<p>Long question, hoping it strikes a chord with a few people:
My daughter, a rising HS senior, has an interesting profile. Pretty good grades- 3.7 unweighted (4.4 weighted) in public school with several AP and Honors classes. ACT 33, SAT 2090 on first attempts (minimal prep) and her PSAT will puts her in NMF range for our state. She is into theatre (acting, costume design) and community advocacy for the arts and gender equality issues, spending hours per week on these passions, working in the community and traveling to lobby for the arts in DC and to national conferences, as well as 2-3 theatre productions per year. She has been offered internships at regional theater companies based on her advocacy showing in the public setting. However she does not want to be an actor, she wants to study computer science in an engineering school setting with a strong arts/ design emphasis. She knows what this involves as her father has been a Chief Technology Officer at multiple start-ups and she has the entrepreneur gene, but her school has no engineering exposure and her summers have been filled with the arts (she is in a audition-only University theatre program this summer, but did a programming camp last summer), so I wonder if engineering schools will take her seriously. She gets A’s in AP level science and English, but B’s in Honors math. When I look at target schools for her, it seems she doesn’t fit anywhere obvious. The Stanfords and Harvey Mudds have great programs in this vein of arts and design, but they are reaches. Olin is also interesting, but also a reach. Many traditional engineering schools are pretty hard core with minimal intersections with the arts. Would she be better off looking at computer science programs within liberal arts schools? (Suggestions much appreciated!) She is worried they will not be at the technical level she needs to work in innovative areas. Everyone talks about “STEM to STEAM” (putting more arts in STEM fields), the ascension of design in engineering and getting girls into (and retaining them) in E and computer science, but there are many girls like her who don’t have 800 Math SATs, or a hook such as sports or musical prodigiousness and are worried the rising admissions bar in these fields due to their perceived “return on investment” puts them out of reach. Even in the case of her interests, she hasn’t uploaded an app to the Apple Store or headed up her own initiative (although she has chaired a teen arts council). Where should women (or men!) like her be be targeting for their college education? </p>
<p>Perhaps she might be interested in the Bachelor’s of Computer Science and Arts degree at CMU?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/interdisciplinary/programs/bcsaprogram.html”>http://www.cmu.edu/interdisciplinary/programs/bcsaprogram.html</a></p>
<p>CMU SCS is also trying very hard to be female-friendly and open to people with limited STEM/CS experience; they’re about to hit a 50-50 ratio in a few years. Instead of programming experience, they look at indicators of programming potential. CMU is also reputed very highly in both CS and theater/arts. And they also set up an Entertainment Technology Center and a group/project-based course named Building Virtual Worlds which seems to have the interdisciplinarity you might be seeking. I don’t want to say too much (as I’m a biased source- CMU ECE '18) but it might be worth looking at since CMU seems to be more of a match school.</p>
<p>Also, check this new degree program out: <a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ideate/concentrations-and-minors/index.html”>http://www.cmu.edu/ideate/concentrations-and-minors/index.html</a></p>
<p>This seems to mix those interests pretty well.</p>
<p>I’m not an engineering or CS expert, but my observation is that partnerships between engineering and art departments are proliferating, as computer applications become more visually sophisticated. Interdisciplinary programs can be found at several engineering schools. A few less selectives to look at:</p>
<p>Arizona State <a href=“http://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/degrees/ame.php”>http://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/degrees/ame.php</a></p>
<p>Lehigh <a href=“IDEAS: Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts and Sciences < Lehigh University”>http://catalog.lehigh.edu/coursesprogramsandcurricula/interdisciplinaryundergraduatestudy/ideas/</a></p>
<p>WUSTL <a href=“Interdisciplinary Programs - Washington University in St. Louis”>http://wustl.edu/academics/interdisciplinary.html</a></p>
<p>Purdue <a href=“Interdisciplinary Engineering - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University”>Interdisciplinary Engineering - School of Engineering Education - Purdue University;
<p>I would also look at at Smith College which offers engineering, CS and theater and a lot of support to women in the sciences. And Swarthmore:
</p>
<p>If she chooses CS instead of engineering she’ll have lots of choices in interdisciplinary programs. CMU’s BXA program is notable, but actually you can find many interdisciplinary programs linking CS to just about any other major. The possibility of double majoring in CS and theater is also doable at many colleges.</p>
<p>@kateheart Just another vote for CMU- an obviously great CS school but strong in the arts (including Drama) as well.</p>
<p>I don’t totally ‘get’ BXA [edit: now I do] but the HCI secondary major looks very interesting for a visual arts-oriented student that is contemplating CS:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/undergraduate-program”>http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/undergraduate-program</a></p>
<p>And CMU has a great School of Design that has an undergraduate program of some sort:</p>
<p><a href=“http://design.cmu.edu/programs/undergrad”>http://design.cmu.edu/programs/undergrad</a></p>
<p>As @dividerofzero said I think CMU might be an academic match even with low math grades and good but not great math test scores, and I’m hoping myself that being female is a little bit of a hook at CMU.</p>
<p>another vote for CMU, and what have UCLA and USC going in this regard? or one of the other cali schools? what about Stanford? She does have a 33, after all. Is there no CSU that’s doing this kind of work? Where’s @ucbalumnus when you need him? </p>
<p>is she instate for the UCs?</p>
<p>Is there a Cal Poly that has this combo? SLU?</p>
<p>What about Santa Clara or LMU? I am thinking LMU might.</p>
<p>Is money no object? Can you pay $55k+ for any school?</p>
<p>Does she need financial safeties?</p>
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<p>Few CS majors have uploaded apps to the Apple store. Nor for the tech savvy is it all that impressive for those that have. The CS curriculum at colleges that offer it has many prerequisites. Shortcuts, such as taking the minimum number of courses to complete the major are unwise. The “solution” to your post is straightforward. Your daughter, if indeed she’s interested, should major in CS and take design/art courses as electives. Most large universities have competent CS programs – certainly state flagships, and most of the top 50 USNews rated universities. They also would have competent design courses. She can get a sense of the opportunities to mix CS and design through class projects and internships.</p>
<p>Hey everyone, sorry I did not re-post after my question. She took some advice here and decided to apply to computer science programs in the liberal arts setting. She decided she leaned more that way than industrial design, although that was very attractive. With her theater background and interest in sound design and language, she is looking at schools with strong linguistics and cognitive sci programs as well as CS. Also, Yale is very much a reach but does have a “CS and the Arts” major with a theater track. Carnigie-Mellon did not appeal because the large separation of performing arts and CS/ Engineering schools. Northwestern has a dual degree with schools of Engineering/ Communications (where theater lives). Vassar and Carleton are good in CogSci, as are some of the UCs (in-state for us). Not a great CS school, but she feel in love with Wesleyan. I apppreciate all of your fine thoughts in this matter.</p>
<p>Well being a girl helps in terms of engineering admissions because it’s mostly dominated by males.
Likewise being into the humanities and arts helps in some ways because she comes off more well-rounded then the typical engineering applicant. </p>
<p>With that said the worrying aspect for me is, like you said, that she hasn’t developed an app. Typically people who enjoy theater or drama would not be interested into spending hours behind a computer screen writing code. If her hobbies outside the classroom have been humanities based why would she suddenly turn 100% and became STEM? </p>
<p>You should get her to start writing code right now and see if she really likes it. </p>
<p>Check the Arts and Technology program at University of Texas-Dallas:
<a href=“This is the default server vhost”>http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/</a></p>
<p>UTD also offers good National Merit scholarships or Academic Excellence Scholarships:
<a href=“http://oue.utdallas.edu/aes/”>http://oue.utdallas.edu/aes/</a></p>
<p>Did she make NMSF?</p>
<p>deleted</p>