Balancing Pre-Health with Music

Hi all.

CC was an invaluable resource to me during my high school years and the college admissions process last fall, so I decided I would give it a shot again with an issue concerning college.

I am a freshman in college right now, and I am struggling to balance my academics with cello. I am currently interested in pursuing a career in the healthcare industry, so that’s why I’m starting on the standard load of STEM courses required for careers like medicine/optometry/etc. Right now it’s Biology, which is proving to be an intense and fulfilling course. The downside is that I am failing the class. We have had only one test, but I got a D on it so I am a bit discouraged right now. But I like Biology and the professor is amazing.

So, ignoring the fact that Biology may or may not be affecting my other academic classes (I’m not sure I can make a relationship just yet, as I have only had one test per class)…there is cello to worry about.

I came into college thinking I could improve on cello (albeit at a slower rate). Then I got the principal seat of the university orchestra, which I am still extremely grateful and excited for. Like Biology, orchestra has been challenging me as well, since in high school I was never in an orchestra of this caliber. The only problem here is that I wish I had more time to practice AND do well (i.e. 4.0 GPA, although that is currently very far away from my reach). I have been working on Dvorak from January to August, and I haven’t touched the Dvorak since. I find it almost impossible for me to improve on my solo repertoire, orchestra parts, and my academic classes.

(I didn’t want to do Dvorak for all four of my college orchestra auditions, haha)

That being said, I’m not 100% sure if I want to double major or minor in Music, but the option is still there for me. Another option for me is to drop a class (like Biology), but instead of rashly deciding now I want to see what I can change in my routine first. Then, if that routine still does not work, I will drop a class/make a more informed decision. My drop date is November 15 so I have quite a bit of time left.

Any advice, especially from dual-degree students/students who have done STEM with music at a relatively high level, is welcome.

Thank you!

I would drop the biology now. Keep your transcript clean.

There is no need to double major or major/minor or do STEM at all during undergrad years, if you want to be a doctor. Music majors do very well with medical admissions (I once read that as a group they have the highest admit rate.) If you want to concentrate on music, please do.

Undergrad years are not as directly vocational as many people think (though it is changing, for some). You can get a degree in music, BA or BM, and still apply to grad and professional schools (like medicine or law or nursing) and you would have access to many jobs in and out of the music field (internships help with that).

For med school you would have to do some prereq’s, post grad or when you can during undergrad, but don’t let them take away from your cello, which they are right now, and don’t let them ruin your GPA either. There are programs for those who want to go to med school and need to take prrequ’s after college.

You can also do nursing or physicians’ assistants programs. Optometry requires a bachelor’s and an admissions test.

Right now, I would focus on the present and not base your life on future prospects like being a doctor or whatever. You may change your mind. many do. And it is better to do one thing well than more than one thing, at a level you aren’t happy with. You can focus on music and you will be fine.

I think you are discovering what has been talked about on these boards, how hard it is to balance music (I assume a performance degree) with another degree, the amount of time you need to spend on music is going to be significant, and then you have the other courses you will need to take, and it is a lot. Here are some questions for you:

1)Why are you doing a double degree? Are you doing it because the second degree is needed because music is so chancy as a career (either yourself or your parents pushing this)? Or are you doing a second degree because you need/want to have the academic courses in your life, you would be bored with music, etc… if you are doing it as a hedge against music being difficult to make a career out of, you likely are hurting yourself if you are struggling to balance music with the academics. What it sounds like is both your academics and your music are hurting, and you could end up doing the dual degree with the worse of both possible worlds, mediocre academics and stunted musical growth. I don’t know what program you are at (nor do I want you to say, keep that private), but music schools are not the lax places some think, and while they rarely throw people out of the program at jury time, you could find yourself where your teacher can stop really giving effort to you, and then find you are relegated to secondary orchestras, not great chamber groups, etc. Likewise, if you keep the dual major, you could end up with mediocre grades which would limit what you could do with that, too.

There are possibly things you can do to make this situation work, after all you are a freshman, still only a couple of months into school and still adjusting. The biggest issue I suspect here is time management, you are overwhelmed with the work for the academic classes (bio is time intensive, I never considered it particularly “difficult” conceptually, but like dear old Organic Chem that was my downfall, it requires a lot of studying to remember terminology/nomenclature, the various structures (in a cell especially), the processes of life, it is a lot. I would agree with someone else, I would drop biology until you get a handle on things, if you feel you are doing badly, then drop it now, so it won’t be on your record.

If you are set on staying with the dual degree then you have work to do. There are no shortcut when you are doing a performance degree, you can’t get by with an hour a day of practice (let alone practicing orchestra/chamber parts), and likewise if you think you want to go into a health field (medicine, veterinary, opthamology, etc) you will need to have strong grades out of your other degree. Bad grades on either side could hurt your possible future. Schools , unless they have changed, usually offer things like time management courses, study skills and the like, to allow you to better user your time and I highly recommend using anything like that. College is very different than high school, no nagging parents setting the structure, and there likely isn’t anyone keeping that close an eye on what you are doing (other than yourself), so it can be hard to use all the time you have, it is so nice after 12 years of class after class, structured schedules for EC’s after class, and the like, to actually have free time, but that also can be a hole (and yep, it is a rabbit hole I had to deal with personally:). I would recommend if you can cutting down the academic work load, since you also have fun things like music theory and ear training to contend with, try not to overextend yourself.

Are you trying to do this in 4 years? Most dual degree kids I have known take 5 years, and you may be trying to do too much trying to get this done in 4, project out what it would look like with 5 years and see if you can make the load any lighter. If you have to finish in 4 years, then one option might be doing summer classes to get rid of requirement classes and the like, so you aren’t killing yourself during the school year.

2)Alternate option 1: Drop the BM degree, and do an academic degree only. Depending on your school, you could still do music, take lessons and so forth (and it depends on the program you are at), simply not majoring in it. The downside is you likely would drop the music theory and ear training classes required for the BM, and may not progress as fast as you would in a BM program. Also, in more than a few programs non majors may not have access to the teachers in the BM program (often they get grad students) and may have access only to non major orchestras and chamber groups, where the level may not be so great, other places you may still be able to play with majors, all depends. This way you can still have music, but focus on the academics as you may want.

3)Alternate option 2:
As compmom wrote about, you could still pursue a health related field after getting a BM, so you could drop the dual degree and stick with the BM. If you think you still want to be pre health (which is not a major BTW, it is an area of concentration), you would have to take the required courses, usually a year of bio at least, 2 years chem (maybe 3 years now, used to be inorganic and organic), probably a year of physics, some math classes, to get into a health related field post grad. The good news is you can take those classes after you graduate (many schools now have programs for people with bachelors to ‘fill in’ the missing courses for pre health) or do them in the summer, you have flexibility. One of the problems likely may be mom and dad, who may not see a BM degree as ‘useful’, but if you point out you still could go to med school with a BM, it might make them feel better. You could also point out that outside of certain majors (comp sci, engineering, accountancy, nursing), most college degrees, including business admin and the like, aren’t all that much different when it comes to getting jobs, they don’t really give you direct job skills the way majoring in engineering would, so a BM likely would mean as much (these days, business admin is a dime a dozen major, a BM might actually stand in higher regard in some quarters). It may be a tough sell, but if you really want to take a shot at doing music seriously, going the BM route this way may be a better choice. As comp mom said, you may find that you don’t want to go into a health field later on anyway, so killing yourself with a dual degree may not be great. And in a year or so, you decide you don’t want to do a BM, I assume you could switch to an academic field, last I checked you don’t have to declare a major until your sophomore year.

Whoa, I am assuming you are at a college, not a music school, and not doing a BM or a dual degree? Is that right?

In fact, since you have not declared a major, you are not a music major either. Premed, with some exceptions, is not a major, as you know. Are you taking any music classes, theory for instance? Is your music strictly extracurricular with lessons and performance in the college orchestra etc?

You can major in ANYTHING and go to med school, OR go to grad school in music. Biology is time consuming and has labs. It sounds to me, still, like you should drop it, unless that test is not a big part of the grade and you think you can do okay. I mean, it also sounds like you like the challenge. We don’t know if you are doing music classes at all.

But if you do drop it, and as you choose classes for next semester, and contemplate major, try to keep an open mind. Use your time to explore some new subjects. Volunteer or intern if you can at some point for clarity.

ps 1/4 of Harvard applicants say they are interested in medicine! most change their minds…and once read that 62% of music majors who applied to med school got in, the highest of any group…I cannot cite it, sorry

I will say that those post-bac pre-med programs to fulfill the pre-reqs in courses like organic chemistry can be very expensive as there is not the same sort of financial aid support. So if money is an issue it might be best to take those courses during regular undergrad. On the other hand, those I’ve known who’ve done the post-bac programs have been very focused and mature and get a lot out of them - maybe more than they would have as part of a regular undergrad curriculum.

And the courses can be taken a la carte rather than as part of a program, which might be less expensive. Nevertheless, a large number of high schoolers want to go into medicine and only a fraction do. Humanities, art and music majors are very welcome at med schools.

I didn’t realize he was not a dual degree, at the end he asked about dual degree programs and so forth. From what it sounds like, he is having trouble keeping up with music and his classes, which to me sounds like the time management issues I mentioned initially. Whatever he does, sounds like he is a typical, overwhelmed Freshman:)

I was a dual degree in chemistry and music performance (in ancient times). Don’t be discouraged about your first grade in biology - especially if you love it and have a good professor. Attend all of the extra help sessions and office hours and study groups. STEM majors bond together and usually help each other just like music majors. You will have to study more than in high school. On the music side, don’t be too hard on yourself not learning new repertoire right now. You just need to keep practicing daily to keep in shape for the demands of orchestra but don’t push yourself too much. It will get easier and you will learn how to pace yourself. I found it refreshing to switch back and forth from music to chemistry - it felt good to ‘switch gears’. Also - it probably will take you more than 4 years to do both majors. I took summer classes to help reduce the course load during the school year. I vote to keep going with the required basic classes for a pre health career and take some over the summer - maybe physics(?) or a math class. You can also use summers to catch up on learning the music you love. Your major will probably become evident as you progress along this path - may a double major or a dual major - or just one or the other - but all the while you will be doing both which I absolutely loved doing and it kept me going because I was happy for the opportunity to do both at this point in my life…