I’m currently a junior in high school, browsing through college majors and I was wondering if I should take a music minor. I was thinking about majoring in either Software Engineering or Mechanical Engineering. I also do have some musical experience since I play the piano and am currently taking AP music theory. Would it be useful to have a minor in music? I want to keep music in my life since it’s a big hobby for me.
Hi! High school senior here. I’m sure you’ve already heard that you don’t need to decide now, which has truth to it, but I’m not going to tell you that. You seem to value decisiveness, and that’s not a bad thing; I’m the same way!
I think that a minor in music would be fantastic! Studies show that playing music activates the same part of the brain that solving math problems does, which is important for any engineering field. My biggest concern would be the challenge to manage the extra coursework for the minor along with the engineering courses. Ultimately, though you should DEFINITELY continue your pursuits in music.
All the best! ?
It’s too soon to worry about this for several very practical reasons. For a start you don’t know what the requirements for a music minor are at the college you will go to! For example, the minor at Duke requires Music Theory (the AP can exempt you from the pre-req but not the course), plus 2 performance classes and 3 history / genre classes. That could be great fun!
But equally, you could decide that there are other things you also want to take, or you are only interested in 2 of the history/genre options, etc and not want to ‘finish’ the minor. Instead, you may just want to take random music classes. Staying with the Duke example, you can ‘declare’ a minor as late as autumn of your senior year, so really there is no need to decide this any time soon. Just include the music dept has part of your college evaluation process.
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*senior year of college!
tl;dr: follow your interests. If keeping music in your life takes the form of classes, great! if it takes the form of joining a student group, great! whatever works for that time & place.
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You can also continue with lessons and extracurricular performance, and take electives if possible, without worrying about a minor. Engineering is an intensive major but you should be able to continue music “on the side” in several ways, and lessons are often funded by the schools. Some even give credit for lessons and performance.
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I wouldn’t recommend it. Music is hard and engineering is hard. But it’s too early to decide now anyway.