<p>Hi music majors. =) I want to go into journalism but being in pep, marching, and concert band I definitely come in peace...</p>
<p>I was just wondering- if I applied to the equivalent of a school's college of letters/science, could I still double major in music? I know that music majors would have to apply to the music school (duh) but just wondering. I'm not totally familiar with the whole practice. Two examples of this might be Northwestern and Wisconsin-Madison? Any explanation would rock.</p>
<p>This will be very school specific. For example where I teach it would not e a double major, but a dual degree… BM in Music and a BA in Journalism. These programs take at least five years to complete. A student would most likely apply to the BM program, and if accepted THEN apply to the School of Media Arts and Design (SMAD) for Journalism. There is a Gateway class that students take here, and a portfolio to be admitted to the SMAD program. </p>
<p>There are other schools that offer a dual degree that would most likely require you to apply to both programs at once… Other schools where both would be BA degrees, that may be a little more straightforward. </p>
<p>I would suggest contacting each other programs at the schools in which you are interested to find out what you need to do. DO NOT only contact the admissions office. Make sure to contact the programs directly as well.</p>
<p>If what you are interested in is pep, marching, and concert band you may not need to be a music major. In many schools you can participate in those and not be a music major.</p>
<p>There are other schools where you could take a dual degree on one of two ways:
*A) applying to the conservatory to get a BM in music and then getting your BA degree from the university associated with music school. To do that, you would have to go through the conservatory audition process, which means that you would have to play your instrument at a very high level and would have to go through all that is expected of a performance major ( orchestra and other ensemble rehearsals and performance plus hours of practice) and still do all that you have to do for your BA degree in journalism.
B) find a school which has a credible music program AND a good school of journalism and do a dual degree. For the BA in Music, you might still have to audition and would have performance requirements,etc, but they wouldn’t be as rigorous as those for a BM in Music, and you would have more time to devote to your other degree.
Kat’s advice is good, look beyond the admissions offices. Also, if you would choose to proceed with what I labled “A”, you would have to begin by talking to the concervatory admin office since you would have to be admitted there first.
Not meaning to cast any aspersions on your choice of majors, but NPR just broadcast a program today which focused on the shrinking employment pool for journalism majors as news is being delivered in “instant” formats such as the internet while newspapers and news magazines are becoming things of the past. I’m sure you’ve thought through things carefully, but if you do a search on NPR’s web site, you might want to check out the transcript of the program.
Good luck to you!</p>
<p>I have one concern regarding this and the other as applying as a music major.
To you, I would be afraid that many of the resources (practice rooms, lessons, advanced music classes, advanced ensembles, etc.) would not be able to me as a non-major.</p>
<p>Re: everyone else, I feel like applying as a BM first and then a BA would be telling the university my primary concern is music, where in reality journalism is my preprofessional concern.</p>
<p>From your posts and what your goals seem to to be, I don’t think you need to worry much about this at this point. </p>
<p>Just make sure that whatever schools you apply to for journalism study/BA also have a music major/BA. This is true of most schools. In fact, I think a lot of schools would be more likely to have a music major than a journalism major.</p>
<p>Once you are at college, you can take courses in journalism and music (as well as any distribution requirements). Over time, it will become clear whether you want to do a double major, a major in journalism with minor in music, do a journalism major and just take some music classes, or do a journalism major and just play in bands/ensembles.</p>
<p>When you visit or call schools, you can address the issue of non-majors getting lessons, opportunities to play, access to advanced classes, and so on. In our experience, these are not big issues and a huge percentage of non-majors at many schools do participate in musical activities and classes.</p>
<p>If you do end up wanting a BM, as opposed to a BA major or minor or whatever, then having a double degree BM/BA is available at certain schools (Tufts, Oberlin and Bard immediately come to mind) in a 5 year combined program.</p>
<p>So I guess, at this point, your main decision is whether you want a BM, and it sounds like you don’t.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of info in past threads in addition to the sound advice you’ve gotten so far.</p>
<p>A good amount of double degree/dual discipline specific info has been rehashed.</p>
<p>There are stand alone threads and “buried info” posts detailing the generalities of BA/BM/BFA degree designations, and the caveats and nuances dealing with specific schools.</p>
<p>Realize also that what you seek will very well be school and program specific. The BM is almost always an audition based or audition driven applications process.</p>