Is it Doable? Bachelor of Art in Piano (or Violin) + Pre-Med.

[Anonymous]

DD is in MCPS Math and Science magnet program, and is very much interested into 2 college majors - Music and Medical
One of the plans is to go for a Bachelor of Art in Piano (or Violin, she is split on these instruments too!!), obtain pre-med. credits at the same time, take MCAT, and apply for med. schools.
Anyone in the same boat or had similar situation? Is it doable at all?

[Anonymous]

My physician husband was a bio/English double major, so I believe it can be done. Finding the right college that has a good program in both areas will be important.

[Anonymous]

It would be quite tough, and unless you kid wants to be a professional musician, it really doesn't make all that much sense to major in instrument performance and try to be premed. The time constraints of trying to meld a schedule of laboratory science requirements along with all the required practice/orchestra/chamber music and theory classes would be very challenging. And depending on the school, one can continue to study/play very seriously without actually being a conservatory student, i.e. find a great teacher, keep playing in an orchestra, although being a music major in a non-conservatory program plus premed would be doable. I went to college with Yo Yo Ma and Lynn Chang at Harvard. Ma was not a music major! But clearly his musical career didn't suffer. Chang was premed but an incredible violinist who played a lot of chamber music with Yo Yo. Lots of my DD's friends were super serious musicians before college, but chose the non-performance major route but still play incredibly well and seriously as an avocation in college, continue to study with conservatory teachers, etc. Have to choose carefully though, some big schools with strong conservatories do not permit double majoring, and if you are not in the conservatory can't play in the top orchestra or chorus because spots "saved" for conservatory students. This was true at Rice, USC, big 10 programs (Michigan, Indiana), but places like Oberlin and Northwestern are more welcoming to dual majors or non-music majors playing in top ensembles if they are good enough. Most of the Ivys, particularly HYP and Columbia are full of serious musicians, and their orchestras are surprisingly good, and many students continue to study with great teachers associated with NYC or Boston conservatories.

[Anonymous]

Pre-med isn't a major, FYI. Prospective medical students can major in anything they want. My family practitioner, for example, has a BA in Art History.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be quite tough, and unless you kid wants to be a professional musician, it really doesn't make all that much sense to major in instrument performance and try to be premed. The time constraints of trying to meld a schedule of laboratory science requirements along with all the required practice/orchestra/chamber music and theory classes would be very challenging. And depending on the school, one can continue to study/play very seriously without actually being a conservatory student, i.e. find a great teacher, keep playing in an orchestra, although being a music major in a non-conservatory program plus premed would be doable. I went to college with Yo Yo Ma and Lynn Chang at Harvard. Ma was not a music major! But clearly his musical career didn't suffer. Chang was premed but an incredible violinist who played a lot of chamber music with Yo Yo. Lots of my DD's friends were super serious musicians before college, but chose the non-performance major route but still play incredibly well and seriously as an avocation in college, continue to study with conservatory teachers, etc. Have to choose carefully though, some big schools with strong conservatories do not permit double majoring, and if you are not in the conservatory can't play in the top orchestra or chorus because spots "saved" for conservatory students. This was true at Rice, USC, big 10 programs (Michigan, Indiana), but places like Oberlin and Northwestern are more welcoming to dual majors or non-music majors playing in top ensembles if they are good enough. Most of the Ivys, particularly HYP and Columbia are full of serious musicians, and their orchestras are surprisingly good, and many students continue to study with great teachers associated with NYC or Boston conservatories.

Great post but try using paragraphs next time.

[Anonymous]

My son is in med school now. His undergrad was a double major in biology and Italian and he minored in music. I think he regularly slept 4 hours a night.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely can major in something non-scientific and be pre-med as many PPs have indicated, premed is not a major in most schools. However the OP's question was regarding being an actual performance major, which is generally only possible in a conservatory program, and is really quite different from dual majoring or majoring in a non-science field while being premed in a school of arts and sciences. It is incredibly intensive, having gone through such a program myself in the past. And I then went back to a post-baccalaurate program to do premed requirements to go to med school. If I were to do it over, I would not do a performance major, and would have gone to a regular arts and science program with a really strong music program/school within the university, and just continue to study voice and perform while there, but not as a voice major.

I would really question the practicality of doing premed while a performance major, and suspect most music schools would strongly discourage it, even if not prohibited.

[Anonymous]

OP here: We only consider UMD at this point because it's instate tuition, and offers music ensembles and science labs on one campus. UMD offers Bachelor of Art in Piano (requires 51 Music credits) and Bachelor of Music in Piano (requires 74 Music credits). The BA degree requires much less "Music" credits than the BM degree.

DD does not want to be a professional musician, but very fascinated with classical music and wants to study the subject.
The idea of taking up a BA instead of BM was to free up selective credits. DD will need to pick up ~38 pre-med. credits, and ~48 core credits in order to obtain a BA and be able to apply Medical school. It bring the total credit required to ~137. However, some of the pre-med cr. fulfill core requirements, and some of her high school credits will be transferred as college credits. We need to sit down with a counselor to nail down the exact courses.

I'm leaning toward the Piano major instead of Violin major because piano is mostly a solo instrument and does not need to attend many afternoon ensemble sessions which will conflict with the afternoon science lab sessions.

It seems like a working plan, but is there anything I didn't think of and make this plan too hard to go through?

[Anonymous]

How many years is she willing to be an undergrad?

[Anonymous]

When we toured Oberlin this summer our tour guide was a Music (I think Vocal Performance)/Biology double major, and she was planning on going to med school. She was on the 5 year plan.

[Anonymous]

Purely anecdotal, but I met a lovely PhD candidate from UMd this weekend at a dinner party, who is close to obtaining her PhD in piano performance. She is also pursuing an MD, and I'm not certain whether she's doing that at the same time, or staggering her degrees. In any event, there are likely some students at UMd who are doing this, or who have done it, and perhaps the admissions folks could put you and your DD in touch with them to discuss logistics and the reality of trying to take it all on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many years is she willing to be an undergrad?

+1

[Anonymous]

Op here: Her plan is a 4 year undergrad (get a BA, and obtain required pre-med. credits), another 4 year medical (if she gets in), and another 4 or 5 years of anesthesiology residency.

I believe the tour guide that PP refers to is in Oberlin's double degrees program which is a 5 year program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: We only consider UMD at this point because it's instate tuition, and offers music ensembles and science labs on one campus. UMD offers Bachelor of Art in Piano (requires 51 Music credits) and Bachelor of Music in Piano (requires 74 Music credits). The BA degree requires much less "Music" credits than the BM degree.

DD does not want to be a professional musician, but very fascinated with classical music and wants to study the subject.
The idea of taking up a BA instead of BM was to free up selective credits. DD will need to pick up ~38 pre-med. credits, and ~48 core credits in order to obtain a BA and be able to apply Medical school. It bring the total credit required to ~137. However, some of the pre-med cr. fulfill core requirements, and some of her high school credits will be transferred as college credits. We need to sit down with a counselor to nail down the exact courses.

I'm leaning toward the Piano major instead of Violin major because piano is mostly a solo instrument and does not need to attend many afternoon ensemble sessions which will conflict with the afternoon science lab sessions.

It seems like a working plan, but is there anything I didn't think of and make this plan too hard to go through?

FWIW, I recently graduated and was required to get 120 credits total to graduate (x credits for major + x credits for gen ed curriculum) and ended up graduating with 137 credits in 4 years. I only took one 3-credit summer class all 4 years and didn't kill myself, so it's definitely doable.

[Anonymous]

I would highly suggest she do a minor with a major in Biology or Neuroscience. It is incredibly important that she get very good grades. Overdoing it could mean a mediocre application to med school. Plus she needs clinical hours so she will need to work part time as well.