<p>Does anyone know if there are there schools that are strong in both Computer Science and Composition, that allow double majoring between the two?
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Welcome, Viet</p>
<p>MIT comes to mind as does the combination of Case Western and Cleveland Institute of Music. Stanford is another possibility, but I do not know a lot about the double major program there. I know there are a lot of people there who are into very highly technical aspects of music, so there must be some crossover.</p>
<p>MIT's a great example. I know someone who majored in physics; he's now a fulltime conductor of mostly contemporary music.</p>
<p>Some others to check into now that I think about it, although not all of these may have double major possibilities: Columbia, Duke, Princeton, Berkeley, U Miami (Florida), U Michigan</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins/Peabody, and Boston University.</p>
<p>Northwestern</p>
<p>I would suggest doing some careful research on CMU regarding double major possibilities. When looking at them a couple of years back, we concluded that the music curriculum was so packed with required courses that it did not leave a lot of space in the schedule for much else, particularly if you want to finish in four years. The typical performance curriculum then included eight semesters of Studio, eight of Major Ensemble, four of keyboard, four of music theory, four of solfege, four of eurhythmics, four of music history, four performance electives, another four history/theory electives plus the usual writing course and another six or seven courses to satisfy distribution requirements. That was a whole lot more infrastructure than anywhere else she looked. A five year program there would be more realistic.</p>
<p>Northwestern. There's a music/engineering dual degree program.</p>
<p>BassDad, I would imagine that virtually anywhere it would take 5 years to complete a BM in composition and a BS or BA in CS, unless you had a year's worth of college or AP credits before matriculating.
A BA in music with emphasis on composition is another story.</p>
<p>A double degree would indeed take five years almost anywhere. A single degree double major is possible at a lot of places in four years. Since the OP used the words double major, I assumed that he or she meant the latter.</p>
<p>Viet,</p>
<p>I came across a website that may be of interest - <a href="http://ccrma.stanford.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://ccrma.stanford.edu/</a></p>
<p>Rice is great in both from what I hear. The problem is that you can't apply for a double degree (you have to just go for one, preferably music, and then weasel into the other later).</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your input! It's helped me a lot so far.
Rice was a school I had in mind, but I don't know much about the whole double degree thing there.
Clendenenator, what do you mean by "weasel" in? If I did that would I still get a degree for both majors?</p>
<p>When considering a double degree in music and another subject, it is very important to have the backing of your principal music teacher. Some teachers simply do not want their students splitting their time that way and will try to get you to drop the second major once you get there. Others will be very helpful in letting you arrange your schedule so that you can fit everything in. It is a very good idea to have a discussion about this with each potential teacher before deciding on a particular school or a particular studio.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not entirely sure how you're supposed to do it at Rice cuz there is no website that explains exactly. I've been told that the preferred method is to gain acceptance into music, then once you are there, declare that you want to major in something else as well (I'm not sure if this involves a test or just filling out forms). The problem is that it's harder to get into Shepherd than Rice. If you do it the other way (like dumb old me wants to do), I'm assuming you have to "apply" as a "transfer" into Shepherd to go for both degrees. If you are successful either way, you will earn a BA and a BM at the same time and it would probably be easier than some schools because they share a campus.</p>
<p>If there is no established procedure, you could get there and find out that one side or the other is not going to let you do the double major / double degree. You might be able to "weasel in" as you put it, but then again you might not. In that case, you need a plan for what happens if things do not work out as you hope they will.</p>
<p>On the other hand, maybe there is an established procedure that is not spelled out on the web site. It sounds like you should make some phone calls or send some emails before going too much farther down that path on the basis of assumptions.</p>