Where is the intersection between STEM and art?

College Majors Visual Arts and Film Majors
1

I have a daughter (class of 2017) who has always excelled at math, but in recent years has shown a strong preference (and a lot of talent!) for visual art, specifically drawing. What are some options for majors and/or career paths that make use of both of those talents?

I’ve thought of video game design; she’s attended a computer programming camp for a couple of summers. She did well at coding, but it didn’t turn her into someone who loves to code. What else is there? I’ve seen the term “digital media” but I don’t really know what that means.

She’s a very strong student (34 ACT and 4.0 UW GPA in the most challenging classes at her school). We live in Silicon Valley and we’ve visited several colleges on the West Coast – UC Santa Cruz, the Claremont consortium (her older sister attends Scripps), Reed, Lewis & Clark.

D would prefer to attend a school on the West Coast just to be close to home, but she’s not averse to going farther away.

She is a very indecisive person in general, and she says she has no idea what she wants to major in. So I’m not trying to be a controlling parent by researching possible paths for her – I’m just trying to give her some options she might not think of for herself. Art is definitely her favorite class (she takes IB Visual Arts at her high school) and she might want to just major in art, but I worry that she would find it hard to carve a path forward for herself with an art degree. She enjoys drawing, but she’s not someone who “lives and breathes art” in that truly driven and passionate way. What does someone who doesn’t live to make art do with an art degree once they graduate?

Anyway, any suggestions for how to combine skill at math with talent for drawing are welcome!

2

@dustypig I know this isn’t a West Coast school but this is a degree that seems to match your daughter’s interests. Maybe by looking at this curriculum, you will be able to find other similar programs?

https://viz.arch.tamu.edu/undergraduate/

My DS17 is also interested in the creative side of things and is strong in math. I’ve been researching similar types of degrees. If I find anything else, I’ll keep you posted.

3

@jedwards70, thanks, that program looks interesting!

4

Hmm, UC San Diego has a major called “Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts” under the Visual Arts department. Can’t find anything else about it on their website, though.

5

Whoops, here it is: http://visarts.ucsd.edu/icam-interdisciplinary-computing-and-arts-major

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I thought my daughter would be an art major but when push came to shove, she did not want art to be work and chose architectural engineering–a branch of civil engineering focused on buildings and definitely more on the STEM side of the intersection. She loves it and is great at it as well. She still does art as a hobby and is growing her skills there as well.
On the west coast Cal Poly SLO and Stanford offer architectural engineering.

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@Parentof2014grad - that’s a good point about not wanting art to be work. I don’t think my D would make it as a studio artist, trying to make a living selling her art. But I wonder if her talent as an artist can help her in another career.

Your daughter’s focus sounds great but I can’t get my D interested in anything related to engineering. She is not at all an engineering type – no interest in how things work, how things are made, how to build things and take them apart, etc. She likes intellectual puzzles but only of the abstract kind – present her with a physical problem and she runs the other way.

8

Art is very personal. My daughter wanted to be able to create as she wished without the external pressure or feeling that others are judging her, so she chose to keep art as a hobby. Her art skills are growing, but it’s not a career path for her at this time. I can see her coming back to it in a vocational setting someday.

Honestly, my D didn’t ever take anything apart, play with Legos, care how thing work, or any of the things you read are signs of a future in engineering. She was great at helping dad troubleshoot and fix problems with the sprinkler system. She did find math and physics (and chemistry) easy and art is where the spatial ability showed up in an obvious way. Engineering caught us off guard, but two years in, the aptitude is more obvious. Her classes cover many engineering disciplines but she’s focused a bit more on electrical and lighting design, and acoustics (she’s also a musician).
My mom has considerable talent in art, but studied accounting in school with a few art classes on the side. Many years later she became a professional graphic designer.
Architecture might be another possibility for your daughter to consider. Or Landscape design?

9

Industrial design.

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Hmm, @Parentof2014grad, that’s interesting. I certainly wouldn’t rule it out – though she’s unlikely to get into Stanford, and she probably won’t apply to Cal Poly simply because you have to choose a major and she doesn’t know what she wants to do.

@gouf78, industrial design does seem like it could be a possibility for her. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to be offered at any of the schools she’s considering! I think she would need to take a class and see if she likes it before committing to it.

11

I just posted this in the Parents of 2017 thread but it’s relevant for this thread and others may someday read this looking for insights, so:

Well, that was interesting. Just returned from a session with D’s college counselor, where we discussed potential majors. She was kind of “eh” about everything we discussed, until we started talking about art (still “eh”) and then her counselor said something about graphic design and industrial design. D’s face LIT UP and she started talking about how some people from the Academy of Art San Francisco had visited her high school art class and showed them a video about what they do, “and it was SO COOL!”

So I think she seriously needs to look at schools that have design/media programs. I’m going through websites now and so far I see UCLA, UCSD, UCD all have various kinds of digital art/design/media majors. And the Claremont schools have a Media Studies major that is offered jointly by all 5 consortium schools together and that allows a concentration in digital/electronic media. This certainly seems to be an up-and-coming field of study in universities these days.

Interestingly, her objection to studying regular old studio art is because she gets bored with the constant search for “meaning” in art. I mentioned art history and she said “no!” with an appalled look on her face. Ha.

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@dustypig, I rarely post on CC anymore, but I wanted to respond to you. We’re in CA, but my son didn’t care about staying close. Even though you said West Coast, I would check out U Penn’s DMD (Digital Media Design) major, a full fledged engr. degree, but focused on game design of sorts.

My son applied to college in fall, 2014. (Graduated in 2015, but took a gap year, and will be going to college this fall) He had a 2230 3.84 u/w 4.41 w, no APs, and about 39 units of community college. Couple of 700+ SAT IIs. Was homeschooled. Only really strong parts of application were cello supplement and some robotics awards in jr. year. He also submitted a weak arts/animation supplement to a few schools.

He had a wide variety of interests/majors to which he was drawn. I don’t recommend applying to 22 schools like he did, but it is what it is. At the time, he was more STEM-y than he is now. With that in mind, here’s where he applied. Oh, and we definitely looked at the Claremont schools IMS program, but in the end, he did not apply. Thought he wanted engineering until he struggled with pre-calc in fall of senior year.

Stanford- Product Design (In retrospect, bad choice since he was weak in STEM, but good choice for a strong STEM) student. Rejected.

SJSU- Industrial Design. Accepted.

UCI-Computer Game Science. Accepted.

UCLA-Electrical Engineering (bad choice! Should have done the Design Media Arts, but did not want to do the portfolio). Waitlisted.

UCSD-ICAM. Accepted.

Cal Poly SLO-Mech Engr (again, bad choice! Not sure why we had him apply since he lost interest in engr) WL.

CSULB-Industrial Design. Accepted.

CSU Fullerton-Entertainment Art/Animation. Accepted. Also competed for full tuition scholarship but didn’t get it.

SDSU-Mech Engr. (see above). Accepted.

SDSMT-Metallurgic Engr. Accepted.

Missouri S&T-Metallurgic Engr. Accepted.

UT Dallas-Arts and Technology. Accepted with full tuition scholarship.

UC Colo Springs. BI in Game Design. Accepted.

UAH-Mech Engr. (Loved the school; would have liked to attend. Would have switched majors, I’m sure) Accepted.

U of Rochester-Digital Media Studies. Accepted. (Good scholarships)

Northeastern- Digital Arts and Game Design. Accepted.

WUSTL-Film. (No real major that matched) WL

Vanderbilt-Film. (No real major that matched) Rejected.

Univ. Of Pennsylvania- Fine Arts.(Considered DMD, but he was a weak STEM applicant) Accepted.

MIT-Comparative Media Studies. Rejected.

Dartmouth- Can’t remember. Film? But they have a Digital Arts minor. Rejected.

Purdue-Industrial Design. Accepted (good scholarships).

13

Marketing – It has analytical and creative elements.

14

Interior design

15

I can across this degree at Arizona State today and thought of your DD. It sounds really interesting.

https://artsmediaengineering.asu.edu/degree-programs/digital-culture

The Barrett Honors Program sounds like it would help your D find her group.

16

for industrial design in CA look at Long Beach, SF state and SJ state.

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If your daughter is indecisive then she should attend a school that does not require major declaration on the application and has the flexibility for students to change major. Usually a private school is more flexible than a public school. My daughter was against STEM majors during HS. She went to UPenn and did not have a concrete major during the first year. Finally she switched to CS major and Fine Arts minor during her 4th semester.

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I think Penn would be an excellent reach school. My son originally was planning STEM, but struggled with math, so will be a Fine Arts major at Penn, focused on animation. He’d considered DMD, but that would be too hard for him. He might even drift into Cinema, but yes, as @coolweather mentioned, a school like Penn gives a student freedom to explore/decide in the first two years.

19

My D was very interested in RPI’s Design, Innovation and Society program. I know it is not on the west coast but it may provide a framework for you. In the end, she deiced to go more design and is an Industrial Design major at a STEM school.

http://www.sts.rpi.edu/pl/design-innovation-society-dis

Good luck!

20

Thanks everyone for all the advice! I’ve been away from CC for a while and didn’t see all these posts. I really appreciate all the great suggestions.

Right now I’m trying to let my D take the lead, which means letting her go through this process on her own timetable. I’ve dropped some suggestions about some of the programs mentioned here, but nothing has lit a spark with her – she listens politely and agrees that it might be interesting, and then she’s done with the subject. ~X(

We are going to go visit UCSD in September and I am going to see if I can get her a chance to meet with someone from the ICAM program.