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I don’t ENTIRELY agree with this opinion, BUT I do agree that it is unrealistic unless YOU (not your parents, who want you to be employable) are truly passionate about both subject areas; unless you can afford to spend (more like 6 years at UMich) two extra years to have two undergrad degrees; and unless you’re the type of person who is super amazingly organized, because it WILL be gruelling.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in your other thread, my son is at UMich SOM and did initially pursue a dual degree but later dropped to a single degree. He actually has a handful of friends who started out dual degreeing in perf AND Eng. I believe that now, in his final term of his final year, he has only a single one left who is still pursuing both. Most of them just found the work/scheduling a little overwhelming.</p>
<p>Engineering degree aside (and realize that at UMich, you would need to be accepted into BOTH the school of music AND the college of engineering to do both, and that same is not exactly a foregone conclusion – both are competitive admits) the thing we’re not hearing about is WHY you might either want to teach music or perform music. They are not really one in the same.</p>
<p>If you pursue music education, your passion to teach should be the dominant influence. If you pursue performance, likewise, your greatest joy should be performing. Teaching is not a fall-back. It is a vocation, every bit as much as performing or engineering.</p>
<p>SO the question shouldn’t be which is more demanding. The question should be which are you most passionate about. That passion is what will carry you forward when the going gets tough.</p>