<p>He is URM (biracial AA), 3.0 unweighted gpa/ 3.5-3.6 weighted at a good suburban public, solid curriculum (all honors, AP/IB in English, Calc, Foreign Language and Music). ACT (no prep) 27 (math subscore 30); will retake. Extracurriculars mainly center around music. He would love to double major in music (classical percussion) and mech engineering but since it doesn't look doable, we are considering a double major in music and math and then looking at engineering for grad school. (Is that realistic?) Would like small classes, accessible teachers. Any ideas on schools? He has been talking lacs or small unis. We are east coast people and I think he would be fine in the Midwest, Northeast, MidAtlantic, Florida and CA-- am more worried about accepting racial climate than actual location.</p>
<p>GPA might be a problem but consider Santa Clara especially, also LMU. Cal Poly Pomoma if you are a California resident. Gonzaga if your’e willing to go PNW. They could really use some melanin up there!</p>
<p>My son had a 3.1 UCGPA, applied for engineering but I don’t know about music.</p>
<p>Univ of the Pacific- Music school and engineering. Not sure what forms of engineering they offer.</p>
<p>I forgot to say that financial aid is important. I cannot for the life of me figure out how California does their UCGPA. </p>
<p>I will look into those schools.</p>
<p>Lawrence University is both a conservatory and LAC with small class sizes. They even have a 3+2 engineering program.
Lawrence is not necessarily the most diverse places but minority enrollment is 14%, and they do have a strong international focus both in curriculum and participation (12%)are active in the Posse program, and have an office of multicultual affairs, so there is more than mere lipservice around diversity. It is appears to be full of a lot of friendly earnest kids (typical of a Midwest atmosphere).</p>
<p>Hmm… a 3+2 might not be a bad idea. MizzBee, do you know anyone who attended Lawrence? It and St Olaf’s came up on college match but I don’t know anyone who is familiar with Lawrence or the strength of the program. His dream schools have been lacs we visited (Oberlin-- but too high a reach, Union-- but music was really lacking and students seemed really segregated).</p>
<p>One young friend is happy at the music heavy Juniata in PA. He’s caucasian but I can’t imagine he would be happy there if it was close minded in any way. </p>
<p>He could also check out University of Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark in Portland. Something Chicago based could be an option too. Good Luck!</p>
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<p>You mean African American + Asian American?</p>
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<p>Well, here it is:
[University</a> of California - Calculating GPA](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/counselors/q-and-a/calculating-gpa/index.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/counselors/q-and-a/calculating-gpa/index.html)</p>
<p>But if you want a simpler explanation, see here (CSU does GPA the same way that UC does):
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - GPA Calculator](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)</p>
<p>Be aware that most students who enter LACs intending to do a 3+2 do not actually transfer to an engineering school.</p>
<p>For engineering graduate school, it is likely that a math major will need to take some additional physics and engineering courses to be better prepared, although this depends on the type of engineering. Applied math does have decent employment prospects in things like finance, actuarial, and computer software (a few statistics, computer science, economics, and finance courses may be a useful supplement to a math major for this purpose, but it can be difficult if one is also trying to fit a music major into the schedule).</p>
<p>He may want to check schools to see if a music minor can be taken alongside a mechanical engineering major.</p>
<p>African-American and thank you</p>
<p>We have an older female friend that is attending now, and it is a top contender for my own DS, even though he is not into music. He has visited a couple of times and finds the kids to be very fun and mellow with each other but still very passionate about music and studies in general.</p>
<p>Clark University in Worcester MA comes to mind.</p>
<p>How about Catholic University in DC? It has a top music school as well as a great engineeting school. I am pretty sure they would let your son double major. Plus, they give pretty good merit aid and DC is a very racially tolerant city. Good luck, Londondad</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son on his accomplishments!
It is almost impossible to major in math and then go to grad school in engineering. Everyone in engineering grad school has an undergraduate engineering degree.
Would he have an interest in acoustic or sound engineering? Some programs, such as Indiana University, are actually through the music school.</p>
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<p>Just curious … do you have a source for that statement?</p>
<p>levirm, Ah, that’s what I was afraid of. I did find at least one school my son was considering listed math as a possible undergrad major for engineering grad school-- but I hadn’t contacted them to see how many students had actually taken that route. I don’t think he has actually considered sound engineering. At this point, he enjoys mechanical.</p>
<p>Clark has no engineering but has a 3+2 program. Juniata appears to have neither a music major nor engineering. I’ll have to look at those West coast schools; I’m just not as familiar with them. Catholic is an interesting consideration. We aren’t Catholic but DC is a very good city.</p>
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I am not sure that is true. When older s looked at some LACs, he was planning to major in physics and go on to grad school in endineering. The folks he talked to at Williams said it was done and it was not all that unusual. He did also talk to several college reps at college fairs about the 3+2 programs. Agree that very few actually do it. Both my s’s are engineers (one in the workforce, one about to graduate soon). Younger s’s school offeres limited engineering majors and has 3+2 arrangements with other schools. Many talk about doing it-- few actually do.</p>
<p>Is anyone familiar with the racial climate at any of these schools which are showing up in college search engines: Trinity in CT (not sure about the music there, I realize it would be quite a reach) and a few TX schools: Butler, No Texas and SMU?</p>
<p>I had an undergrad and chemistry and went to grad school later on for engineering. I had to take about 4-5 core undergrad engineering classes before I was allowed to start taking grad clases. This was in the late 80’s but I suspect that it is much the same now a days.</p>
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<p>It’s not. My brother got a B.A. in Physics, then an M.S. in Electrical Engineering. He knew from the start he wanted to be an EE, so he was able to tailor his program to his ultimate goal.</p>
<p>He says that although at the time he would have preferred to get a BSEE (our dad insisted be get a liberal arts degree), that the progression served him very well. When he became an engineer (he recently retired from one of the marquee name Silicon Valley firms), he says, he was able to solve problems that perplexed some of his fellow engineers who did not have as thorough a grounding in theoretical physics as he did.</p>
<p>The typical mechanical engineering (ABET accredited) program will have about 23 classes in mechanics/engineering - plus labs, plus Calculus 1, 2, 3, and Differential Equations, plus statistics, plus 2 to 4 physics classes. The typical student in a graduate mechanical engineering program is going to have had all of those classes. A math/music major, even taking a few “catch-up” engineering classes, is going to compete with that student in graduate school? I shouldn’t have said “all” the engineering grad students majored in engineering; I should have said that all of the ones that I have ever met did.
I think that if your son is undecided about engineering, he should apply to some schools of engineering, and some schools not in engineering, and then he can decide later.</p>