<p>My son is a junior in high school and is interested in majoring in Engineering (most likely Mechanical) and minoring in Music (he's a percussionist) in college. He also has a strong desire to participate in marching band as well. Any suggestions as to public colleges that fit the bill? We live in north Texas but he'd be wiling to go out of state. </p>
<p>Hard to say without any statistics. GPA? SAT/ACT? Obviously in Texas, UT Austin and Texas A&M are two great schools that could/should be a top choice. Texas Tech is always an option as well.</p>
<p>It is usually not easy due to all of the required Engineering courses and professional electives… (In MechE, had 2 only free electives.</p>
<p>Having said that, it seemed like Case in Cleveland said they had a lot of Engineering students doing music minor or double major. I think they also said marching band counts as PE credit 
Note - this info is from a campus visit 5 years ago. </p>
<p>It depends on your school. Music is the most common minor at Lehigh and their band has a great tradition.</p>
<p>2130 on the SAT, will have an updated GPA in the next several weeks. He’s basically in the top 15-20 percent of his junior class.</p>
<p>Doing a music minor with engineering will be easier if your son will have AP credits to cover some of the GenEd requirements. My daughter is doing computer science with marching band/percussion performance minor at Arizona State. She had credit for several math, science, English, and humanities classes and a couple of the music classes will also count toward GenEd credit. Even so she takes 18 hours per semester with ensembles, studio, and lessons classes thrown on top of her major. </p>
<p>However, computer science tends to have more flexibility than most engineering. My senior son is also looking for mechanical engineering, marching band, and has also talked about a music minor in French horn. The trouble is the fairly rigid ME curriculum because many classes are prerequisites for other classes so it would be harder to fit in a minor even with AP credits. He is looking at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Iowa State. We tried to talk to the horn professor or at least someone in the music department and with the marching band everywhere we visited. </p>
<p>Just about any large state school could be considered but be aware that the number of credits required for both mechanical engineering and the music minor and the type of music minor offered can differ. Also schools vary on the number of hours per week the marching band rehearses and it is almost always more for percussionists than any other section.</p>
<p>UT Austin does not have a minor in music. However, lots of engineering students march in the band, play in the Pep Band, play in the ensembles as non-majors, and some even take private lessons for credit. So lots of music opportunities for the non-music major. </p>
<p>I believe that at Texas A & M, to be in the marching band, you must also be in the “corps” - someone correct me if I am wrong. </p>
<p>Some schools will offer merit scholarships to non music majors. Will require an audition, but worth looking into. Trinity University in San Antonio is one that advertises scholarships for non-music majors, and it appears they get a good number of Texas All State musicians. </p>
<p>For students looking to do Engineering with a music minor (or double major - almost impossible at most schools) … know that at some schools there are lots of music opportunities (academic and non-academic) available in most colleges, </p>
<p>Not a public school but your son could do Engineering and Music at Univ of Rochester. UR students can take classes at Eastman school of music and with their open curriculum, there are a lot open slots to fill with classes your son may want to take, not be forced to take. </p>
<p>Options definitely depend on the school. At Michigan, Engineering has more students in the marching band than any other school/department. There are also numerous engineering/music dual degree students - it’s not that common and it’s not easy, but doable in about five years with AP credit. My D is dual degree in biomedical engineering and horn performance there, but is not in the marching band. </p>
<p>At some publics, however, engr/music dual degrees are discouraged or not permitted. Music minor options also vary tremendously. Options to perform and the ability to take faculty lessons at some schools are limited to music majors/minors, while others have performance groups and lessons open to the general student population. Then there are schools like Case, in which an engineering major can potentially have a music scholarship if they play in the Case band (or they can apply/audition to simultaneously study music at the Cleveland Institute of Music). </p>
<p>My D also considered dual degree at Northwestern, JHU/Peabody, Case/CIM, CMU and WUStL (music program at WUStL does not require audition and is not the caliber of the others mentioned, but on the flip side is much more open to non-music majors performing in all ensembles). </p>
I think minoring at some place with a powerhouse music program (Peobody, CIM, Eastman, Thornton, etc.) would be very difficult. They will expect a lot out of the music portion.
OP - I’d encourage him to look for places with interesting music opportunities (incl marching band). Often I hear students say they want a “music minor” because they want to keep doing music… but they realize they can do so without having to fulfill all the academic criteria for a minor.
DS is a fantastic musician, and many people assumed he’d be a music major. He wanted to study engineering and never had the desire to do a music major or minor . But oh my, he’s found many ways to keep music in his life! Even some of his engineering projects have had musical themes.
With music minors at universities that have associated conservatories or similar caliber programs, it’s important to look into how the minor is handled and what, if any, access you would actually have to the conservatory. At Case and JHU if you minor in music, the minor is administered by them (not by Peabody or CIM). At JHU, you would play in their ensembles as well (not the Peabody ones). I believe its the same at Case. At JHU, you can petition/request to take private lessons at Peabody - but it’s up to the faculty as to whether they would accept you.
If, on the other hand, you go dual degree, you would apply separately to engineering and music (including audition). As the admit decisions are separate, you might get admitted to one, both, or neither. This is true at JHU/Peabody and similar schools/conservatories, as well as places like U Mich and Northwestern.
@colorado_mom makes a great point. My older D is also in engineering (RHIT) and started out pursuing a music minor. She has since dropped the minor, although she continues to enjoy playing in the string ensemble and plans to do pit orchestra this spring.
One thing that may be more applicable to a percussionist than other instruments is that you may have to minor in music or at least take lessons to have access to instruments for practice as many of these instruments can be under the control of the percussion studio. Just being in ensembles may not be enough. My daughter had this problem at her school and it was the major motivator to audition for the minor. Now she can practice to her heart’s content. Also at her school, most of the battery positions in the marching band go to percussion majors/minors. They are less dominant in the front ensemble and other instruments have a much higher percentage of non-music majors.
When we visited Case in 2010, they seemed to have an variety of music options for engineering majors… just music groups / classes, or music minor, or double major. We stopped into a building with music computer labs and friendly staff. Later we went unchallenged into a practice room where DS tried out one of their Steinway grand pianos.
Later at Carnegie Mellon we learned they had more options for amateur sax players than I had expected, but opportunities seemed more limited.
RPI seemed to have many of musicians on campus - check out those threads too. DS played a grand piano in one of their lobbies. (He’s very good, with some songs memorized.)
As for public colleges, we hear that CU has a lot of engineers in the marching band. But it is pricey for OOS.
My daughter was accepted at Purdue where they have an engineering and band/orchestra learning community which appeals to her. That might be an option for continuing his music interest.
The most important thing for pursuing practicing/lessons/minor in percussion is to talk to the percussion professor. Unless he is solely interested in using his own snare, your son will need access to school-owned marimbas, xylophones, drum sets, etc that are not generally available in unlocked practice rooms. Pianos are often more accessible than other percussion instruments. These other instruments are often in locked rooms with access granted only through the percussion studio under the direction of the percussion faculty.
All I am saying is that it is critical to actually talk to the percussion staff before deciding on a school if continuing percussion studies in any form beyond just participation in an ensemble (including practicing outside the ensemble time) is a goal.
Since my daughter is interested in Pitt, I have been reading that board. @AwesomeOpposum is a engineering graduate of UPitt and now at grad school there and she has become an ambassador for th e school and what I have garnered from her posts was that a lot of engineering students were active in some sort of music at the school, whether it be marching band or orchestra.
Percussion in marching band in college takes extra time, esp because they often are also in pep band and multiple sport coverage. Yes at TAMU all the band is in corps (men and women, majority men).
My DD is engineering major and does play in college marching band and concert band, but on wind instrument. She takes those two music for credit (1 credit each), concert band both semesters - and the grade gives her GPA a little boost. Probably will only do marching first two fall semesters, because it takes a lot of time and energy. Desire is to finish in four. Came in with AP for english and history, so that helped.
Many college marching band programs are VERY competitive. DD plays at a very high level musically. Did one week of summer band at the college (first chair on her instrument, and they said they wanted her for their marching and concert bands) - had scholarship for both concert and marching. Still had to go through all the process to be selected as part of the roster after rookie marching.
However if a student can balance the percussion activities and keep up well on the engineering…some of the best students do keep up music and some band activities.
I do know a few students who have started either as a double major or music minor. It really depends on the school. For my DD, she can continue to play and improve on her instrument with the concert band (and some schools or musical instruments may require a private lesson with professor - and that will require a lot of practice time in the week). Her engineering curriculum is enough.
The band is great for socializing.