Hey guys, I’m a junior in high school, interested in both art/design as well as stem fields. I enjoy and excel at science/math classes but also love to draw, and was wondering what kind of degrees/majors are available that combine these? I’m possibly looking into industrial design/mechanical engineering or possible video game design? Does anyone know of any other degrees or interdisciplinary programs offered by universities? or colleges that allow students to double major? thanks everyone!!
Carnegie Mellon offers a Bachelor of Science and Arts (BSA) where you can combine, say, physics with design. They also offer a Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts (BCSA).
Stanford offers a product design track within engineering.
Normally, you would have to fulfill the reqs in two colleges if you went with something like engineering and design, or science and design, and you’d end up with a double degree which can take longer than 4 years. A double major is usually done within one college. Many universities will allow you to minor in an outside college, too, so that’s an option for you.
There are some schools that let you design your own major
^Most schools will actually let you design your own major. It’s usually called an individualized, independent, or student-designed major.
Oh dope!
Also, wouldn’t graphic design fulfill stem + arts as well?
College double majors with engineering and art might be hard to pull off, just because art majors spent lots of time in the studio and engineers spend lots of time in their labs. Industrial design might work well for you, though.
Remember that you do not have to major in everything you find interesting. You can have one major plus a minor or “just the fun courses” in another field. For example, with art you could do drawing and photography with your electives and skip art history and painting if you weren’t concerned with filling requirements for a second major.
I would beware the student-designed major if you want to work as an engineer. Some employers are very picky about accredited engineering degrees.
Might architecture interest you?
^ or Landscape Architecture
I’m definitely looking into industrial design, and will also look into architecture. thanks for all the suggestions. will definitely look into these.
stanford has a product design major that combines engineering and design and a bit of psychology/humanities (art of designing products to fit human needs, ect. kind of like architecture but for everything else that isn’t a building lol) you get to take classes like ceramics and pottery making and stuff like that too. this is inside of their engineering department i believe.
uc irvine has a video game major lol (it’s technically called “computer game science”) in their department of computer science
and you could always do computer science or physics and apply that to animation or any other art really (just because you major in that doesn’t mean you have to become a computer scientist or physicist. mike judge was a physics major and he ended up making tv shows like king of the hill and silicon valley.) CGI technology, animation techniques, everything had to be built by people who were knowledgeable about computers and all of that (vector and animation physics is also important in video games. and if you’ve ever watched behind the scenes/making of clips for action tv shows/movies, you will see that there is a lot of physics/engineering behind everything [camera angles, film exposure, trajectories of objects or liquid splatters, designing cranes to take particular shots that may or may not be stationary, sound editing and design, ect.]). though i have to be honest, i dont really know how you get your foot in the door into those sorts of things when you’re not strictly a tv/flim/animation major… but that’s where you have to sell yourself and look for those opportunities, talk to those departments, minor in it, anything to try to get exposed to it. try to tailor your experience to that.
New Media Design. RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) major. I’m sure other schools offer similar programs, but I have no idea where. https://www.rit.edu/programs/new-media-design-bfa explains the major.
“A balance of visual design foundations, information design, user interface design, user experience design, 3D modeling, motion graphics, usability research, and programming create the skilled background needed to design cutting edge interactive solutions from mobile to fully immersive digital environments.”
If you are interested in the future outlook of this major, take a look at the co-op/entry level “max” salaries. Top salary with a new BFA, straight out of college, is $120,000. https://www.rit.edu/emcs/oce/employer/salary On that page, search for “New Media Design”
User Interface Design and User Experience Design are also hot fields. If you are good at logic, programming and good design, you are gold.