Looking for a few good options for a double undergraduate major of clarinet performance & political science or pre-law. Student currently attends top conservatory-style music high school in the state, won 1st chair all state orchestra, has 3.92 GPA & 4.58 HPA heading into senior year, etc. The school should be a university with solid programs for both majors as well as sports, Greek life, etc.
Pre-law is not a major or even a set of courses. You can major in anything and later apply to law school, even from undergrads that have no pre-law advising program. My suggestion would be any academic minor or major that the student would choose if the student were not planning on law school. It is always good to have alternatives if either law school or clarinet performance do not end up being desirable paths later on.
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Does he want to study music? He can do a BA o BM in music and still go to law school. He doesn’t need a backup. If he doesn’t want to study music he can major in anything and do music EC’s. Credit is often given for lessons and performance.
He should submit a music supplement with solo recording/video, resume including what you wrote here, and letter of recommendation or two related to music.
You would be surprised how much a supplement can sometimes help with admissions and you don’t have to plan to major in music.
I’m going to echo other posters and say that there’s no need to focus on “pre-law” (which as was said, just advising) or do anything specific in order to later apply for law school. He can major in anything he wants, and still apply to law school, and no major will be more or less helpful. He should pick a major based on what he’s most interested in, and not feel compelled to major in political science, unless that happens to be what he’s most interested in. The courses he’ll take in political science won’t really help with law school, or with law school admissions.
Therefore, you really just need to be considering what schools would be great for clarinet performance, and not really worry about anything else. I don’t have any great recommendations for you there, but that should hopefully make the research much easier.
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Congrats to your kid on their accomplishments!
Agreed that there’s no particular major necessary for pre-law. Understood that they want a strong academic foundation, but that can be achieved with a music major, or a music major plus a minor. A double-major is possible but not necessary, and said major need not be anything politics/policy oriented unless that’s a specific desire.
Reach schools that are extremely strong for music as well as other academics, and which include sports culture and Greek life, include Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and USC(California). U of Richmond would also be worth a look (the PPEL major may be of interest). In terms of public flagships, UMichigan, tOSU (has a PPE major, and the conservatory is double-major-friendly), Indiana U… I’m sure there are more that I’m forgetting.
In a less sporty/Greek vein but still potentially worth considering, are Hopkins, URochester… and the LAC’s with conservatories (Oberlin, Lawrence, Bard… and St. Olaf which doesn’t have a separate conservatory but still has extremely strong music performance + academics). But it sounds like these may not have the vibe your child is looking for. Sewanee might be worth a look, as a more Greek-oriented LAC with strong music… but not if D1 sports culture is a must-have.
Budget-wise, if you run the Net Price Calculators for expensive private U’s like Vanderbilt/Northwestern/USC/Richmond, can your family afford the projected cost of attendance?
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When I said pre-law, I guess I was generalizing about various undergrad tracks that would mesh well with law - i.e., political science, policy, & history all of which she’s interested in.
Since she’s already at a conservatory-type high school, she’s simply wanting to explore a more “normal” college experience to decide what she really wants out of life. She’s focused many years on clarinet performance and doesn’t want to walk away from it, but isn’t quite sure she wants to do only that for the rest of her life. Her clarinet playing has already caught the attention of several professors interested in offering music scholarships (U Florida, U Miami, & Johns Hopkins U/Peabody) through her school and various competitions and performances.
We hadn’t really explored major/minor options or supplements, and never heard of PPE or PPEL either, so these are all helpful ideas. The more information, the better. Thank you!
I will disagree with this statement. Majors that emphasize critical reading, writing and logic are more helpful.
…in the sense that they develop skills that are useful for the LSAT and doing well in law school, but not for admission to law school per se
Your daughter may be interested in colleges with an available major in public policy, which relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation:
For some colleges strong in political science generally, this site may be helpful:
Richmond could strike a nice balance. It has D1 sports and Greek life, intellectual intensity, and strong performing arts… and their music scholarships are available to music minors as well as majors. Scholarships & Awards - Department of Music - School of Arts & Sciences - University of Richmond It’s located in VA’s capital city, which also has a rich cultural life and lots of serious music students, between URichmond and VCUArts. The music department has recently redesigned the major requirements to make the department even more accessible and inclusive https://music.richmond.edu/major-minor/index.html The PPEL program is a great interdisciplinary major for pre-law students, although of course there are other good options too. https://ppel.richmond.edu/major/index.html
Sounds like she’ll have lots of great options!
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You can also post in the music major forum, and maybe read the essay “Double Degree Dilemma” in the Read Me thread on that forum, which details options for music study.
When you mention music, people tend to mention schools with BM programs, However, if she does not want to do a BM program, there can be an issue with schools that offer a BM through an on campus conservatory or school of music: she needs to check and see if the best teachers, performances and resources go to the BM students. There is a range with this issue and some schools are fine, and offer excellent music to non=BM students (see Oberlin’s Musical Studies).
Her options are BM for clarinet, BA for music or anything else, double degree BA/BM ( in some cases BA/MM), double major major/minor. She can definitely major in something other than music and continue lessons (often funded and for credit) and EC performance, at schools that have NO BM program at all.
I would look into the latter option, honesty. And yes submit a supplement with video/recording, resume and LOR’s.
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No specific major is needed for pre-law:
https://lawschoolnumbers.com/application-prep/choosing-your-major-for-prelaw
However, some specific course choices may help, and undergraduate major may be helpful for some kinds of areas of law:
https://lawschoolnumbers.com/application-prep/making-undergraduate-courses-count-for-law-school
Well, isn’t doing well in law school the purpose, being able to do well?
Students who didn’t have the writing skills struggled more when I was in school. One of my friends was an engineer, a good one too. He had had no (and I mean NO) writing classes in college (yes, I know things are different now). In our first year writing class, he had to write almost every paper twice, revising after heavy editing and correction by the TAs. I typed his papers for him and they were really terrible (the grammar, punctuation, sentence structure). Very time consuming to do everything twice (or more).
How did he write the project reports for his engineering design courses in college, or documentation of designs and projects while doing engineering work?
What’s the budget? Regions of the country?
Not disagreeing at all with the value of strong reading & writing skills @twoinanddone! I was addressing the idea that certain majors are de facto better for admission to law school. There are still a lot of people who think that studying, say, political science, in some way improves the likelihood of admission to law school. There is no specific advantage to having “political science major” (or similar) on their diploma in terms of law school admissions.
@sabe999, the calibre of schools your daughter is looking at will all have top notch polisci/policy/history programs: the more limiting factors will be 1) clarinet performance and major options and 2) gen eds. Identify programs that appeal to her overall, where she likes the look of the clarinet aspect, and that have relatively open curriculum requirements.
She can then choose what major(s) she wants as she goes. She might, for example, like to do a music major and just pile on the humanities courses that look interesting as electives: whether she declares a second major or not will not affect law school admissions. At most of the places noted so far in this thread she won’t have to formally declare a major until second year, and she can add majors & minors up to autumn of senior year.
Knowing nothing beyond an interest in Greek life, big sports schools, and clarinet, here are some schools, some of which have already reached out to your daughter:
• Northwestern (IL)
• Arizona State
• USC (CA)
• Indiana University
• Vanderbilt (TN)
• U. of Miami (FL)
• Yale (CT)
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Good list that AustenNut posted as it covers reaches and matches and maybe a safety (ASU?). Yale though is not big time sports as say a USC and the others on the list, if that’ an important social consideration.
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