<p>Hi there,</p>
<p>I'm currently a junior in high school and I've been looking into a ton of engineering schools like Carnegie Mellon (my sister went there), UC Berkeley, UVA, etc. However I'm quite passionate about going into Electrical and Computer Engineering AND dancing in college. I currently dance on average about 15 hours a week and my training is pretty decent so I'd prefer a semi serious dance program. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for a college that is strong in both?</p>
<p>Hi - I’m also a junior and in a similar situation. I want to major in engineering and minor in music (piano). A few weeks ago I toured the University of Southern California. Everyone I talked to put a big emphasis on inter-disciplinary study - it seems common there, and encouraged, to double major or major/minor. During the admissions presentation, the admissions officer literally said (with no prompt from me or my parents) “Suppose you want to major in engineering, and minor in music. That’s supported at USC”!
I don’t know the reputation of USC’s dance program, but they’re opening up a brand new dance school this fall - the construction looked impressive. The school of music, however, is the best on the west coast - especially for piano. :)</p>
<p>You can not do both at CMU? Northwestern came to mind. Also UMich and Case Western. You have to look to see how easy it is to double major, though.</p>
<p>What type of dance? Most schools have different strengths.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that you could double-major at CMU. You should contact somebody in admissions there. I’m sure that their Dance department is superb, though, since they have what is probably the most prestigious Musical Theater program in the country. </p>
<p>I thought about minoring in piano as an engineering major. A wise person told me to wait one semester before going that route. It took me about two weeks to realize it wasn’t a practical idea for me! Engineering is hard!</p>
<p>If you visit CMU go visit Pitt. They offer a dance minor. </p>
<p>Look at Smith College.</p>
<p>Take a look at Duke, Drexel, Bucknell, Boston University, and University of Rochester.</p>
<p>
Not really going to be compatible with an engineering degree. Talk to any current engineering student and ask how much free time they have. That’s the time you’re hoping to pour into dance, and not just a few hours here or there (the way free time shows up) but so that you can attend rehearsals and the like.</p>
<p>But look around. I’m sure you can find schools that will let you attempt this. Whether you’ll make it much past a semester or two is a different animal.</p>
<p>My olderst D is an a ChemE at Purdue. She played viola in several orchestras in HS and probably put in about that much time per week with her instrument in HS. Like you she wanted to continue playing her instrument in college. Purdue does not have a music major or minor but it did have two orchestras (a philharmonic and a symphony) she auditioned for she chose the lesser of the two because it her schedule would not allow her to be in the more advanced orchestra. She puts far less time into her orchestra than she did into her HS orchestras, however, she does have the opportunity to continue to play and keep up her skill and maintain a very good GPA in what is considered a rigorous engineering program. Purdue does have a dance minor that only requires 15 hours to complete. If you have space available because of credits from AP classes you could fit it in. </p>
<p>Engineers have to take more hours than normal undergrads plus the courses can be incredibly hard. Knowing the number of hours it takes to be proficient at dance and the number of hours you have to put into becoming an engineering if you want a good GPA, I think the two are incompatible for all but the most brilliant people. It might be possible if you were will to go longer than four years and could afford that, but that’s a luxury most of us don’t have.</p>
<p>These majors/minors are from two different colleges, and you might have to meet the requirements for both colleges to get a degree from each. If dance is in Arts and Sciences, you might have to have a foreign language, several humanities courses, writing courses, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter is in engineering and I don’t think she gets an elective choice until junior year! She’ll take the 2 English course and the humanities course that are required, and little else but math, science and engineering courses. A classmate of mine was an engineer a million years ago, and she decided at the outset that she would take 5 years to finish because she wanted to take piano, English and other classes in Arts and Sciences. I don’t think she got another degree and our school didn’t offer minors, but she just took the classes she was interested in and had a great experience. Her parents agreed to the plan, but of course college was a lot cheaper then.</p>