momrath, thank you for the explanation.
Your son double major sounds really cool. Is art studio same as fine arts major?
It seems that interdisciplinary programs and double majors requires to do 1+ yr or semester.
@twoinanddone, nice info about BFA. Your daughter did a BFA and then went to graduate school for education?
Reading all the answers, I am thinking more about the time commitment for two majors and how much time is left for other activities - p/t job, volunteering, entertainment, clubs, study abroad ?
She is minoring in both Spanish and Psychology.
My son is a freshman and intends to double major in Computer Science and History.
So both of your kids are doing double majors. Is your son at SMU too?
Yes, both at SMU. Good place for merit aid. Strong arts program.
Over 60% out of state students, smallish classes and good place to explore interests. Daughter went to Rome/Paris this summer for study abroad. She’s also a sorority house manager, Peruna (mascot) handler and Young Life leader.
Fine arts represents a somewhat broader term than studio art. That is, fine arts include studio (visual) art, but may include music, for example, as well.
At schools with especially flexible curricula — such as Brown, Smith, Amherst, Hamilton, Grinnell — your child would encounter few scheduling challenges to graduating in four years with a double major. Even many colleges with less flexible curricula would allow for a timely graduation.
I brought up interdisciplinary programs earlier partly because of your inclusion of technology. For example, art plus technology tends to describe the interdisciplinary program digital arts.
I would consider it the same, although “fine arts” is used less these days. Most commonly, an art departments within the oversight of a liberal arts college --either a small LAC or a college within a larger university – is simply called the Art Department, or Art Studio or Visual Arts Department.
Art Departments that are separate schools or colleges within a larger university are usually named for the varieties of art that they house, such as Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning or WUSTL’S Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.
Again, it depends. At Williams, and I would think at many other LACs, completing a double major can be easily accomplished within 4 years without sacrificing other interests and activities.
Williams does have distribution requirements, but even so, covering both the distro requirements and the major requirements isn’t particularly stressful. If a student’s double major is in art and science, for example, s/he will automatically fulfill the distro requirements in the art/humanities and math/science categories which just leaves 2 or 3 courses in the social studies category.
This quote is from Williams’ Geosciences webpage, but I think it could be applied to any double major combination (and to many other liberal arts colleges).
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It wouldn’t hurt to carefully consider the question as to whether you need to double major at all. A major designation is really just for employment purposes. Anyway you have time until end of Sophomore year which direction you intend to go. If you are double majoring, you are extending that flexibility another 2 years. Not really that much flexibility because you need to start lining up internships etc in one field or other other. You can’t do them in both.
No, she started in the theater dept (BFA). BFA required 65 credits in theater and dance dept, the Arts and Sciences dept also had some core requirements, and the university had a few requirements (writing, communications and the very fun -NOT- history of Wyo which every college student in wyoming has to take). That would have left her with about 15-20 ‘free’ credits. They started a new major in art history, which was her first love, so she switched, but that had too many basic art classes required and it would have taken her an extra year (the university also changed core requirements when she was a sophomore, so that complicated things too). So she switched to just plain history with a certificate in museum studies. Now she’s getting an MA in history, with her thesis being art history related (something to do with Tibetan art and how it is presented in Western museums).
It would have been very hard to have any minor or concentration outside the theater and dance department while getting a BFA. Couldn’t do the requirements for dept of education. Even a double major in another department within the College of Arts and sciences was hard as another major would take ~45 credits. If someone had a lot of AP credits that met the core requirements, it might have been possible, but would have been a tight squeeze.
In my past, a college classmate thought she was double majoring in recreation (a BS) and history (a BA). When she applied for graduation, she was shocked to learn (of course over a weekend, a very long weekend) that would take 150 credits, not 124, and that she’d also have to complete the pre-reqs for both colleges, including a foreign language for the BA. Our school didn’t have minors at that time, so she just dropped the history major and took the BS.
I was just pointing out to investigate the major requirements, the college requirements (BS v BA) and the university requirements for getting multiple majors or degrees.
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There is a difference between Double Majoring and getting Dual Degrees. The first is usually two majors within one college. You get one degree with 2 majors. Dual Degrees are two degrees from 2 different colleges within the university. It’s much more challenging as you often have two different set of requirements. If the university has a Fine Arts department get a BFA is much more time consuming than getting a BA in the same degree. My D was a BA Dance major as she needed the hours and time to complete the prerequisites for applying to DPT programs. It would have required an extra year if she had attempted to complete a BFA. She had 39 credits going into college. They helped but not enough to allow her to pursue a BFA without extending her undergrad education. She still had a 3 three year doctoral program to get through so that was never considered.
You could consider the University of Rochester. Their more open curriculum makes it relatively easy for students to get a second major and they are excellent in the sciences. I googled to be sure they had Studio Art (they do), but I don’t know if they are excellent at it.
Many students double major at this school and they love students with more than one focus admissions-wise.
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@lvvcsf, its great to know that when colleges have a fine arts department is takes longer to do a BFA. Good details to consider.
It seems you daughter is continuing with doctoral program without gaps ( from undergrad to doctorate). When she’s done what would be her field(s) ?
@twoinanddone, your daughter’s MA in history sounds really good. I’m guessing her target is to work in museums, galleries, and related?
@neela1, you made really good points about internships.
I think it would be a matter of finding internships that required interdisciplinary background from quite different fields.
@momrath, thanks for the explanation : )
Fulfilling requirements within the desired majors is feasible and doesn’t require extra semesters. Nice quote from Williams.
I think knowing exactly what the colleges demand for double majoring and number of credits for each major, etc., is really important to minimized the changes to do more semesters.
@merc81, thanks for the heads up about flexible curricula. It makes a lot of sense when double majoring. Technology and arts makes a good mix for interdisciplinary programs. I didn’t think about it before.
I’ve been getting good suggestion about colleges. I’ve been looking into them.
Each one has its very unique approach.
I appreciate reading about your S or D experiences with double majors. It gives me the heads up about what to look for. t’s energizing to know how about your kids studies and different approaches.
Physical Therapy. It requires a doctorate now.
I’m not sure there is a goal, path, target…She’s a ‘live for today’ kind of kid. Her boyfriend is in the army and he’d like her to move from army base to army base with no goals in life. I’m hoping she finds a job she loves and doesn’t just become an army wife.
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Check out MIT’s Art Culture and Technology concentration. I believe Brown has something similar. My daughter searched high and low for similar programs at schools with higher acceptance rates. We concluded, as others commented here, that it’s very difficult to pursue an academic subject and studio art in a 4-year BA program. Also check out Tufts’ 5 year BA/BFA with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
@twoinanddone, I hear you. Good luck to your daughter.
@jmjmm, yes double major in the Arts and an academic subject is time consuming. A 4 year may or may not be enough. Tufts sounds good.
@lvvcsf, pretty interesting -now PT requires a doctorate.
I’ll be on hold a little bit since my kid is thinking more in detail about the specifics of fields, double major, or interdisciplinary. Everything is changing day by day feels like. And, it’s ok.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences, knowledge, and giving me suggestions about colleges.
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