<p>My D Class of 2015 is a fantastic artist and has considered majoring in Art, however her Physics and Math teacher are encouraging her to consider Engineering or something utilizing Math or Physics/or the sciences as she seems to have an aptitude for that as well. We have been brainstorming ideas of different majors that would incorporate these interests and I thought I would reach out and see if anyone has any suggestions also if you know of a cool profession or major that incorporates these fields what schools would you suggest.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Architecture comes to mind. The architects I know personally are wonderful artists and pursue that in their leisure time. Another field of art for those who are scientifically inclined is medical illustration. Johns Hopkins has a wonderful graduate program. Very exciting stuff. <a href=“http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/medart/”>http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/medart/</a></p>
<p>My daughter attended RISD, and majored in industrial design. It’s an excellent program, as are several others there. She also took some courses at Brown to satisfy course requirement in humanities and social sciences. The dual degree program at Brown (which is literally adjacent to and just up the hill from RISD) has now been operating for 7 or 8 years (IIRC), and takes 5 years to complete. IMO, highly thought of but demanding!</p>
<p>Mackinaw, definatley going to see Brown/RISD. One concern of the program my D had was the requirement to live 2 years at Brown and 2 years at RISD, did your D have to do that and what did she think of it. Silly I know but then my son made his final choice based on the meal plan!</p>
<p>EA, I don’t think your daughter needs to settle on a profession just yet. Unless she’s 100% sold on engineering or architecture, she could choose a college that allows a double (or even triple) major in art, math and/or physics and see how things play out. </p>
<p>Along the way she’ll have internships, summer jobs, be influenced by professors and other students. Her path will become clearer as she gains knowledge and experience. To me, that’s the beauty of a liberal arts education: the ability to experiment, explore and grow across several disciplines.</p>
<p>Brown has a good art department of its own separate from RISD. For other schools with strong art and strong math/physics I’d look at Yale, Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Smith. These would be BA degrees.</p>
<p>CMU has interesting interdisciplinary programs, including BSA science and art. It’s quite restrictive though and somewhat tech oriented.</p>
<p>With the emergence of new media and internet focus, a lot of art is science and tech driven these days; the synergy encourages depth in both fields. My son’s experience as an art/art history major at Williams was that there were quite a few art/science or art/math majors. In his M.Arch program, undergraduate degrees were all over the place.</p>
<p>PS, For architecture, she could either get a BA/BS in architectural studies, art, math/physics or really anything, and then an M.Arch. Or she could go directly into the B.Arch as a first hear. The BA/BS + M.Arch allows more flexibility. If she’s leaning toward architecture I’d suggest that she sign up for a summer program in architecture career exploration. This would give her an idea if architecture is for her. I would say that although architects use some math and science, the practice is more design focused.</p>
<p>Momrath, lots of good stuff to think about, thank you. My older daughter is a junior at Yale where you are not able to minor-she also has an interest in art but ended up majoring in anthropology and just taking art classes. My younger D was afraid of getting forced to do one or the other but your post has reminded us that most schools do allow minors and that she perhaps could do both. She tends to be a kid who not only thinks of what she can study but what can I do with it. Will check out the schools that you mentioned. We are planning a college hunting trip for Spring Break and trying to come up with the short list. Have added the schools you mentioned onto the research list! Williams sounds like something she might like think it will be on the “tour”. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I was a math/art person. I went to a college (Harvard) that didn’t offer architecture to undergrads, but my major included art history, studio art, design courses and architectural history. At that time they were offering a program where I could take the first year of the Harvard Grad School of Design as my senior year in college. I declined as at the time I was desperate to live in NYC and wanted to go to Columbia. I’ve actually found architecture a pretty good profession. As a sole practitioner it’s had its ups and downs, but I can make my own hours and people tend to add on to their houses whether the economy is good or bad. Anyway, there’s a lot to be said for the BA ->M.Arch. route if you aren’t wedded to being an architect.</p>
<p>Just to clarify: at Williams (and I believe other LACs) you can actually double major versus having a major and minor. Colleges that have no distribution requirements – or loose requirements – double majoring in disparate fields is fairly common. Williams has excellent math and excellent studio art and art history. Physics is a smaller department but, I think, quite respected.</p>
<p>My son would agree with mathmom that the BA>M.Arch route was best for him. It takes longer, and therefore costs more, but allows for a wider education.</p>
<p>Chiming in as another “pre-architecture” and math double major. My major sounds very similar to Mathmom’s, only I was at Penn not Harvard. It wasn’t uncommon to have some overlap between math/physics and design majors. I went on to study city planning in graduate school.</p>
<p>I studied with a girl who double majored in math and fine arts at Penn. When I met up with her a few years later, she was pursuing her doctorate in math, but she said it was a close call. She almost went for her MFA and didn’t rule it out of her future.</p>
<p>@EAO127: My daughter wasn’t in the dual degree program, just the RISD program. But she could and did take a few courses at Brown. She lived in a dorm her first year, then off-campus the last three years. Since she was there they’ve opened up some new dormitories. </p>
<p>Stanford has an awesome program in Product design - it is in the Mechanical Engineering department and also requires 3 studio art classes. It’s a tough program and I have no idea if it is unique to Stanford, but it is definitely a combination of the Math/Engineering/Art skills! </p>
<p>My son was similar - art and engineering interests, but his first summer program exposed him to a cool solar energy project and his focus became user interfaces and environmental sustainability. He is majoring in computer engineering at UIUC. You never know what might come along.</p>