Author: Micaela
Date: 2004-02-26 04:32
Mr. Lehrer: I would have to argue that 15,000 students is not by any means small. And why would Cal Tech not have a music program? MIT has a very good one.
Here are some TRUELY small schools that are decent for sciences and music:
Williams
Amherst (I honestly know very little about their music depts)
Swarthmore (had to mention it... 1,400 students, we have a shiny new science center and a fun music department. And no grad students!)
Wesleyan University (probably the weakest of these four in science)
Getting a Bit Bigger:
Princeton (smallish music dept)
Columbia (if he doesn’t mind a core curriculum)
Johns Hopkins (though the commute with Peabody is tough)
University of Rochester (probably a safety school and ditto about the commute)
University of Chicago
Stanford (I'm amazed you didn't mention it already)
MIT (of course)
Oberlin (not sure about sciences)
UPenn (much bigger but relatively individual-friendly)
I've heard a lot of bad things about Yale and didn't like it myself but I'm sure it's wonderful if you can deal with attention-hogging grad students and rampant snobbery (IMHO- just an impression...)
I visited Wesleyan, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Hopkins, Oberlin, Yale and Eastman (and Wellesley, Smith and Barnard but I'm guessing your son isn't considering those) if you'd like further impressions. I go to Swarthmore, where I'm a freshman music major.
It IS possible and even plausible to complete a double major in music and science here in four years.. It's important to distinguish between a BA/BS or BA/BA type of degree and anything involving a B Mus, which would require a lot more course work. The BA route would also involve much more academic music and less performance. Out of my list above, only Oberlin, Rochester and Hopkins fall under the "Five Year Plan" category. The double majors I know tend to be a bit stressed, but so is everyone else. If you have APs, that helps. If the school doesn't have too many distribution requirements (i. e. not Columbia) that helps more.
Good luck,
Micaela
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