Any thoughts/experience on a potential major for a current Jr D who is straight-A (so far) in AP Math and Science with high PSAT score but has a passion for Photography and not Engineering? Thinking LAC schools. Or even career path that might bring both attributes together?
She’s too young to be thinking about this too much. You’re her dad and while you might guide her slightly, hands off is my advice once she gets to college. Usually kids start in one major and then change once they are exposed to several other options.
That being said, I feel strongly about LACs for undergraduate degrees–having attended both a top LAC and a top uni, the education at the LAC was better. You don’t have to compete with grad students for opportunities. You are taught by profs rather than grad students. You get individualized attention. There’s a sense of community that few large universities have (unless they have a college system, like Santa Cruz or Yale). Since she’s a high achiever, I would ask her to seriously look at some of the women’s colleges.
- They are some of the best LACs in the country -- and they are reserved for women.
- For many their FA is excellent.
- For many the campuses are gorgeous.
- Several are parts of consortia, meaning that she'd get the cozy support of a small college, and the one-on-one teaching of full professors, while also being exposed to other schools and universities. She can branch out once she's ready. For schools like this, she should look at Bryn Mawr (in a consortium with Haverford, Swarthmore, and UPenn), Smith, Mt. Holyoke (in a consortium with Amherst, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst) and Wellesley (has cross registration with MIT;) Barnard is part of Columbia University -- one of its undergraduate colleges. If you're looking further south, check out Agnes Scott, which has cross reg at Emory. Mills has cross reg with Berkeley and Scripps is part of a consortium with a range of top colleges (Pomona, Pitzer, Harvey mudd, etc)
- Women who attend women's colleges are more likely to major in a STEM field.
- Women who attend women's colleges are more likely to take on leadership roles in their future careers. They are disproportionately represented in all fields, such as politics, academia, business, etc.
- Women's colleges often allow men to stay the night in dorms and have men in their classes, as they are parts of consortia with co-ed schools.
Math and art are not mutually exclusive.
https://www.sciencealert.com/7-times-mathematics-became-art-and-blew-our-minds
Nor is CS or engineering and art. Think of aesthetically pleasing products that require engineering to design (e.g. Apple products).
Be aware that art is an elite or bust field to make a career in. Many with a passion for art do something else as a day job and art as an “extracurricular”.
Cross-registration agreements are not all equal.
Consider the following:
- Whether academic calendars and schedules are coordinated between the schools.
- How easy/difficult commuting between the schools is.
- Whether the "home" school restricts cross-registration.
- Whether the "other" school courses are difficult for cross-registration students to enroll in (because they are filled by its own students).
Yes, UCBALUMNUS, that was what motivated me to ask. I want to help guide her by providing information and let her decide and experience on her own but feel the Art direction can be hit or miss as you say. Maybe if studied within or along with another field (Media Studies? Marketing?, etc) the career opportunities increase? That’s where I lack knowledge. Hope that makes sense.
Completely agree that it is too soon to be even nudging. Asking really open questions (when it fits naturally) such as ‘do you like the lab work or classwork better?’- questions that might help her learn more about herself - is ok, but she will know immediately if you are asking leading questions.
The one practical thing is that in a ‘keep your options open friendly tip’ way, once she is looking at first year of college schedules, point out that STEM majors tend to have a lot of required courses that have to be done in sequence, so if there is even a 5% chance that she might choose a STEM major she should take the usual first year courses for it. If she decides not to do it, no harm done- she can use it for distribution requirements.
One of my collegekids is a STEM + Art kid. She went to an LAC, ended up majoring in the STEM, but doing a lot of the Art- and loved the balance between the sides of her brain and the students she got to know. Now in grad school for STEM, but taking a weekly grad art class as much-needed balance.
Allegheny is known for asking the students to choose one major and one minor, preferably from different seemingly unrelated disciplines. I have always enjoyed that idea. All disciplines inform each other.
What subjects does she like besides photography / art? You say that she has straight A grades in math and science – many may assume that she has some interest in the subject, but some people can earn A grades in subjects that they are not that interested in.
As the parent, be sure that you know your financial plan for contributing to her college costs. Run some net price calculators on various college web sites (including in-state public, less selective private, more selective private; expect little or no aid at out-of-state public, but some may have merit scholarships).
I disagree that art is an elite or bust field to make a career in. Most people who believe this see mainly art careers as paintings in art galleries. They neglect to view the vast amount of art that informs and supports other fields.
- scientific illustration
- Interior design
- architecture
- model making for various fields
- advertising.
- book design and illustration
- industrial design
- digital rendering for science
- digital redering for video games
- computer graphics for film industry
- computer graphics for other industries that need illustration
- animation -- in all of the above fields
- restoration -- of books, of buildings, of art, of you name it.
etc.
etc.
etc.
Not to mention law, medicine, dentistry and other graduate-level professions that use art and artistic ability and knowledge of art to produce product.
Re: #8
However, most of those will require at least some knowledge of relevant non-art fields (science, business / marketing, computer science, engineering, etc.), so they are not pure art career paths.