<p>I'm considering double majoring in Psychology and Music Performance; is this a good idea? Can I have so pros and cons about this decision and maybe some estimations about what my cost would be? Any input at all would actually help. :)</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Pro: You get to study two different disciplines that you love! (As I’ve read, it can be hard to do music, music, and only music in college sometimes, especially at a conservatory).</p>
<p>Cons: It can be very hard to balance the two majors and will almost undoubtedly take 5 years to complete. Also, I don’t see any way to take part in athletics if that’s also your thing, since that is hard enough with just a music major.</p>
<p>Also, you should probably look into doing a double degree rather than a double major.</p>
<p>If you want to do Music Performance, that is a BM program, where Psychology is a BA or BS…so you would have to do a DOUBLE DEGREE, not double major, to get that. If you only want to DOUBLE MAJOR, then you have to do music under a BA or BS program, which in that case, the music major becomes more general, less requirements than a BM, and it is technically not a performance major.</p>
<p>I’m doing a double degree: BM- Piano Performance & BA- History. I’m planning on 5 years.</p>
<p>If you do double degree, it will likely take 5 years, and still be taking more credits than average. If you have more specific questions on double degree, let me know!!!</p>
<p>Psychology majors have the highest unemployment rate of any college graduate (actually higher than non-college graduates). I believe it is something like 30% unemployment, and few of those who do have jobs have jobs in the psychology field.</p>
<p>The thing with psychology is that a four year degree in psychology doesn’t make you a psychologyst. It really only qualifies you to go to grad school and even PhD’s in psychology have a high unemployment rate.</p>
<p>Maybe you could just take a few classes in psyc if you are intersted in it, or minor in it (if your school allows minors), but I seriously doubt that majoring in it is going to advance your career any. My son loved his Psyc 101 class and plans on taking another Psyc class as his other “humanaties” elective.</p>
<p>As far as double majors in general, the way I look at it is that the extra time and effort might be better spent in grad school.</p>
<p>As others have said, it would be a dual degree program, not a dual major if you are doing performance, and it is difficult to do it. Somewhere out there there is this idea that doing music performance is ‘easier’ then academic studies among some people (High School guidance counselors are absolutely the worst at this IME) and that therefore if you are doing a performance degree you will have bandwidth to do an academic degree as well. With music performance, a student besides all the practicing and ensemble work also has to do pretty intense training in music theory and ear training as well, and they are not that easy for many people. (Note, I am not saying the OP or anyone was implying music performance was easy).</p>
<p>One question for the OP, why are you thinking of studying psychology? If you are thinking of going into therapy or counselling as a profession there is another path, you could do it with a degree in social work, a lot of counselors and therapists are LCSW or MSW level, and from the therapists I know many of them said they found it more enjoyable to study social work rather then psychology…just thought I would throw that out there. Not saying it is an easy path, there are a lot of requirements to become a licensed therapist/counselor and it can be a hard field to establish yourself in in any event…</p>
<p>Georgetown University recently released a study detailing unemployment rates by various majors <a href=“http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.pdf[/url]”>http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.pdf</a>. There’s lots of data, but a recent psych graduate is looking at a potential 7.6% unemployment rate (still below the standard), arts 11.1%, architecture 13.3%. </p>
<p>To the OP:
<ol>
<li><p>imagep is correct that you would need additional credentials to work as a psychologist, but a psych degree does provide a good foundation for a variety of related careers</p></li>
<li><p>Is one of those fields a primary interest for you? Maybe a major/minor combo might work out better.</p></li>
<li><p>Double majoring should not affect cost (universities do not charge by the major) unless you end up taking additional semesters, which would add up in both tuition and room-and-board charges.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>Actually, some schools do have a credit hour threshold above which a tuition surcharge (sometimes a pretty stiff one) applies. If your double major requires taking more than the usual number of classes in a given semester, it could add to the tuition cost. At Oberlin College, for example, the fee is $820 per credit hour above 16 in a semester. Not all schools do this and sometimes there are ways to get the fee waived at the ones that do, but it is something to be aware of.</p>
<p>^Yep, that depends on the school. Here, normally, students take 4 course units (16 semester hours), but they’re allowed up to 4.5 units (18 hours) I believe, before being charged extra. For MUSIC major, we’re allowed up to 4.75 under the BA program and 5.5 under a BM program. I’m taking the 5.5, or 22 semester hours, and I don’t get charged extra for that, which is awesome! The only thing is that extra lessons, rather than regular classes, are charged as extra, so I have to pay for my organ lessons, but that’s only about $375 a semester, which isn’t bad. Tuition per 1 semester hour would be around $1137 here, if you divide out the total tuition by the average number of credit hours (16), so a full 4-semeser hour class (1 course unit) would be an extra $4549!!! I’m glad they don’t charge that. </p>
<p>OP, if you do decide to do double degree, I would highly recommend checking into schools that operate that way like mine, so that you don’t get charged as much extra. That was one thing I liked better here than any other school I applied to, because they all would have charged me per extra credit hour (and although all the others’ tuition bills were cheaper to begin with and the school I’m at had the most expensive sticker price and most expensive what it would be per credit hour of all those I applied to, adding in all those extras wouldn’t have made it cheaper in the end for me at those other schools I don’t think).</p>
<p>Good point. My kids’ schools simply do not allow registration over a certain limit, so I had forgotten that.</p>