My son’s final 2 choices are Purdue and Willamette. He wants to major in Psychology with minor in music. He prefers to go to a big school whereas I think he would do better at a LAC. Any thoughts on which is better for his subject choice? Thanks!
I’m also a bit conflicted as we know people at Purdue, several of his school seniors are there but for STEM courses. We don’t know anyone at Willamette.
I have a second year engineering student at Purdue. Interestingly she doesn’t know one person majoring in psych, and her circle is quite broad. Purdue is a very STEM focused school.
I also am not sure if Purdue even offers a
music minor. There is a weird bylaw that they don’t offer a music major and I think the minors are very limited. That said, there are wonderful musical groups and lots of talent on campus.
I can certainly answer any general Purdue questions if you have them.
Willamette is a great choice for both Psych and music.
It’s a considerably smaller school than Purdue, in the state capital of Salem, which is a small city of about 175k.
Students at Willamette tend to be pretty happy with their choice and happy overall with the education they receive. Since they are typically generous with merit-aid, the cost can be comparable to many in-state offerings.
What it doesn’t have is the big school vibe, or major sports.
I would advise that he check out the four-year graduation requirements for Psych and see the pattern of courses that he’d be taking for the four years at each school.
Are these courses that he’d like to take?
Are their core or general education classes required? How many and what are they?
Next I would encourage him to check out the music department at each school and see how they treat minors or non-major.
Can he take any class? Will he have access to practice rooms? Depending on his instrument, can he easily join in ensembles or other groups? Are they within the minor, or extra curricular?
Both would give him what needs, now he has to figure out what he wants.
Good luck to you both.
Thank you. This is really helpful.
Those are two exceedingly different schools with basically nothing in common.
The more comparable public university in Indiana with top music and psych programs would be Indiana University, not Purdue. Purdue does have a good psych program, it’s just not known for music.
What is the purpose of the music minor? If it’s because he wants to continue playing an instrument Purdue has a lot of performance groups some of which offer credits to be a part of. My D played viola and wanted to continue playing in an orchestra. Purdue offered 2 orchestras (you auditioned) and they were two credit hour classes. I don’t remember if there was even a music minor option. She loved playing in the orchestra. It gave her a mental break from the rigors of engineering.