, who plans to study music composition at UGA, the camp is where it all clicks. “I think everyone should play an instrument,” she said. “The way it makes you feel, the act of doing it — I fell in love with everything about music.”

In a town built on college degrees and long-term thinking, band camp turns out to be exactly the kind of investment parents here are looking for.