Looking for School with Engineering focused on Music Technology!

Hello everyone,

I just ended my Junior year of high school, and now’s the time to broaden my list of possible schools to apply to, and decide which to visit.

I’m most interested in Engineering and Music, and while I love music, which I play, record, and self-produce, I know that the financial circumstances in Engineering would be easier and better. So, my absolute dream would be to engineer products for the musical fields. I would love to be either a mechanical, design, or electrical engineer working with products that relate to music and sound, such as musical instruments, interfaces, sound systems, acoustics, etc.

I’ve been through 3 years of engineering classes and will take on more classes next year, and am currently interning at an engineering company, so I have pretty good experience on that side. On the music side, I’ve played guitar for the past 9 years, and have also taken up vocals, bass, drums, and a couple others lightly. Plus, I’ve been recording and producing myself somewhat-professionally for a couple years now. In school, I’ve been the guitarist for the Vocal Jazz program for the past 3 years also. Sorry if this comes off as bragging or whatever, my point is that I have experience on both the engineering and music sides of things. However, after taking music theory this year, I’ve decided that I really would rather not pursue a major that requires lots of music theory classes. Thus, I’m definitely leaning towards something that is more on the engineering side, but deals with musical equipment.

So far, I’ve come across a couple schools that seem to have interesting Music Technology programs. At the top of my list right now is UC Santa Barbara , with their Electronic Music and Sound Design program: “focuses on electronic music systems and techniques, composition, immersive sound design and spatialization, interfaces, hardware and software development, and digital audio engineering. It is intended for technically inclined musicians and highly motivated musical engineers. Courses include composition lessons, technical and aesthetic instruction, laboratory work, as well as directed research in musical and technical projects.” California Institute of the Arts also has cool program, but apparently the school is only about 950 students? Drexel seems to have something of a major in Music Technology that appeals. University of Michigan 's “Bachelor of Science in Sound Engineering (Curriculum D) is designed for those students who demonstrate abilities in both music and engineering and are interested in music technology, sound recording & production, electrical engineering, and audio equipment design. The engineering courses required for the degree also fulfill a Minor in Electrical Engineering through the College of Engineering.” and sounds very cool. University of Southern California seems to have a Music Technology program and degree in Music Production, but I’m not sure if that is through school of Engineering. Tufts also has a cool Music Engineering program that focuses on all the cool Engineering stuff related to music. It looks like Indiana University Purdue has a cool Engineering program with a Bachelor of Science in Music Technology which seems good. University of Miami also has a Music Engineering program. Did UT Austin discontinue their Recording Technologies program?

I don’t really have any strict requirements on what type of school it is, where it is, etc. Of course, I have preferences, but I’d like to see all the options with this type of major before excluding anything.

Does anyone know of any other schools that have what I’m looking for, especially in Engineering?

Thanks!
-Josh

I think Carnegie Mellon had a music tech program that you can do through their school of music, engineering, or computer science. I was looking at it at one point in time and it seemed cool.

Michigan’s PAT program, referenced in your post, is exactly what you’re looking for, I believe. It is extremely competitive for admission, but it seems to me you’d have a good shot. @kmcmom13 knows all about it as her son is a graduate of the program.

USC is pretty good in engineering, plus it’s music program is excellent. My daughter’s first bf transferred to the music program at USC and he has done well, I think if what I’ve seen in Facebook is correct, his music is incorporated into some movie or TV. I wouldn’t discount USC.

So it looks like the Carnegie Mellon program is very good, but it requires that you be admitted to the computer science or technology school AND music school. They allow you to either do Music Concentration or Technical Concentration, but I can’t tell if they require you to complete the entire Music Core (way too much theory for me!), or if you can choose the Music and Technology core instead, which looks very cool. Can someone tell me if they require everyone to take all the music theory classes? http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/mat/bachelor-curriculum.html

UMich seems to offer a Bachelor of Music in Music Technology, which is not what I am looking for, as it is much more performance and ensemble based than engineering. Even their Bachelor of Science in Sound Engineering seems very performance based, and less about engineering, (sound engineering is not actually engineering). Is there a program I’m missing here?

The USC program looks pretty cool, and doesn’t seem to require any ridiculous amount of music theory, but it concerns me a little that the only degree offered is a Bachelor of Music in Music Production which is not really what I’m looking for, doesn’t sound engineering-focused.

I’m not knocking these off the list or anything, I’m just looking for something that is more engineering based, and has a degree to match that. Anyone have more suggestions?

Thanks so much for all the help so far!

https://catalogue.usc.edu/schools/engineering/electrical/degree-requirements/
EE with a minor in Music.

Tufts has a music engineering program with a minor that can be combined with any engineering, computer science, or liberal arts degree. It is sponsored by Steinway.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=akgJSzh5mnY
http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2005/nime2005_136.pdf
http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/musicengineering/minor.html

University of Rochester has Audio and Music Engineering. http://www.ame.rochester.edu/major-minor/index.html