<p>I am wondering how this would work, or if it is a very bad idea. This is for my younger child who is just a junior so this is just an idea that we have tossed around.</p>
<p>Her first passion is music. But we are unsure if she is good enough to "make it" in that field. Her second passion is math/science basically. It was suggested that perhaps she apply to 3 really good music schools and then apply to others with the idea of a math major. Then, if she gets in to a really good music school, we could assume she is talented enough to make a go at that and she could go to the music school. But, if she does not, then she will fall back her math/science degree which she also would like, it is just not her first choice.</p>
<p>However, what if she loves Washington University, Carnegie Mellon, and Rice for music. But she also loves those schools for maths? She has Carleton College as a main school on her list if she does not go in to music. Texas A&M is her safety school. (I tried to convince her to look at UT Austin, but for some reason she says no, but it is her choice). She has a teacher (a grad of Oberlin) trying to convince her to look at Oberlin. </p>
<p>But back to the original question...would she apply to both the school of music and the general admissions to the schools where she is interested in both? Or would that be a mistake and they would take her as being not serious and admit her for neither? Should she only apply to one college or the other for these schools? Thank you so much!</p>
<p>She should also consider USC, as she can double major, or major and minor in Math there and in Music at the very fine Thorton School of Music. USC has a separate application for Thorton, and if she is accepted there she has the option of doing an additional major or minor in any other area, which I dont think [?] is allowed at some schools with Conservatories, such as Oberlin and Rice[?] USC actually encourages this, with their Renaissance Scholars program.</p>
<p>I know kids who do it all of the time. I knew one young lady who applied to just about all of the CMU schools to see where she could get accepted. My son applied to two of the Cornell schools which was all that was permitted. NYU only allows one app to the university so you have to pick the school, but those who permit multiple apps to the various school give you that option.</p>
<p>For another music/science school, check out Lawrence Univeristy in Appleton, WI.</p>
<p>Lots of people apply to more than one school at Carnegie Mellon. It was never quite obvious to me how you wrote your “Why am I applying to this college within the universisty” essay - but I know other kids have figured this out. Since major/minor or double major are possible, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.</p>
<p>At CMU it depends on what you are interested in. My S applied to CMU CIT, MCS, H&SS. It was easy for him to bring those together because he was interested in Math, Chemistry, Physics (MCS), ChemE (CIT) and Statistics (H&SS). He was also interested in technology but decided against applying to SCS. Ended up with a BS ECE and took many of the CS courses “for fun”.</p>
<p>If she likes Careleton, why not consider St. Olaf and do both math and music. She can major in a math related field and take music on the side or double major or whatever works out. You don’t have to be a music major to participate in music at St. Olaf and they have one of the best music programs around. Academically they are on par with Carleton and personally I think it is a better school than Carleton.</p>
<p>There are lots of schools that have conservatories as part of larger universities or colleges: Indiana, Michigan, USC, Northwestern, Rice, Vanderbilt, U of Cincinnati, U of Hartford, New School, Oberlin, Lawrence, Bard, etc. And then there are schools that have conservatories where it is also possible to take classes or do a joint degree at their affiliated schools: Peabody and Johns Hopkins, Eastman and U of Rochester, e.g. Some schools say they offer joint degrees but it is in fact very hard to do so (Columbia-Julliard, Harvard-New England Conservatory). You can find very expert advice on the Music Majors thread.</p>
<p>What field of music is she looking into? Performance, music ed, therapy, composition, history, theory, etc. I’m assuming music performance. Is she an instrumentalist or a vocalist? If I know this, I can tell you a lot more about the schools you’re looking at.</p>