<p>Hi everyone. My child, a junior, wants to major in both drama and computer science. What schools should we be looking at? I have heard that Carnegie Mellon doesn't give its drama majors much time to study anything else so that may be out. Advice much appreciated!</p>
<p>I dont’ think it’s possible to do this at most schools. CS is a very demanding major, and so is drama. Both require lots of time outside of the classroom, PLUS the majors do not have overlapping req’ts. </p>
<p>I don’t see how a drama student, with rehearsals, etc, would have time to devote to a full load of CS classes, homework, and projects.</p>
<p>CS also has course sequencing, so trying to fit in the drama classes would cause her to miss some sequences for CS. That’s going to delay graduation substantially. </p>
<p>Do you expect her to graduate in four years? Are you willing to pay for extra years of schooling? I imagine that it would take her at least two or three extra semesters to get the req’ts in. </p>
<p>Can she do a minor in drama? or go to a school that allows performers from other majors to particpate?</p>
<p>Sounds like it is possible at WPI, though it requires careful planning -
[Humanities</a> and Arts: Double Majors - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/academics/hua/doublemajors.html]Humanities”>http://www.wpi.edu/academics/hua/doublemajors.html)</p>
<p>However, if drama does not factor into her career plans and she is doing it just for fun, it is much easier for her to get a minor. You would just need to make sure the school doesn’t reserve productions for drama majors. That is why I brought up WPI as an example; everyone is majoring in STEM so drama is pursued as a minor or second major [WPI</a> Theatre - home](<a href=“http://users.wpi.edu/~theatre/]WPI”>http://users.wpi.edu/~theatre/)</p>
<p>It depends on the school. She would need to carefully look over the degree requirements for both majors at each school to see if she can assemble an eight semester schedule that completes both majors. Also, she should pay attention to how much “slack” there is in the schedule in case she is unable to take a specific course in a given semester due to scheduling conflicts with another course that she needs.</p>
<p>I wonder if it will make a difference whether CS is in the Col of Eng’g or Col of A&S. It seems to me that if it’s in the Col of Eng’g, that it will be very unlikely because the req’d STEM classes will hog all the space in the schedule. Often the Col of Eng’g has fewer Core/GenEd req’ts, so a double major would have to squeeze in all the Drama classes PLUS at those GE glasses not req’d by eng’g. </p>
<p>At a semester-based school, a CS degree is usually 120-128 credit hours (units in Calif). There aren’t many elective spaces in the schedule, especially if CS in in the Col of Eng’g. Where could a student then shove in the 36+ credits of Drama plus any GE req’ts for the Col of A&S? 36 credits equals 2 semesters of classes, but they wouldn’t be taken all in one year, and placing them throughout the first 8 semesters could hurt the CS sequence. </p>
<p>A possibility would be this:</p>
<p>If your child has a lot of AP/IB/DE credits and goes to a school that fully accepts them, then that would take care of most/all of the Core Req’ts and maybe some of the math/science req’ts (like Cal I and II, Gen Chem, Bio I and II), etc. </p>
<p>However, I still don’t see how a student can balance the “after class” req’ts associated with Drama (rehearsals, etc) with the “after class” req’ts of a CS major. There wouldn’t be flexibility with Drama, the rehearsal times would be established.</p>
<p>Simply fitting in the classes on your schedule isn’t enough. You’d have to look at the outside of class time demands for each major. </p>
<p>What is your child’s goal?</p>
<p>At my kids’ undergrad, the College of Eng’g (which contains CS) offers a drama club because there are STEM kids who have a Drama interest, but don’t have the time to fit in Drama as a minor or second major. (BTW…you really can be in any major to participate, but it was started within the Col of Eng’g because of student interest). </p>
<p>It really is amazing to see STEM kids singing, dancing, etc. My older son was in it and he had several roles with solos. The group puts on 2 productions a year (one per semester). </p>
<p>I have to tell you that even with this more amateur route (no formal drama classes), the time demands were high. Frequent rehearsals, etc, took a lot of time.</p>
<p>here are some of the past productions that they did</p>
<p><a href=“http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/11/coe-does-art-presents-the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged/[/url]”>http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/11/coe-does-art-presents-the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://uanews.ua.edu/2010/04/coe-does-art-presents-oh-horrors-its-murder/[/url]”>http://uanews.ua.edu/2010/04/coe-does-art-presents-oh-horrors-its-murder/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://uanews.ua.edu/2009/04/uas-coe-does-art-presents-the-big-bad-musical/[/url]”>http://uanews.ua.edu/2009/04/uas-coe-does-art-presents-the-big-bad-musical/</a></p>
<p>Tech, Design, Performance, Management, Dramaturgy?</p>
<p>BA or BFA?</p>
<p>These make a big difference.</p>
<p>If she is Tech or Design, there are several theatre engineering programs out there that might be interesting for her.</p>
<p>Happykid is at Towson U. This semester she’s studying Vectorworks with the programmer who writes it. So yup, there are jobs out there for people with a comp sci/drama background.</p>
<p>Thanks all for some extremely useful things to think about. She is interested in Performance, more likely musical theater than straight drama. Her goal is to have a job in CS but one with a flexible schedule when she books a role.</p>