<p>Megnut, law schools in general do not care what your major was in college. Admission to law school is driven by metrics for the most part. If you have the grades and LSAT scores that make you competitive for the school, whether you majored in theater or a more traditional academic area has little impact if any.</p>
<p>I would also add that if your daughter "thinks" she wants to major in MT but "knows" she also wants to have a focus on traditional academics, a BA program may better suit her. In a typical BFA program, there is a heavy focus on performance based courses and far fewer opportunities to take traditional academics. It is usually tough to even minor in something outside of MT. BA programs give you far more flexibility. There are some schools that have more of a "balance", however, and Tisch may be one of them. From what I understand, students at Tisch take performance courses 3 days a week and academics 2 days for at least the first 2 years. There are others on this Board who are very knowledgeable about Tisch and I would certainly encourage you to speak to Tisch directly to explore what your D's curriculim would really look like over the course of 4 years.</p>
<p>The thread title is a bit deceiving, as it quickly redirects to many points brought up in this discussion. While not specifically MT focused, there are numerous viewpoints and experiences from those in or entering a performance based field.</p>
<p>SRluvMT - I'm in the same boat with my son. Try to encourage your daughter to check out the MT programs at Northwestern, NYU and U Mich. There are lots of schools with great MT programs that put a huge emphasis on academics and a broad education and have numerous course of study of options, but those are the three that come to mind first.</p>
<p>My son is at Northwestern and is pursuing a second major in addition to Theatre/MT, and is so happy. If your daughter has AP credits, double majoring is very doable, if she chooses to do so.</p>
<p>My daughter wanted to head east and got into NYU. The Northwestern accapella (sp?) group sung at our high school in Dec! She has a good friend in that group.</p>
<p>Megnut, do you know which acappella group it was? There are several at NU. It could have been The Undertones, Purple Haze, Thunk, Freshman 15... can't remember the others. If it was The Undertones or Purple Haze, chances are my son knows him/her.</p>
<p>Definitely check out Northwestern. They used to have a double major of Voice Performance and Journalism at Medil that they have now put on hold. </p>
<p>University of Michigan's MT program also gives a full academic program according to their presentation. </p>
<p>I would also suggest checking out Indiana at Bloomington. Indiana has a top Music program and good programs in acting and dance. It also has some other departments that are well ranked. </p>
<p>My D came to the conclusion that although she loves MT she would not be happy in college unless she could be challenged academically. She cancelled remaining auditions for BFA programs even if they offered her a spot in the honor program because they were ranked lower than her other options. This is what individually works for her.</p>
<p>My d initially thought she wanted to pursue a BFA in MT. She had very extensive dance trainin as well as some vocal and acting during the years leading to college. She also really wanted to continue to study dance in an academically challenging setting. She has been at Barnard now for three years and not only continues her dance training, but has found that she loves neuroscience, of all things! Being at Barnard (in NYC, for those of you may not be familiar with it) has allowed her to prepare herself for applying to PhD programs and also audition for professional shows in NYC (with some success). Obviously, she is not an "all or nothing" MT lover like most of your kids on this forum. I really admire those who have the chutzpah (spelling???) to pursue that dream, and the parents who support them. We would have done the same for our d had she chosen that path.</p>
<p>So, to the OP, if your daughter continues on her present path, considering Barnard would certainly be an option for her to consider. The great thing about being an excellent student is that you leave yourself many additional options when you are ready for those college applications and auditions!</p>
<p>Your mentioning that your D is studying neuroscience is very interesting. In January I attended an Equity touring production of "Wicked" in Cincinnati. I always read the performers' bios in Playbill. I recall reading that one of the women in the ensemble had a B.S. in neuroscience. Who knows? Maybe your D will still end up performing :).</p>
<p>I have a son in your daughters position. He has been attending a performing arts high school for 3 years now and has a 4.5 GPA with his first SAT being 2110 out of 2400. We are looking at Univ. of Michigan, Penn State, and Syracuse University. I think that you will find a great desire to allow very talented and bright students to do a dual or concurrent major between 2 different disciplines. My son is interested in renewable energy and MT is his passion, so all of the 3 schools mentioned have a dual MT/Engineering degree. I would look into those 3 to start. Hope this helps</p>
<p>dual MT BFA's and Engineering degrees? Or they will allow double majors (which some BFA's absolutely will not)? Please make sure when you hear things like that you make certain you know the number of credits necessary to graduate. Typically a BFA will carry 70% of the total number of credits needed to graduate. I would be willing to bet the engineering would be nearly the same. Let's suggest that you need 120 credits to graduate, with 78 of those being from MT and another 60 from Engineering and the rest as core credits. </p>
<p>I would suggest a minimum of five years of college. Of course, in a BA, it may still be five years, but five less credit intensive years.</p>
<p>britbrat1961,
I highly recommend you check with each of the schools you listed as well as any others your son is considering with regard to the ability/possibility of double majoring when pursuing a BFA in MT... I would think it is highly unlikely that this could be accomplished in 4 years, if at all, unless the student went to school for at least 6 years. BTW my D is in the BFA MT program at PSU and the BFA course load is such that it is difficult to get even the gen eds done in addition to the BFA requirements UNLESS a student comes in with a boatload of credits or does summer school. JMHO.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. We are hoping with all of my sons AP credits, that he will eliminate close to one whole year of his credits needed toward his general ed. He has his scores already for AP Calculus -5, AP Biology-5 and AP World History-5. He will be taking AP Physics, AP Macroeconomics and AP Chemistry next year. With these credits satisfied, we are hoping that it is possible to do it in 4 years. I guess only time will tell</p>
<p>I'm not arguing... just curious. The U of M BFA is 80+ credits without the core. The engineering is 90. Even if the AP credits cover the core the student has 170 credits. I don't recall if U of M is on trimesters. If they are, these dual degrees are possible in 12 terms, at least on paper. If the school is a semester system I don't see how it could be possible. </p>
<p>I am impressed with U of M's dual degree programs, though. Many institutions allow dual degrees, but I really don't know of many with such intensive majors that encourages them. I have nothing but respect for the institution.</p>
<p>Britbrat my D had a similar dilemma but with another discipline. She discovered a BFA is akin to a double major all by itself and it was impractical or impossible to pursue another discipline at the same time. If she went for the BFA it had to be a 100% commitment. On the other hand, it was not necessary to have a BFA to succeed in the theatre. While BFAs are great ways to acquire voice, acting and dancing skills, they are not the only ways to acquire those skills for success at an eventual audtion - which is all that counts because they won't care what your degree is just how well you performed at the audition. </p>
<p>Luckily she found that perfect fit school. It has great resources in the arts and great opportunity in the second discipline. It was important to her to not have to transfer and be satisfied with the school she chose in whichever direction she eventually goes. If I was your son I would research Engineering schools and see where a top Engineering school also has great theatre possibilities. </p>
<p>I went back and found a helpful post by SoozieVT who advised that Cornell and Dartmouth had good theatre departments (not so sure about MT opportunities there). She also suggested the following: </p>
<p>"If you are looking for schools of that caliber academically that are very good for theater, I suggest Brown and Yale. Both are not only excellent in this area, but they have numerous extracurricular opportunities in both straight theater and musical theater (let alone strong a capella groups too). I also suggest Conn College, Skidmore, Brandeis, Boston College, Middlebury, Tufts, and Northwestern. All are excellent schools and offer very good theater and most have MT opportunities as well. I know a bunch of highly talented MT kids who WANTED a BA degree program (and who were competitive for BFAs in MT or even got into them) and many of them have schools like Yale, Brown, Northwestern, etc. as their schools of choice. Many of my D's friends who are top talents in MT are now attending these schools as well. So, if you are looking into Dartmouth and Cornell and are passionate about MT, I would also look at the other schools I named (and others, but just mentioned some that come to my mind off the bat)."</p>
<p>One other thing to keep in mind as you investigate dual degree/major opportunities and try to map out a game plan is that the number of credits required in a MT BFA program does not equate to the time commitment required or even the number of class hours. For example, my daughter carried 16 credit hours and 16.5 credit hours as a freshman fall and spring semesters. She actually had 26 and 27.5 hours of classes per week. Add to it required time serving as crew on shows, required time attending shows as part of her class assignments, practice time and other homework and her days were long and packed. And this was as a freshman where she was not yet in shows herself with attendant rehearsal time.</p>
<p>In addition, AP credits will not free up as much time as one might think. In most BFA programs, the gen ed requirements are very limited. For example, at Syracuse, which you mentioned, the curriculum provides for only 8 classes outside of the department which is not even enough for a minor. So even if AP credits satisfy all the gen ed requirements for the BFA, not that much time is freed up for the dual degree or major.</p>
<p>All of which is not to say that it can't be done, but I think it is important to speak in depth with reps from both departments to get a handle on the realities of how it could be structured beyond what appears on school websites. Also, as has been suggested, you may want to look at BA programs which by nature allow for more flexibility in approaching dual degrees/majors.</p>
<p>I would echo what a lot of people wrote above. To me, it is the combination of the two particular degree programs....BFA in MT and Engineering....that is the issue. EACH of those programs are NOT like typical college majors in terms of the number of required courses and credits and the sheer number of hours involved in the major in sum. So, it is not simply a "double major". Both of those degree programs are the sort where the majority of the course work (about 65% or so) is in the program, unlike a typical major where perhaps about 35% of the coursework is in a major. Thus, it doesn't really add up (or at least within four years). </p>
<p>Already, at many BFA in MT Programs, a double major with something like English isn't even possible. But at some schools, that IS possible (though difficult), such as at NYU/Tisch. But that is combining a BFA with a REGULAR college major and not a heavy credit requirement major like Engineering. Even if coming in with AP credits (on top of the fact that some colleges may limit how many AP credits you can use), I don't see how a BFA in MT and Engineering can be combined and surely not in four years. If your son wants that combination, there are very few places where I believe that is possible. And as others stated, even putting aside the heavy amount of courses per those two particular "majors", a BFA in MT program is so intensive in terms of TIME.....my kid is in one and goes to school ALL DAY and is in rehearsals every night until very late and also on weekends. I know kids in engineering have hours of homework doing problem sets. If also in a BFA program, how would one spend hours on problem sets after getting out of rehearsal at 11 PM (unless one just doesn't do shows). </p>
<p>In my opinion, if your son is passionate about both Engineering and Theater, he should go to a BA program where he may be able to do both. For instance, at my alma mater, Tufts, I believe he could do Engineering and Theater (and there are musicals there too). Lots of other selective schools have engineering and a BA in Theater....like Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Harvard, Brown. </p>
<p>I have never met anyone in a BFA in MT who is also in Engineering. I have met double degrees with Engineering where the second degree is a BA (which could be in theater).</p>
<p>I work at a university with a very well respected (top) engineering program and have a hard time imagining anyone being able to fulfill requirements for the typical BFA and the typical engineering program. That is A LOT! :) Again, not saying it can't be done. But the kids we know who are in a musical theater BFA have schedules that keep them running from morning until night (or the next morning). Kudos to those who can do it!</p>
<p>britbrat....have you contacted the BFA in MT programs at those schools to ask if a double major with Engineering is possible?</p>
<p>For instance, on SU's engineering site, it mentions that engineering students can MINOR in something else. They don't mention another major but perhaps with AP credits a second major is possible BUT what I am doubting is that the BFA in MT can be combined with engineering. My guess is that maybe a second BA major is possible with Engineering but usually an engineering degree involves so many required courses that most can just take a minor with it. Same with a BFA in MT....the number of courses required often means just being able to take a minor with it, not another major, but even if another major, not a course heavy one like engineering. Please check with each BFA in MT program directly about the combo degree you are considering.</p>