L. Fortissimo

You might want to ask if not easy means next to impossible and why that might be. Are academic requirements for the music major extremely strenuous? Another question might be why majoring solely in music is not a school's claim to fame. Asking how graduates fare in securing further education at the graduate level or employment would not be a bad idea.

Borntoplay

That's a great question, being that it's only an ungraduate music school, the students would have to go somewhere else. I really have to do some reading on trial lessons/visits. I know there are some great threads pertaining to this in this cc music forum. I agree that labs and ensembles would be difficult. I think s would be more open to changing his second major than changing out of music. He's actually looking forward to music history and more challenging theory. Thanks everyone for the great advice!

singermom2

When my D visited Blair last year our tour guide was a double major - music and political science. We got the impression this was pretty common both from her and the head of the voice dept. Also they were selling the point that it is only undergrad so there is not competition from grad students in doing performances or for faculty time. The music school is far away from most of campus but nice.

Borntoplay

Another great question to ask.."What percentage of your music students double major?" I am just going to come out and ask at our lesson/visit in a couple of weeks. I hope it's a large enough percentage, because I think that double majoring is important to my s. Most importantly, however, is my s impression of his trumpet lesson. I guess the teacher is the first critical deciding factor. I read on another thread where Team_mom said that it is not just the communication, but how it's communicated that matters. I guess it's why these lesson/visits are important.

RedHerring

Perhaps another inquiry you might want to make, Borntoplay, is "what percentage of students double majoring graduate in 4 years?"

The perceived ability to double major AND graduate in 4 years was a significant, and perhaps the decisive factor in my DD's choice of Vanderbilt/Blair over Rice, Northwestern, and Oberlin. Northwestern and Oberlin have 5 year plans; Rice does not.

Blairin

The majority of people who double major at Blair do so as an attempted safeguard in case they can't 'make it' in the professional music scene upon graduation. Other justifications I've heard are, "I'm gonna get everything I can out of my 50k a year tuition." Most faculty professors will only allow double majoring with a musical arts degree (not performance), though there are exceptions.