<p>hi, i am just wondering if anyone has any experience with receiving both a BM and a BA in 4 years. i know that some schools have a bigger work load than others, so for example, NYU vs Ithaca? is getting a double degree even worth it?</p>
<p>-thanks</p>
<p>when I was looking into this with my daughter several months ago (she’s a hs senior), we found that a number of the schools structure the double degree over 5 years (rather than 4).</p>
<p>Are you considering two music degrees, or different area degrees? </p>
<p>My D is double majoring with a BA in Voice and a B? in Theatre Education. It will take her 5.5 years, with her taking summer courses for at least two summers. But her roommate is doubling in percussion performance and Music Education and is finishing in 4 years. Both girls have taken heavy loads and some summer courses.</p>
<p>My S is a freshman in the double-degree program at Tufts-NEC. He absolutely loves it and would not drop one degree for the other at this point. But the dual degree program seems to be a solid 5-year commitment; he is taking 4 courses a semester at each school. (He also received a semester’s worth of credits for his AP courses from Tufts).</p>
<p>Also, it may be technically possible to complette a dual degree program in 4 years. However, doing so may mean that you have to forgo many wonderful opportunities like spending a semester or year abroad or sampling courses in other fields.</p>
<p>I suspect we are all overthinking this a little. A year or so ago my son was concerned about majoring and music and was wondering if it was possible to double major with a music major and something outside of music. I have spent hours looking at course curriculums at the colleges my son applied at and a few he didn’t apply at. To the point where I have their requirements memorized. It’s crazy. </p>
<p>At this point, my son has dropped the idea of majoring in anything outside of music because he can’t imagine him not being in a music career, but he is not sure which music degree or degree(s) to tackle. He is interested in ALL of it. For that reason, music ed seems to be the most viable. He will recieve a little training in a lot of different areas of music plus the education classes (which could be of value in a career outside of education, like maybe something where he trained people or had to make presentations or had to motivate people). Music ed is not really a backup, he would enjoy being a high school band director, but every other field of music would be the backup. Having a music ed degree in no way keeps one from managing a music store, or from being a performer, or from being in any other area of music. But not having that ed degree can certainly keep someone from teaching.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I have posted this before, we found that at one of the colleges it was possible for him to recieve a BM in Music Education combined with a “Performance Certificate” (which basically just a piece of paper that states that he can play music at the professional level - just like a performance degree). He will have to be “approved” for the performance certificate track (and we were notifide last week that he was approved for this based on his audition), and he will have to take an additional 14 credit hours of applied music classes to do so, but it can be done within the normal 4 years by taking 18 credit hours each semester instead of the normal 15-16. </p>
<p>This is where the overthinking comes in - I compared this curriculum to that of a performance music major and found that he would only have to take 3 more classes to also get a performance degree (summer school?). So I start thinking, "well with the cost of just 3 more classes to double major, maybe he should do that. " Then I looked at the curriculum for a double major in music ed and music performance an found that it is only a few classes shy of also having a degree in composition, then I discovered that if he had a degree in music ed, performance, and composition that he would only be a few classes shy of a conducting degree, then just a few classes shy of a music technology degree, which would put him just a few classes shy of a music entrapanurship minor, which would put him just a few classes shy of a music business degree, which would put him just a few classes shy of a BS in Business, which would put him just a few classes shy of a BS in Math, etc. In just 12 years he could major in 320 different fields.</p>
<p>The reality is that he can’t major in everything.</p>
<p>I suspect that the extra effort, time, and expense would be better spent in graduate school. If someone can handle a duel degree program in 4 or 5 years, then why not try to get a Bachelors in just 3 or 3 1/2 and spent the extra time in graduate school, studying whatever he/she has discovered that they are REALLY interested in?</p>
<p>There are a lot of one year or year and-a-half Masters degree programs. Wouldn’t a Bachelors and a Masters be better than two Bachelors if either combination could be done in the same amount of time? </p>
<p>Or even a Bachelors and two masters in 6 years, possibly in three different music specialty areas - and maybe both the masters degrees would count towards two years of a doctorate?</p>
<p>When you say you want a BA and BM, I’m assuming one music major and 1 non-music major, although some other people on this thread seem to think differently…what is it that you’re considering???</p>
<p>I will be attempting a BA/BM program starting this fall in college- BM piano performance, BA in History, possibly minor in Poli Sci too if I can…AP credits help a lot with this! However, it will still take me 5 years because my college doesn’t offer summer classes really.</p>
<p>(Most of you have heard this before - you can skip this post. 
) </p>
<p>My D started out going after a BA and BM at Miami U of Ohio. She ended up dropping the BA and getting two minors instead. The reason she switched was because the two schools had different core requirements, so she would not have had room for the second language and instead had to spend time on core courses she didn’t care about. Since her minors are both in languages (German and Chinese), the minor is enough to say that she can do it. Grad school is probably in her future, once she decides which direction she wants to go.</p>
<p>She also ran into problems in that several of the required courses for the second major were ONLY offered at the same time as violin studio or orchestra, and only offered once a year. They weren’t even offered in summers, so that wasn’t an option. So there wasn’t enough flexibility in the scheduling. (Students who do this have to get permission from the music program to skip orchestra or studio one semester, but she wasn’t willing.)</p>
<p>Along with taking the major and minor requirements, she was determined to spend her college years taking courses that interested her, such as ballroom dancing, Physics of Astronomy, Botany, and Speech Pathology! She currently is taking 17 credits, the first time in her four years that she has had less than 20. She is graduating in a few weeks with something like 169 credit hours (128 needed for graduation). She has done it in four years, and is graduating Summa Cum Laude, but she has worked her **** off.</p>
<p>Oberlin. I know someone finishing in 4 1/2 years.</p>
<p>I am about to be a freshman in college and I am considering doing a double major, business administration and criminology/law. I know they are two totally different fields but they both interest me and I’m not quite sure yet which field I want to go into. However I do know that I want to go into one of those fields. I figure if I study both of them then and get a degree in both, I will be safe and not have to worry about making the wrong decision in majoring in something I changed my mind on and decided I don’t like. Does anyone know how long this could take?</p>
<p>amber92all…I’m afraid you posted on the wrong forum…this is the music forum. Perhaps post your question in a thread under the school you are presently in.</p>
<p>amber, it’s so school and major specific that your best bet is to look at the degree requirements in each institution’s undergrad handbook. It can range from 4 to 6 years, or anywhere in between. Remember that extra time = extra $.</p>
<p>Extra time for a Bachelors degree is also more time until you start earning a living. So it’s not only the cost of the college, there is also lost opportunity cost involved.</p>
<p>Thats the reason that I suggest considering graduating in four years, or less, and use that extra year or two getting a masters degree in the second subject.</p>
<p>A lot of employers will pay extra for someone with a masters degree, few will pay extra for someone with two bachelors.</p>
<p>A while back I used a teachers pay matrix (it was the only “set” payscale that I could find that included consideration for educational level) and found that 39 years of teaching with a masters paid just a little more than 40 years of teaching with a bachelors (even after the cost of one additional year of graduate school). But if that masters was gonna take more than one year plus a summer school or two, even the masters wasn’t worth it. I also did the same thing with a doctorate and found that 37 years of teaching with a doctorate actually faired a little better than 39 years with a masters or 40 with a bachelors, again, even after the expense of additional college years. It works out well, as long as you don’t take to long to get those degrees.</p>
<p>Of course in the real world, outside of teaching, those advanced degrees may be worth even more.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what your goal is by going for two different music degrees at once. My D is a dual major in voice performance/music ed at Eastman. She will (God willing and the creek don’t rise) receive one degree with two majors along with her teaching certs. BTW, if she can complete her coursework in four years, Eastman will give her a free 9th semester to complete her student teaching. It’s a LOT of work, but she still loves it.</p>
<p>What imagep says may be true if your goal is to maximize lifetime earnings, but it is a rather simplified analysis. There are other objectives that may be better served by staying in school for an extra year or two. Many schools systems require that their teachers either have a Master’s degree or are making reasonable progress toward one, so teaching for 40 years with a Bachelors degree may not even be an option. If you want that job, the question is are you likely to be more able to complete the Master’s by staying in school and getting it done all at once, or by taking classes at night and on weekends while trying to hold down a day job that requires a lot of time out of class preparing lessons and grading papers. </p>
<p>In other fields, different industries and different employers can present very different levels of support for getting a grad degree and very different amounts of pay incentive for doing so. On one extreme, you may be regularly putting in 60-hour weeks for an employer who places no value at all on an advanced degree and may even replace you if you get one so that they can hire someone else for less money. On the other, you may work for an employer who highly encourages grad school by subsidizing tuition and book expenses, letting you leave early to get to your classes and giving a substantial pay increase when you get your diploma.</p>
<p>Thank you binx for this specific info re: MU. This helps me know what to go explore in their info for my DS.</p>
<p>Because of all of his AP transfer credits, and because he chose to take summer classes twice, my son COULD HAVE ‘technically’ pulled off a second degree in four years – IF all of the courses for both degrees were offered at exactly the times he needed them – which they weren’t. </p>
<p>Like binx’s daughter, my son started out as a BM and BA double major. The BA was to be in history. And, like binx’s daughter, he found that several courses for the BA were offered ONLY during mandatory BM classes, year after year. Those BA courses were not offered in the summer or during January term, so it was logistically impossible to complete both degrees.</p>
<p>Not only that, but (also like binx’s daughter), he decided that he would rather explore a whole host of other courses and opportunities, whether or not they added up to a second degree. And so, he had a lot of fun and learned a lot of different things – which is why he chose a liberal arts college for his BM in the first place (vs a stand-alone conservatory). </p>
<p>Another thing he discovered along the way – all sorts of music and ‘extracurricular’ opportunities opened up for him, both in the surrounding metroplex and within the university. He wanted to take advantage of each and every opportunity that he could possibly squeeze into his schedule. If he had continued on the double degree track, he would have had to turn some of those golden opportunities down. He simply couldn’t have done it all. </p>
<p>He’s still very glad that he chose a liberal arts college. He took a whole lot of extra courses in all sorts of interesting areas. He delved into non-music extracurricular activities that he had never tried before. He has had a blast, learned a lot, and will graduate in 4 years. No regrets.</p>