Should I double major in music and mechanical engineering?

College Majors Music Major
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I also posted this in the engineering forum, but I wasn’t sure of if that would also reach out to musician audiences- sorry if the double post is too much!

I’m currently a rising high school senior at an arts high school looking at double majoring in violin performance and mechanical engineering. From the advice I have gotten from my teachers and music directors, it would definitely be a good option to do mechanical engineering, as it provides financial grounding. I am also somewhat interested in science, but I am not even close to being as passionate about engineering as I am about music.

Ideally in college I would want to continue private lessons, play with the college orchestra, and stay involved in chamber groups, and have music as a career option in case I really move away from engineering and any other science interests. However, I am not certain of to what degree that would work in a situation of general involvement. I have somewhat gained the idea that minoring in music wouldn’t be the best, since the classes are mostly theory and history, which wouldn’t really be necessary unless I went all in on music.

Although my impulsive solution was to double major, it does seem to be a very ambitious path involving a large amount of time in each that may amount to being too much. Is it doable? If not, are there alternatives in which I could continue with violin and potentially explore other areas of music on the side?

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Major in music because it seems to be your passion.
Please be aware that your financial future may be tough in this discipline.

Engineering requires a lot of time outside of the classroom plus required lab hours. You will have lots of reading, interpretation, projects and study groups. Internships will also eat up your time.

My husband and 3 children are violinists (4). They were extremely good at performing. They practiced, at least, several hours a day. When they ran out of time to practice, they had to rebuild those calluses and they didn’t have time to do that.

My husband did take some violin classes, while at his UC, and was thinking about double majoring but he didn’t have the time. He majored in EE. I have two other children who are engineers (EECS and CSE). Although they are extremely good, they knew from the experiences of their professors that it wasn’t a very “profitable” profession. They also had friends who tried to double major while in engineering, but there just wasn’t time. Most of their friends just wanted to be able to live on their own and pay their bills. So they dropped out of music.

Pick the major that you think will make you happy. I don’t know if violin performance will be a consistent 40-hour work week, or beneficial for your retirement package, but you may make some money. It’s mostly part-time work. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/musicians-and-singers.htm
I don’t know if you will like engineering or if it will make you happy, but you’ll be able to make enough money to pay your bills, buy a car, pay your rent, etc.https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-engineers.htm

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You can do straight engineering, and continue music with lessons, practice, and extracurricular performance, as well as any music electives available to non-majors.

Or you can major in music through either a BM degree (2/3-3/4 music) or BA (1/4-1/3 music). You could take science electives, if you are at a university school of music, for instance.

Double major and double degree are two different paths. The double degree is 5 years and might be more doable than the double major. Both engineering/science and music are time consuming and in a 4 year degree, there may be a lot of scheduling conflicts.

The double major can be done but it is very difficult. If you want to do both, consider a double degree. Check out the Double Degree Dilemma essay in the Read Me thread in this music major forum. I really think that will be helpful to you. It uses hypothetical individuals to illustrate different ways to move forward with music.

I know someone who did engineering at MIT and went on to get a PhD in music. And I know a music major who went on to grad school in science, another in Medieval Studies, and one who is now a doctor. I know many who are making a living in music: performing, writing, teaching.

Majoring in music does not limit you to a career in music, though of course that is an option. My personal view is that undergrad years are a chance to study what you love. The cost of college and burden of loans makes that scary for some, but I do think things can work out with any of the paths possible with these two interests, or if you choose one to prioritize.

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I posted this in your other thread:

"My wife works at a large public university, which has a large marching band. She has told me that there is a high proportion of band members who are engineering students – perhaps because they are attracted to the precision required for both the music and the marching. And my son has a friend who majored in engineering but who also played in his university’s concert band.

If you major in engineering, you should have many opportunities to satisfy your musical cravings."

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You need to contact the college music departments at schools where you would like to apply. Find out what opportunities are available for students who are not music majors to participate in orchestral ensembles, take lessons, etc. These folks were incredibly helpful to our kid when contacted.

Our kid, like you, wanted to continue lessons and play in a college orchestra. Our kid was an engineering major…but this kid entered college with that in mind due to interest. (Adding…the kid completed their engineering degree but decided a career in engineering wasnt something they wanted to do).

Since you aren’t all that sure about college major, you also might want to look at colleges with a strong core curriculum that gives you a sampling of multiple areas of study. You just might find something that piques your interest.

I agree about reading the Double Degree Dilemma. It will give you good food for thought.

I will add, there were colleges our kid considered that do allow non-majors to audition for seats in their orchestra ensembles. And there were also places where this was a hard NO. I should add, our kid plays an instrument where there are usually only 1-2 in an orchestra. As you know…there are many more violins in each orchestra.

Good luck to you. There are schools out there where you can continue your music studies…and ensemble playing.

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Such a tough decision! I was in exactly your shoes. I played piano seriously in high school. I was practicing five hours a day. I had enough credits that I took first period off to practice. A professor at UT-Austin told me I should major in piano performance.

But I was also good at math, and since my dad was an engineering professor, I considered engineering. I went back and forth! For me, it came down to the fact that only ONE pianist can perform at a time with an orchestra, and I knew I wasn’t THAT good, ha. I also do not have the gift of teaching, so I couldn’t be a piano teacher. I thought I could major in engineering and continue to take lessons, but it wasn’t practical in my case.

Once I was out of college, I took private lessons for quite awhile, until we had kids and life got crazy. :slight_smile:

I do think that double majoring in music and engineering would be incredibly difficult. Each major is so time-intensive.

Good luck with your decision! I’ve enjoyed my engineering career. :slight_smile:

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There are ways to keep your music degree and not have to torture yourself with an engineering double major. You could do a minor in IT. If you take 2 levels of a programming language and demonstrate proficiency, that could be enough to get you into an entry level job. Even an double major in IT would be much more sane than getting an ME degree. That’s my opinion :slight_smile:

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Some universities have a music performance minor or certificate in performance. Rowan University is one with mechE and perf certificate. I’m certain there’s more out there.

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I keep answering on the other thread. It gets confusing! Options would seem to be

BM in music (possibly with tech./engineering electives depending on school)
BA in music with more room for other classes in tech./engineering
BS in engineering with music lessons, electives and extracurricular performance
double degree, either BM/BA, BM/BS or BM/MM depending.

There is nothing wrong with focusing on violin as an undergrad. Lots of paths still open to you. If that is what you truly want, I hope you will consider it.

There are also possibilities for grad school in music even if you do engineering, if you keep up with lessons and performance.

I don’t see marching band as relevant but maybe I am wrong. I also don’t see the point of doing music-related engineering (acoustical engineering, music tech.) etc. I don’t think that solves the problem personally, but again, I could be wrong (this is in reference to the other thread).

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Anecdote of one - my classmate majored in engineering at her parents insistence. Music was her passion and she pursued it in extracurriculars in college - she’s currently a violinist in NY. I am NOT a musician and don’t have a lot of practical advice - just sharing that one doesn’t have to major in music to pursue it as a career.

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Yes @Darcy123 I know a couple of professional musicians who did not major in music at all. However they are exceptionally talented!

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Both mechanical engineering and music tend to be high volume majors, and the courses tend to have high time commitments (labs and performance), so doing a double major may be difficult to fit into a four year schedule without a lot of overloading.

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But double degree might be doable.

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I guess you could try, but wow. I fully intended to keep taking piano lessons while majoring in engineering, but quickly discovered that wasn’t realistic for me. I was studying almost all the time.

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As you can see, similar replies from overlap responders on both threads.

There is a big difference between an engineering major continuing to play in the marching band, and double majoring or double degreeing in performance violin and engineering. But if you audition into the school of music and apply to and get into the engineering major, i have a feeling that you will find it impossible to meet the demands of both.

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The music majors I know, most of whom went on to advanced degrees, are all working and leading pretty good lives. I feel for young people who want a Plan B. I understand it. The financial path in engineering may be easier than music, and not only college but life has burdensome costs. But I just want to say again, I hope the OP can pursue violin as an undergrad, one way or the other, without the undue stress of doing both violin and engineering.

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I have 2 kids that went through the process. One was adament on double degree. He did complete double degree. His 2nd degree was BS Comp Sci. Alot of the early reqs were the same as pre-engineering. It was rigourous and difficult but he’s happy with it.

So I will say we did meet a few engineering AND music students on our travels. They were all at large public universities that had pretty flexible UG music programs. I’d plan on budgeting for 5 years and consider what you will do over your summers. If you want to apply to double degree, try to do sample lessons and ask teachers directly what that is like. Some teachers may not be excited about double degree students in their studios. Including at schools that may advertise double degree all over their marketing materials. Having a supportive and flexible music teacher is key to success here.

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Howdy there Pyrostrike! I’m currently a senior undergrad in Violin Performance-- but I have a lot of fellow peers who double major and also want to give you some things to consider to help inform you on double major life!
WARNING LONG POST!!

For reference: my school is a competitive University with a Music Program on one campus.

Some campuses(a music program school x university/college) merge to allow people a dual degree but that includes two applications usually and also you have to consider physical commute and the such. But there are so many great universities with strong and solid music programs without that complicated two-campus mix to choose from.

Imma try to write things out also based on how I see you list your thoughts in your post:

  1. passion for music being way greater than mechanical engineering:
    The best way to really get a grasp of how much you would like mechanical engineering is to scope out what it’s genuinely like at the schools you are interested in. Whether it is asking about it on CC site underneath the engineering threads or searching up college syllabuses-- heck if you are nearby a college campus or a community college or an online course offered by colleges: I double dare you to audit a class to get a feel for the real deal. Your music expectations and assumptions are all pretty true: private lessons, orchestra, ensemble, theory, music history, ear training, and so on and so forth. But I think HS doesn’t do the best job of teaching what non-music fields really feel like in the academic setting. I would say within the first year of college: you would also get a good grasp of what you can do to the finish line. And for some colleges: you don’t get to declare your double until your second year-- so even if you go with the intent to double, your first year really shakes out what the rest of the journey looks like.

  2. Your ideal vision of music college–> backup career in music
    Music as a backup choice is fine-- especially with how time-consuming any coursework is already in college. BUT Keep in mind: your engineering professors only care about engineering: they don’t assume you do anything else. Most college professors for every field they are in don’t think too much outside of your participation in their classes.
    It’s already a challenge to schedule music courses with anything else. Music program schedules usually look like designated music core courses, and orchestra (at most: think two meetings per week, say 3 hrs per meeting), chamber rehearsal+ coaching, and your own lessons and practice time.
    And most uni/college with music programs that you choose for your dual program require general ed classes: so you are stuck with about 5-6 hours of lectures dedicated to those courses too. Outside of your engineering classes. The good news is: in most stem classes, you can get away with not attending classes but music in college is small enough to require attendance as part of your grade and participation.
    I ain’t gonna lie: schools wanna get you in for four years-- and out in four years, double major is so tricky because you do twice the work. You gotta do more work ontop of your music things-- and you exert a lot physically and mentally more than your engineer peers if you double these two. If it also helps: scope out the music programs carefully-- consider the teacher and the quantity of work you have to do to meet the standard of musician you are working towards to be.
    Most of my peers are doing really hard dual programs but after rooming with just engineering majors for all my time at college so far: I can confirm: whoa they got stuff to do too.

But I think dual programs are doable: however, you really require a lot of strong time management skills and there are going to be some sacrifices here and there.

I’m here to offer alternatives and helpful steps:
+transferrable Summer classes: take them every year to get rid of credits during the summer to ensure your regular term classes can be more breathable and manageable.
+Look up on what requirements are necessary at the schools you are going to: what classes in your senior year are you taking that will make sure you get out of certain requirements? Are there any ap tests you can take to avoid as many requirements as possible for Music or engineering? (for music majors: usually having an AP language test score is helpful!!-- for engineers… I’m guessing math-- but yeah go take a gander!)

+Yo-- I took music theory ap thinking I could get out music theory and I was wrong lol, so: don’t waste your hs class slots on music theory T v T UNLESS: the teacher is super good and that class is genuinely helpful.

+consider what backup music career you had in mind: if it’s not competitive/major orchestras/concert soloist/professorship/music education at schools and you wanna avoid the minor(with the music theory classes and music paperwork, really)-- GET ARTIST DIPLOMA INSTEAD OF BACHELORS it’s a program that isn’t a degree, but it’s a way to be kinda certified: yeah-- I know music good enough to play professional(chamber groups, informal and formal performances, private studio, tutoring, and etc). Such an overlooked option for dual-degree enthusiasts with super heavy non-music workloads.

+someone also mentioned minoring in engineering as an alt: I don’t disagree with also exploring that as an option!! I just don’t know what the average minor engineering experience is like.

+Which one to leave behind if u had to choose one… well. Most courses for each major are locked within the department. In this case, I would say it would be best for you to take engineering as a major(so that you can actually sign up for engineering classes as a student within the department so you have a fighting chance at signing up for classes); and try to join in the musical activities you can dedicate time to. Some if not most–college/unis have orchestras and ensembles you can join even if you aren’t a music major. The only thing you wouldn’t have a 10000% guarantee is the ability to be part of the violin professors’ studio. But this depends from school to school. Your best bet is to reach out during the school year and explain your interest in private lessons if possible. If you leave engineering and go for music: I just want to say that times are changing and we young people have to fight and innovate the landscape of musical careers. The road ahead of us is hard: but there are a lot more jobs in music than we think! College can be a great way for you to explore different topics in music and career choices for music specifically(it’s something you have to see and seek yourself).

Thanks for reading my response if you got to this point! Hope some of this is helpful and wish you the best of luck on your school journeys. Feel free to reach out if any of my suggestions are confusing or if you have more questions. Cheers to your senior year! :))

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