<p>Would this be hard to do? Is it looked down upon in the "music" world. My daughter is a rising Junior (Texas All-State as Soph) Top 1% of her class, strong PSAT/AP scores. She wants to go to Medical School but is leaning toward majoring in Flute Performance but making sure she meets her Pre-Med requirements. Is this a huge disadvantage to her Medical School Admissions? Any feedback would be appreciated. </p>
<p>P.S. We visited Northwestern, which she loved, and it seems that their quarter system would allow this pretty easily, but like many things in life, doesn't mean people actually do it.</p>
<p>One of my favorite high school classmates was a flute performance major at Oberlin. He is now a doctor. Just make sure that required science lab courses don’t interfere with required ensemble rehearsals. At some schools, these seem to be at the same time.</p>
<p>If you use the “search this forum” button, advanced, “music and” (with the quotes), and search titles only, you’ll find a number of similar questions. Also, “double major”, “double degree”, will bring up more.</p>
<p>The best advice I can give that if she does decide this route, support of the institution and private instructor is an overriding concern. Also investigate the BA as opposed to BM option, as it may give her more flexibility. If the ultimate goal is med school, there are a number of solid programs that will fit musically.</p>
<p>ViolaDad…appreciate your navigational advise, I have actually done all of that and I apologize if my post seems repetitive. My daughter does not want to double major. She simply wants to find out how hard it is to meet the Pre-Med requirements, while achieving a Music Performance Major. Maybe if there is a thread that directly addresses that issue, you could point me in that direction, as I have been unable to find one, hence my post here. She is our fifth child that will be going to college and we already have two music majors under our belts, (one engineering and one business) but we have never had one that wanted to go to Medical School (Grad school, yes, but not Med School) I know from talking to my son’s friends (all graduated) at Eastman, for them it would have been difficult. I was simply looking to see if any parents have been in this situation.</p>
<p>Forgive me if you felt my post snide, as that was not my intent. There are a number of neophytes that are clueless when it comes to music based admissions, plenty of long time lurkers (who in some cases have read all the posts within the forum), and yet have few posts,
and a vast variety in between. I often point out what I have found to be the most effective search approach for specific topics, and will often link threads directly.</p>
<p>Given your join date and relatively low post count I made an assumption. My error.</p>
<p>Using the methodology I suggested, I found a number of threads: Music and Biology, Music and the liberal arts, music and math, and so forth, but none specifically dealing with music and pre med or medicine. I did not do a search by posts, and perhaps there have been tangential discussions which were missed in my cursory search.</p>
<p>I’m not qualified to speak to the specific degree requirements that constitute a premed curriculum. From my understanding, it’s all about undergrad grades, and the MCAT’s. From a time perspective, combining a BM performance pursuit with a science based subspecialty can be tricky simply due to the time constraints of ensemble/rehearsal obligations versus lab work. It tends to be “easier” to combine a liberal arts discipline as a heavy concentration with a performance pursuit for many. The reason I suggested looking into a BA based music program is that there is a greater liberal arts requirement (and less of a music specific credit load) than the BM variant, which might help serve to free up some time if the music performance path is secondary to potential med school.</p>
<p>Institutional and instructor support in a dual pursuit (even a secondary declared path or minor) should be a prime focus in investigating schools. Northwestern may be a very solid choice. </p>
<p>What I offered was suggestions. Nothing more. Good luck to you both.</p>
<p>Have Biol, Inorganic Chem, Organic Chem, Physics, and other Chem and Biol courses. Most schools offer labs in the afternoons and that’s the same time that most ensembles have rehearsals. </p>
<p>Piano performance and singers can often swing it since they have few, if any ensemble requirements. The other instruments are in a bit of a bother because of the lab/ensemble conflict.</p>
<p>Note: Just noticed that thumper1 nailed this line of reasoning prior to my post.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies. Most Medical Schools require that Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English and Calculus be taken in order to be deemed qualified. Of course the majority of these have required lab work and that is my concern. I think we all know that between private lessons, master classes, ensemble work and all other demands on the music major, this could be a complex situation. Certainly it has been done, but I’d like to know which schools have afforded the flexibility to make this happen. Out of our children that have gone into music, she is probably the most talented (reaching All-State the earliest on a competitive instrument) but her focus is on medicine (specifically autism). One of the leading researchers in the country on Autism is on staff at University of Wisconsin Madison, but it large (she prefers mid size) and I have no clue as to the depth and content of their music program as it has never been on our radar in the past.</p>
<p>Since you are in Wisconsin…check out Lawrence. You may find that their music program fulfills her music needs AND she can take the requisite courses to apply to med school. Another option is to take the music major…and during the summers take the premed prereqs…just a thought.</p>
This is not necessarily true. DD has the worst afternoons. She has chorale, mandatory on M, W; Opera workshop on T, Th and Studio on Friday, all from around 3 or 4 until 5 or 5:30 or later. It definitely conflicts with a lot of lab courses. And sport practices and other such activities.</p>
<p>I am a high school teacher (not music, alas), and if I recall correctly, one of my outstanding students from a few years ago went to Tufts with just that plan – flute performance, with pre-med. I saw her midway through her freshman year and it seemed to be working out well, but that was over a year ago, and I don’t have any more info.</p>
<p>Tufts has no performance degree, only a music major (with about ten required courses). It would be significantly easier for a student to major in music (not performance) and be able to complete coursework for a pre-med degree. This isn’t to say that there aren’t super stellar kids who can manage a performance program plus pre-med, but it will be a difficult road, without question.</p>
<p>From what I know of pre med, being at one time one of them, the program was not tied to any specific major, and they used to tell us it might even be better to major in something outside chemistry or biology (common majors for pre-meds) when trying to get into med school. That means it is theoretically possible to major in music performance and be pre med. Given the courseload of lab courses (and with chemistry especially, you have not only labs, but lab lectures and recitations for the main courses) that can really eat time, you might find major conflicts as others have said. One possible way around that might be doing the courses in summer, where you potentially might have down time from the performance major (assuming the person doesn’t do music festivals and such). </p>
<p>My suggestion would be to talk to potential schools about the possibility, send e-mails to schools you might want to attend and ask them if it ever has been done. Most schools have a pre med program coordinator, they might be a good place to start:)</p>
<p>I currently know a top flight (Juilliard caliber) violinist who is majoring in violin performance and doing the pre-med program. She wants to become a pediatric neurologist. She is actually at UW-Madison. The advantage to doing this at a larger school like UW is that lab sections are scheduled at many times during the day so it is usually easier to schedule around required rehearsals. At smaller schools, there may only be one or two sections scheduled so it is a lot tougher. At a school like Eastman it becomes doubly difficult because you have 2 different campuses to deal with. I think you need to check with specific schools that your daughter may be interested in and ask them about students who are or have gone this route to find out if it is doable. You will probably want to look at schools that have self contained campuses rather than something like Eastman or Peabody where the music school is seperate. </p>
<p>As far as admission to grad school, if she has excellent grades and great GREs then she will have as much chance of admission as a student majoring in anything else. It has been reported that musicians usually do quite well in med school admissions.</p>
<p>At one time I had some links, but cannot find them. The data showed a much higher med school acceptance rate for music majors than for biology or other science majors. Lots of physicians are accomplished musicians. At one time my D had a interest in med school. I told her she better continue to play. She had a much better chance than trying to compete with all the science nerds. </p>
<p>I would not worry about fitting in the courses. My D is a double degree major and has averaged about 22 semester credit hours for 4 years. That is a much higher courseload than your D would need. Worst case there are always summer courses.</p>
<p>It would be possible at UMich, HOWEVER, you need to consider that flute is a very tough/competitive instrument, and it’s pretty difficult to get accepted at many of the top flute studios. I can imagine that some flute faulty might not react well to candidates who are thinking more about med school than about performance careers, so you will need to think carefully about finding a teacher who will be supportive of your daughter’s goals. This will be actually as much of a challenge as finding a school that might offer a flexible enough BM performance degree to accommodate the science labs.
Good luck!</p>
<p>UMich is very supportive of double degree/major students. I personally know a young man who is in Engineering and Business. A friend of daughter’s is working on cello performance/Environmental Science double degree. Daughter is doing double major in music and plans to graduate on time (i.e. 4 years). A woodwind player is doubling in physics. According to D, many jazz majors are also doubling in classical. A flutist just graduated with BA in flute and another major and already had a non-music job waiting for her. Music majors can take ensemble courses for less credits to make room for other non-music courses.</p>