<p>Is anyone here currently doing a double major in music and a non-arts subject? I'm thinking about doing this so I can still study music, but also get a degree more relevant to a career. Yeah, I could do a music minor, but that'll probably be my backup plan if double majoring doesn't work out. </p>
<p>So - experiences? Thoughts? Is a double major with music even possible?</p>
<p>I think that many music majors are doing a major that is relevant to a career. Not the best way to phrase your request.</p>
<p>My bad - I meant a music major isn’t relevant specifically for me, as I’m not planning on a career in music.</p>
<p>You’re definitely in the wrong place to use the phrase, “Getting a degree more relevant to a career”, Buranri! The kids enrolled as performance or music ed majors on here ARE going for a career in music and that is VERY relevant to them.It’s all in how you say things…
Now that that is out of the way, I assume that you enjoy music and would like to continue taking lessons on whatever instrument you play while in college? To do that, you don’t have to double major or even minor in music since many schools will allow you to take lessons from either their music faculty or grad students within the music department.There will be an extra charge but far less than it would be for a degree track.</p>
<p>There are various ways to do music after high school. You can do a BA in music, a BA with double major in music and something else, a BA in something else and minor in music, a BA in something else with extracurricular music and/or private lessons, a BM in music (not much room for anything else in a 4 year BM), or a double degree, which is usually 5 years, and involves a BA (in music, or at some schools, something else) and a BM, or a BA and MM. A BM (Bachelor of Music) degree is usually offered at a conservatory, or at a music school within a university.</p>
<p>Read this about degree dilemmas in music: [Peabody</a> Institute - Conservatory Admissions: The Double Degree Dilemma](<a href=“http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/doubledegree]Peabody”>http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/doubledegree)</p>
<p>Please understand that despite many external pressures, undergraduate education really does not have to be vocational. A student with a BA or BM in music has a bachelor’s like anyone else who finishes, and is eligible for a wide variety of jobs, and for graduate or professional schools (medicine, law, business, nursing, PA etc.). There are non-performance jobs in the field of music (doing marketing or fundraising for an orchestra, working for an agency, teaching, others) but also the discipline and hard work of music students are respected everywhere. And, as I said, you would have access to other types of jobs and training too.</p>
<p>Some of us still feel, or try to persist in feeling, that the undergraduate years should be for exploration and for following what you love, or what you find that you love, including interests discovered while in college. The market pressures, heavy loans, and recent recession have all made it tough to go to (and pay for) school without a career focus, and yet, often, studying what you love, whether music or something else, also leads to a better long term outcome.</p>
<p>Forgive me if none of this applies to you. If you want to do music along with a more intense focus on something else that is more career-oriented in your eyes, you can do a BA, as I said, and do music as part of a double major, as a minor, as an extracurricular, or as an informal hobby. I hope you can continue with it in some way if you love it!</p>
<p>Curious as to why you would choose to be a music major if that was not the direction you wanted to go, career-wise. A music degree can be VERY hour intesive. At my D’s school, it’s one of the few majors in which you are not REQUIRED to have a minor because of the time and effort involved.</p>
<p>doule major is safe.</p>
<p>In my imagination I posted a response to this but it has disappeared into the ether.</p>
<p>While not for the faint-of-heart, <em>some</em> students at my son’s SOM (University of Michigan) do what’s called a DUAL DEGREE, which takes about 5 years (so extra money) and a lot of 18-20 credit semesters.
Examples of pairings: performance with Electrical Eng. degree (very possible to work in a variety of hybrid fields).</p>
<p>Umich also has a type of SOM (school of music) degree called bachelor of musical arts which is designed to allow students to pursue a cognate major in the normal track of time. However, it will not necessarily be as music-intensive as the straight up BMUS performance degree – but will likely have more “conservatory” style classes than an average BA in music delivered by LSA instead of the SOM.</p>
<p>So depending on your commitment level, academic achievement and capability, you do have many options before you. If you can afford it and manage the time, and are one of those multi-faceted talent types, there is nothing wrong with pursuing a dual degree.</p>
<p>That said, my son is multi-faceted and talented, both academically and musically, and WAS a dual degree student who decided in sophomore year he would enjoy his university experience more fully by focusing on his music degree (but it is a specific sequence degree that involves multiple disciplines to begin with, including film sound, engineering and composition). So in his case, he did not continue the second degree, and as a result will graduate this year. He will, however, consider graduate MFA program in second area of passion (filmmaking) after some time in the work world.</p>
<p>Enjoy the options available to you - you will never have a better time to develop your musicianship than right now. The skills you learn in a high level music program are highly transferable! And do realize that undergraduate degrees generally aren’t considered by employers to be “professional” degrees – with a few EXCEPTIONS such as engineering, and ironically, MUSIC.</p>
<p>I think it is fine to major in music with out set career goals in music, at least for some. My daughter wasn’t really thinking about career when she went into music for a BA. Of course, after immersing themselves in music for 4-5 years, many students do in fact end up working in music in one way or the other. But, again, an undergrad degree really doesn’t have to be career-oriented, even in this day and age, when the degree itself demonstrates perseverance, discipline and ability. And there are many ways to continue music in one’s life.</p>
<p>I hope that the original poster understands that his question is very reasonable and one that many young people have, and that he is very welcome to ask it here and come back for more answers anytime. We will try to help as best we can.</p>
<p>I meant no disrespect by my question - I really was wondering things like - “What IS your career of choice, or do you know yet?” “If you love music, which obviously you do, how do you see that fitting into your life later (major part/minor part)”, and 100 other questions.</p>
<p>I guess for us, money is very tight. I can’t imagine my D majoring in music unless that was her intended career choice. I’m seeing a lot of grads come out of college looking for high paying jobs outside of their degree choice and being disappointed in the prospects. I think a double major is a GREAT idea and well worth it, if you’re up to the rigors.</p>
<p>Cromette - not sure if you were talking to me, but no problem. Here’s kind of where I’m coming from.</p>
<p>I’d really like to continue playing a lot of music for at least a few more years. After I graduate, I’d very much like to continue playing music. However, I don’t really see myself in a music career, 100% due to financial reasons. I grew up with my dad working for the government and Boeing as a programmer, so pretty comfortably. While obviously there are exceptions, I don’t think I could find a job that would give the same benefits as another field might. </p>
<p>My plan is to start off as a music major, and as compmom said, explore what else I want to do. The ideal situation would be I find something that sparks my interest, and I end up double majoring in that. In a perfect world, it would be a career that I could work music into, but I’m not sure how many of those there are.</p>
<p>So from what I’m getting, a double major is challenging, but also doable. </p>
<p>Oh, in response to suggesting I take lessons - That’s certainly an option. On the other hand, though, I like to play a wide variety of percussion, so I’d like to do as much of that as possible. I mean currently I’m involved in corps, marching band, indoor percussion, wind ensemble, jazz band, and learning some solos, plus doing a percussion ensemble (concert percussion) in the winter. I also want to learn more theory and composition, as I love writing in spite of having no training in it. I think a music major would let me do as many different types of music as I can, more so than just lessons.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Thank you, Bartokrules!</p>
<p>It sounds like a double degree BA/BM might work for you (check out Bard, Oberlin, Lawrence, for starters). Or a double major BA with a lot of extracurricular music (and lessons, which could be in the curriculum or could be supplementary).</p>
<p>In most schools, an academic BA music major will not include a lot of performance for your percussion, but will include theory, history and composition, so you might need to do percussion performance outside of your course work. There are BA programs with some performance, though, that some others on here could tell you about.</p>
<p>Good luck. It’s great that you are open to exploring. And who knows, maybe you will also end up doing music afterall.</p>
<p>I do know that CU-Boulder (my top choice) has a 5-year double major program, so I think I could go through that.</p>
<p>Buranri: I wonder if UC_Boulder offers a double degree program too? (I see that they offer a double major [Degrees</a> | CU-Boulder College of Music | CU-Boulder](<a href=“http://music.colorado.edu/apply/undergraduate/degrees/#BA]Degrees”>http://music.colorado.edu/apply/undergraduate/degrees/#BA)). Also, if you were to apply for the BA program, but then found you loved studying music, is there a possibility you could switch to the BM program there? Not saying that would happen, but at, say Oberlin, there can be a “low wall” between the BM and BA programs and students sometimes switch (in both directions). Or maybe you will find something else you love and be able to spend 5 years doing two things you love: music and !!!</p>
<p>Some of us have been surprised that our kids who love music, have also found something else they love, unexpectedly, once on campus. This does not mean they give up music and the other subjects can enrich the music. One student might discover art history, another classics, another a love for computer science.</p>
<p>It looks as if BA applicants also audition. Is that true? Deadline for the application to CU and Music School are January 15th, it looks like, so you have more time than many other music applicants.</p>
<p>Looks great. If that is your top choice, go for it! Good luck!</p>
<p>Buranri,</p>
<p>“However, I don’t really see myself in a music career, 100% due to financial reasons. I grew up with my dad working for the government and Boeing as a programmer, so pretty comfortably. While obviously there are exceptions, I don’t think I could find a job that would give the same benefits as another field might.”</p>
<p>;) I sympathize with you. I wanted to be an ARTIST or a PERCUSSIONIST - my mom said DRAFTSMAN. I’ve been in the Engineering industry for over 25 years now. I still love music and art - so I feel ya!</p>
<p>“So from what I’m getting, a double major is challenging, but also doable.”</p>
<p>YES, obviously your core curriculum will probably be the same/similar. I don’t know what dual or AP classes you already have - but you might look at those when determining what other major to pick. A double major might take longer, but in your case, it might be worth it, especially if Dad is willing to support your efforts. Any interest in computer science or electronics?</p>
<p>I tend to agree with Compmom. A BA in music is pretty much as valuable as any other BA. There are rarely any direct employment tracts for any student with a BA that doesn’t require additional education, but there are also many employers that prefer to hire people who have at a bachelors degree - regardless of the major. </p>
<p>At one of my first interviews out of college I was told that the company only interviewed people (for the position I was applying at) who had 4 year degrees, but that it didn’t take any particular special education to be successful at the job.</p>
<p>A BA in music is going to be as valuable in the workplace as a BA in anything else, so if ones interest is in music, it only makes sense to major in a subject that one is interested in. Why major in psychology or literature when one isn’t really that interested in psychology or literature and when those majors are no more employable than a music major?</p>
<p>So why am I only talking about BA degrees and not BM/BS/BFA degrees? Because BM/BS/BFA degrees are considered professional degrees which directly lead to a job in the major field. If someone isn’t looking for a career in music, it’s probably not worth the extra effort and the major-intense curriculum of a BM unless one is expecting a job in the music field. </p>
<p>The BA allows for a wider variety in the curriculum, and thus a wider variety of knowledge and potential job skills for the employee and employer and potentially for grad school admissions - into whatever field the student may fancy at the time. One of the colleges that my son applied at didn’t encourage BM students to double major and didn’t allow them to have a minor, however they did encourage music students to get a BA in music with a second major in a different field. And at most colleges, the BA curriculum allows for either a minor, or a concentration in a subfield of the major. </p>
<p>The BA in music (or any other field) is simply a broader education, and thus is more suitable for the student who isn’t necessarally looking for a career in music (or any other field in particular). In the vast majority of cases, a student with a BA in music will be more likely to have completed more (or all) of the or most of the prerequists for grad school outside of music - such as Law School, Med school, or most any other field. A BA/music student with a minor in education would be an candidate to enroll in a MAT program. A BA/music student with a minor in business would be an excellent candidate to enroll in a MBA program. A BA/music student with a minor in chemistry or biology would be an excellent candidate for med school. A BA/music student with a minor in government, political science, history, English, etc would be an excellent candidate for to go to law school. A BA/music with a minor in computer science or math would be an excellent candidate to get a masters in computer science. A BA/music with a minor in psychology would be an excellent candidate to get an advanced degree in music therapy. Etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>And a BA/music student is equally as likely to get an entry level management job at virtually any company as a BA student in any other field, or a BS student in any field other than business.</p>
<p>Though my D got her BM and then her MM, she has MANY younger vocalist friends currently pursuing a successful professional music career who received their BA rather than a BM. Perhaps not all BA programs are the same and perhaps VP is different. But I read this all the time on CC and I think it’s a huge mistake to lump all BM/BA programs together.</p>
<p>actullBurani</p>
<p>If you choose a school with little to no distribution requirements such as Vassar, Hamilton, or Amherst, it is much easier to double major in music and another field in four years. You need to hear the musical groups at the schools to see if the level and ‘attitude’ are what you are looking for. We just attended the Vassar orchestra concert last night and they prepared a difficult concert and played it well. The concert hall was nearly full with students, friends, faculty, relatives, and many community people. Lots of good will and ‘cheering’ and excellent music there.</p>
<p>I have heard the Hamilton college orchestra rehearse and they are excellent also.</p>
<p>Also, I did a double degree (BA chemistry, BMusic - performance) many years ago. It took 4.5 years and 3 summers but it was worth it.</p>