<p>High I'm just beginning this whole applying to college process. I really love acting and theater and I really want to major in it in college. However, I know how difficult the industry is and I want a backup. So how do I get a degree in theater but still have a backup in another career?? I've looked at dual/joint degree programs but very very few colleges offer it in relation to theater. Open to any and all suggestions!!</p>
<p>Really? I was under the impression most colleges allowed you to double major–unless you’re looking at BFA theater programs, not BA? I can’t see what the problem would be otherwise.</p>
<p>Try posting this in the Theater subforum
[Theater/Drama</a> Majors - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/]Theater/Drama”>Theater/Drama Majors - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>I’m surprised to hear that, the majority of decent sized schools allow you to double major in whatever you want, you just have to be careful with scheduling not to overload yourself and to keep it on track. A major in Drama/Acting/Theater tends to fit very well with a fine arts/humanities double major, but those are also wide open degrees as far as career prospects go, so I don’t know if they qualify as the back up you’re looking for. A social sciences major like Communications would also fit reasonably well with drama.</p>
<p>Lots of schools would let you combine theater with a concentration leading to a teaching credential, or business classes (theater mgt. or pr perhaps?) or would let you try out some law classes (lots of former thespians in the courtroom). Lots of incoming theater kids also end up in Communications.</p>
<p>My suggestions: Try out a bunch of new things. Find something else you love, in addition to theater. Life has a way of throwing curve balls and you never know where something will lead you. In one of of my favorite graduation speeches, by Steve Jobs, he talks about a random calligraphy class he took, for no particular reason:</p>
<p>“None of this (stuff I learned in calligraphy class) had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.”</p>