Hello everybody, I am currently a freshman in high school and I have very high hopes for my future. My dream is to double major in music and maybe engineering through the dual program provided by Harvard and the New England Conservatory. I am ranked in the top 50 clarinet players in Texas and have achieved many accolades through competitions and have played along side orchestras. I am planning to do many different national competitions which I believe I will be successful in. However in academics I am pretty smart with straight A’s but i am only in the top 15% in my class. My school is very difficult and full of people who are academically ridiculously smart. The top 50 students all have GPA’s of 4.3 or higher. The max GPA i can get is a 4.36 and I sit at a 4.2. All the exams and classes are hard. My school is the hardest there is in our district. Therefore i am worried if I will every be accepted into Harvard and NEC. I need advice to fulfill my dream. Thanks for the help
My advice is to change your dream. As a freshman you should dream that you do as well as you can academically, that you continue to grow musically, that you find friends, that you get involved in things that matter to you and that you enjoy your HS years. When the time comes, study for standardized tests and do as well as you can. Then, during junior year see what goals are realistic.
Harvard/NEC is not a double major program. It is a BA from Harvard, and then an MM from NEC. It is structured very differently than a double degree undergrad program, where you study music to the same extent as if you were pursuing a BM degree as well as a BA/BS degree in another subject. If you want a double degree with engineering, there are better options, such as Northwestern, Michigan and possibly Vanderbilt. Engineering and music are two of the hardest simultaneous degrees to pursue because of conflicts with labs and rehearsals/performances.
You’ve got years still to think about what path to take - there are many many different ways you can achieve your goals. First recommendation is to read this invaluable article: http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory/admissions/tips/doubledegree.html
I think my goals are pretty realistic and i don’t think that changing my dream is necessary. I focus hard on tests and quizzes and study hard. In fact I’ve already been notified by Indiana Jacobs school of Music that I have a future ahead of me. Why should i change something Ive been living up to do my entire life?
@Russell1357 - I’m not inferring you have no chance to get into Harvard (although that’s an unusual choice for engineering.) But you might actually be happier elsewhere. Such as at MIT, for instance, which has a great music dept. Or at colleges which fully support double degrees like Oberlin, Bard and Lawrence.
All I’m saying is there are many many many ways to continue serious study of music after high school. My own son got a double degree, so I know quite a bit about that. Another friend of his went to Princeton and got a degree in French and is now getting her MM in Violin. Another one I know went to Vassar and is now in a Young Artists Program as a singer. And I know a number of kids who went to Tufts/NEC and got double degrees and then went on to graduate study in music. I know kids who went to Yale for a BA and then on to Juilliard. And I know some at Harvard who are currently in the Harvard/NEC program - although I don’t know if they’ll actually finish it. For one thing, when it comes time to go to grad school it’s nice to get to choose a school and a teacher from the perspective of a senior in college, rather than a senior in high school. It’s also nice to be able to stay at your undergrad college for senior year, rather than having to leave early for a Masters. Things change! People change! You’re going to change!
@SpiritManager Thank you for the nice post. My post was actually a reply to the other person who commented. But for now I do not know if I will do engineering at all. I just have it in mind but i do know for a fact that I will try to major in music. The thing is, even though i enjoy music, I want to have a job that is related to something else that I may find an interest in later. My parents are both musicians and have been successful, but I would like to take on a different path for work. I would love to continue music alongside my other proffesion. All my parents students have gotten into Harvard, Juilliard, Eastman, Stanford, Rice, Northwestern and so many more schools. So i see that i might have a good chance in the future.
I kind of agree that your dream shouldn’t be to go to Harvard and NEC, but for a different reason. It kind of sounds like your ACTUAL dream is to stay involved in music throughout your life, and keep doing alongside some other career which you will identify later. That’s a great dream - and there are many different ways to fulfill that dream and great schools. Freshman and sophomore year should be focused on doing the best you can in HS and doing hobbies and activities; you can start making a list of places you would be happy in your junior year.
Also, if you are a freshman, it is impossible to gauge your chances at any school - so much can change in the next 2 years.
Unless one of your parents is the president of the US or they are in a position to donate several million dollars, a dream of Harvard acceptance isn’t really realistic for anyone (acceptance rate in the 6% range). You very likely do have a great future ahead of you, regardless of what school you attend for college. I agree with juillet that you need to focus on HS and your music and forget about selecting a college until after your sophomore year.
I think that wording is poor in post #7. If you have the grades and other attributes, getting into Harvard is realistic, it just isn’t probable, due to the intense competition. Those two are not the same thing. Someone with a 3,2 GPA and 1200/1600 SAT is being unrealistic by applying to Harvard, and getting in for them, short of some incredible connection, is improbable to the point of saying virtually impossible.
If your grades stay the same, @Russell1357, and you do very well on the SAT and in other aspects of your high school career, you will have many choices offered to you, possibly including the one you outline. The advice of @juillet and others is excellent. Just do your very best and you can then make the right choice for where you are personally at that time as compared to what is offered to you.
It is still pretty early, but now is a good time for exploration. A passion for music can help to make a STEM education more relevant and a STEM career more meaningful.
Music and Engineering are not mutually exclusive. Some schools offer minors or majors in Music Engineering. In some cases the minors can be taken along with any liberal arts major. I will say that a full engineering major and a conservatory-level music degree would be very challenging, but some schools have more inclusive programs that will allow you to take courses at their conservatory without being in the dual degree program.
There are many options on the spectrum between a pure engineering degree and a pure conservatory program.
http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/musicengineering/
http://as.tufts.edu/music/program/nec.htm
Music can also be an interesting introduction into Cognitive and Brain Science (which includes Computer Science). Here is a course that may be available through your library (try not to pay full price if you purchase it - because these courses seem to always go on sale) that would allow you to explore this area. Patel and a couple others have also written books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B74C6OfUzzo
There are even books on the physics of music that help make physics more interesting and enjoyable to people with a passion for music.
Tufts/NEC and U Rochester/Eastman are good options in the Northeast.
Best of luck