<p>My D is a humanities person - literature, languages, international cultures, etc. She wants to be in a city and wants to be able to dabble in theatre without majoring in it. With its tech / pre-professional performing arts emphases, would CMU be an awkward fit?</p>
<p>CMU doesn't offer a ton of lit classes- many of the classes in the English department are more composition base. I'm not even sure if we have an English Literature major; we may just have creative writing and technical writing. Our language programs include Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, and Italian (no Arabic, Latin, or Greek). Students can cross-register for one class per semester at another school in Pittsburgh for no extra fee, so some students choose to take language classes at University of Pittsburgh (particularly, I know people who have taken Serbian and Korean). There is one main theatre group on campus, Scotch and Soda, which is very popular. I think that as a non-major it is possible to do some tech work for the theatre program if you talk to the right people, but I'm not completely sure about that. If your D would want to take classes, she needs to talk to the theatre department.</p>
<p>It's very possible that CMU is not a good fit for your D, but it still might be worth looking into. As far as courses and majors that are offered, the course catalog is here: <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/esg-cat/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmu.edu/esg-cat/</a>. Often the English and history departments offer special courses that won't be in the catalog; you can get an idea of some of these courses at the student-run course scheduling website: <a href="http://scheduleman.org/departments/76%5B/url%5D">http://scheduleman.org/departments/76</a> (English here).</p>
<p>Has your D considered Rice? It has a very nice campus in a great area of Houston, close to the museum district and a short distance on the light rail to the theatre district. While it has no theatre major, there are a bunch of active student groups on campus, and it would probably be a stronger school in the areas she's interested in. If you have any questions about Rice, you can PM me- I'm very familiar with the school, although I go to CMU.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights - yes, Rice is on her list too.</p>