<p>I love philosophy. I'm captivated by analyzing the meaning of life, ethics, politics, religion, etc. and I'm very strongly considering majoring in it (I'll probably be the next academic in my family as far as job prospects are concerned).</p>
<p>At the same time, I'm very passionate about music. I've received superior ratings every year at the OMEA solo and ensemble competition as a bass soloist, loving performing, and the idea of majoring in vocal performance and simply studying philosophy on my own for pleasure and edification keeps coming to mind. </p>
<p>What should I do? Those aren't exactly subjects you can double major in. If I study philosophy, I'd 100% for sure go to a very strongly Catholic college because of my religious beliefs, and if I went for music I'd probably go to a state school. (None of the Catholic schools I've found seem to offer what I'm looking for, or if they do, it's not a very good program.)</p>
<p>If I go to a state school and study music, I can always keep up with my faith by going to the Newman Center and spending time with like-minded students, but I'm not sure what I'd do about philosophy. If I kept up with studying philosophy independently and decided I wanted to go to graduate school for philosophy instead of pursuing further music studies, would I be able to?</p>
<p>I would say look further into it and see if there is a school where you can double major, if not-major and minor. no matter what uni you go to there will probably be adequate musical extracurricular offerings, or if you’re in a big city, there could be amateur orchestras you could audition for or choirs</p>
<p>If you look beyond the RC colleges for philosophy, you would probably have more options for the music. St. Olaf in Minnesota and Luther in Iowa spring to mind.</p>
<p>Check out the following schools:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University
Johns Hopkins University
Lawrence University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Rice University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</p>
<p>The performance programs at those universities are very time consuming and demanding, but they will all allow some flexibility in majoring or minoring in Philosophy.</p>
<p>You probably could double-major if you like, but liking both and being very passionate about both doesn’t mean you have to major in both. There are several things I like and am very interested in, but I chose one to study academically and keep up with the other otherwise.</p>
<p>You could choose a school with a strong philosophy program that also has a strong music component/conservatory/EC offering. Something like Oberlin or Lawrence (both of which were suggested above). You could study both, or you could major in philosophy and minor in music. Or you could just major in philosophy and play music as an extracurricular. You’d have to attend a school that doesn’t limit performance and participation in their music program to majors only.</p>
<p>Or you could go somewhere to study music and dabble in philosophy as a minor or take a few classes. But no, studying philosophy independently will not enable you to go to graduate school in philosophy - you will need to study it formally, at least in a minor if not a major. So if you think you may want to study philosophy on the graduate level, I would major in it and minor in music performance.</p>
<p>Many of the small liberal arts colleges encourage double or even triple majoring, even in disparate disciplines. Williams, for example, has an excellent philosophy, religion) AND music departments. Plus multiple performance opportunities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I’ve decided that I’m going to give VP a shot and if I find it’s not really my thing change majors or transfer.</p>