One thing I've found is that music school teaches you a specific skill set and/or lifestyle. Instead of preparing term papers, and for midterms/final exams, we have weekly theory assignments, weekly keyboarding/dictation/sight-singing tests, weekly ensemble rehearsals, private lessons, and history readings and required listening (both which tend to get neglected). Performance majors also have master classes, and Education majors have even more stress on top of that... Then there's the finals and midterms/unit exams and papers on top of all the weekly stuff. Also, we have to get at least 60% on theory/aural finals in order to continue in music scholarship. Throw on ensemble performances, music in the community (church music ministries or community musical theatre/choirs/bands), and part-time jobs...and you have STRESS. Especially if you're a very social person who requires human contact beyond quick snatched moments in the music lounge before/between classes, because then you somehow must organize some kind of social life around this. And every now and then, I find, you need time to leave music scholarship behind and simply listen to or create music, or watch a performance, so you remember why on earth you're putting yourself through all the chaos in the first place.
To handle that lifestyle with sanity and GPA intact, you have to learn to be organized. You have to be able to handle stress, to be proactive, to do some work each and every day. You have to learn to be intrinsically motivated and self-starting. You also have to learn to ask for help when you need it. You learn how important it is to develop a support system, and something that calms you the heck down and provides perspective when you feel like the world is going to come to an end because you got 65% on one of the weekly things that gets averaged into a larger mark (for me, going to mass does it, so I'm on a mission to go to mass again on a weekly basis in 2011 instead of the monthly basis of 2010. Hold me to it, people!).
But I think the biggest thing is that you learn to grab quick moments of rest in the midst of the flurry of chaotic activity. You learn to have a laugh with friends between classes, or to do meditative breathing exercises on the bus (in a subtle fashion, of course), or to quickly play or listen to that one piece of music that can always make you smile or laugh (Haydn, anyone?!?). You learn to center yourself, at a moment's notice, which is beneficial to...well, every component of life; every hat we have to wear.
Just one of the many benefits of my "useless" degree. ;-P
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