August 5, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR DAVINIA CHISM IN TX
Your interest are admirable and show your curiosity in the world is well
balanced.

There is no reason why you cannot pursue both your interests in college.
In fact, I highly recommend it. College is the resource for you to learn
what YOU want to learn. The curriculum guidelines printed in the course
catalogs and given to you by advisors are the minimum requirements to
receive a degree. The provide RECOMMENDATIONS for which courses to take in
which years to achieve this degree in a standard 4 year period. There is
flexibility in these plans and they are not set in stone.

Every degree has a list of requirements of courses that you must have to
get the degree (either major or minor). By choosing very different
subjects, you may end up taking more hours to finish all of your coursework
and achieving the major and minor than in a normal 4 year degree. An
attentive advisor should be able to work with you on this and help minimize
the extra hours.

As far as the demands on your time - college is very different from high
school in that you are the main motivator to ensure your work is done and
your time budgeted wisely. Especially in the sciences, the freshman
courses can be work intensive. Not hard, just a large quantity of
exercises. The idea is to teach the students that they must develop good
study habits, responsibility, time management and develop resources for
finding answers in places other than the textbook.

There is no reason why you can't pursue both. Just be sure to balance how
many courses you take per semester with your available time and you will be
fine. It may take you 4 years with summers to finish your degree. Or
longer. College is a great opportunity to study many subjects you are
interested in. This process will help you discover your true talents and
interests and lead you to a fulfilling career and life.

Work closely with an advisor and let them know you are serious about your
interests while showing you are responsible enough to not overload
yourself. You seem to know your interests well, but I also recommend a
book, 'What Color is Your Parachute' by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book
helps you find your true interests and focuses on careers where you can
combine them. It also helps you learn way to pursue these varied interests
in both traditional and nontraditional ways. A new version is issued every
year.

Good Luck in your pursuits!
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A: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT IN IL
Hi Kate! You may be excited to know that a GEM-SET student from last year
was also interested in SET and musical theater (also spelled theatre). You
can see her question and the answers she got if you go to the GEM-SET web
site (www.gem-set.org), click "Daily Digest", and click "February
2002". You can either manually scroll down or use your mouse to select
Edit/Find on your browser menu, type "musical", and keep clicking "find
next" to find all of the answers she got. The student's name was JENNILYNN
H. IN MD and she first asked her question on February 18, 2002. Your
question is a little different than hers, but her answers might help you.

Do not believe everything you hear! It is almost always possible to major
in more than one subject, especially if you are attending a large
university and both subjects are located within the same college. I triple
majored in math, statistics, and French. My UW alumni newsletter for
Summer 2003 includes an article about a student who is currently triple
majoring in molecular biology, biochemistry, and history. He picked a
radically different third major for the same reason I did - sometimes he
just needed to immerse himself in a world that was people-oriented and not
so focused on science. Like both of us, your interests are probably also
located within a college of Letters and Science at most major
universities. This makes it easier to major in two subjects. However, if
they're in different colleges you can still major in both. When I got my
Master's degree, I had to get special permission from my Dean to minor in
Psychology and French because they were in different colleges than my major
(Statistics). I had to cut a lot of red tape, but it was worth it to get
what I wanted.

Most universities have what are called "major" and "breadth" requirements
that you must satisfy in order to get a bachelor's degree. The department
you major in determines the number and type of classes you have to take in
order to major there. In a semester university that requires at least 120
credits, most "major" requirements total 30-40 credits. If musical theater
has a lot more "major" requirements, you may only be able to double major
instead of tripling. The "breadth" requirements are a certain number of
credits in each of literature, math, science, social studies, foreign
language, humanities, ethnic studies, etc. These requirements may total
45-60 credits depending on the university.

You can see that 40+60=100, which would be most of your education. That is
why a lot of students think double or triple majoring is not possible
without taking more than 4 years to graduate. This mistaken belief is
created by students and guidance counselors who think it is a good idea to
satisfy the breadth requirements as soon as possible to get them out of the
way. I disagree. I think it's important to look at your entire plan and
examine your course catalog and major requirements very carefully. I knew
for a fact that I wanted to major in French. I knew that in order to
satisfy my French major requirements, I would need to take 20 or so credits
in advanced French literature. Those courses counted simultaneously
towards 3 requirements: "major", foreign language "breadth", and literature
"breadth". I didn't get those credits until my Senior year. If I had
taken my guidance counselor's advice by taking English literature my
Freshman year, it would have only counted toward 1 of my requirements,
which would have cost me 1-2 additional classes. Another French major
requirement was a French history class, which counted as "major", foreign
language, and social science. My ethnic studies class also counted as
social science. There are a lot of ways to condense your requirements by
taking classes that count for more than one thing at the same time. I did
3 majors in 4 years, so you could certainly do 2 majors in 4!

A biology major would probably automatically satisfy most of the science
requirements and musical theatre would definitely satisfy any arts or
humanities requirements. Within musical theater, you might be able to take
lighting/set design to count towards physical science. Some theater
courses might count for literature credits if you are performing
Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, or other comparable literary/operatic
works. You might find some history of science courses to fill in some of
the social science credits. You might discover that double majoring in
biology and musical theater automatically satisfies many of your breadth
requirements AND many prerequisites for graduate studies in
archaeology. Archeology is usually offered as a graduate program in the
paleontology department. You may not be able to major in it for your
4-year bachelor degree.

If you are not completely sure that you are heading towards biology,
musical theater, and/or paleontology, then maybe you might want to take a
year of electives from all over the university course catalog. In two
semesters, you can take classes from 8-10 different university departments,
which will make it easier for you to decide which path you want to go
on. The only danger in doing that is that it may limit you to one major or
it may take you 5 years to finish two majors when you finally do
decide. On the other hand, if you aren't sure but you start strong in
biology and musical theater anyway, then it may take you much longer to
realize you're on the wrong path than it would have taken if you started on
an open-minded path. Changing majors is easy in your Freshman or Sophomore
years. Changing majors in your Junior or Senior year may require you to
stay in school for 5 or more years to finish the major you do want. If you
are undecided, taking diverse electives your first year is generally a
safer plan than starting headstrong in one direction and finding it to be a
bad choice later.

Definitely try to keep pursuing SET. The more SET you have in addition to
theater, the easier it will be for you to find "bill-paying" work while you
are trying to get your acting career to take off. Good luck!
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A: FROM MENTOR AMY MCMILLAN IN NY
Hi Kate, I, too, wanted to be in theater as an undergraduate. I started
out as a double major in theater and zoology - I lasted about 2 years on
this course but found I had to make a choice. Both majors require many
hours outside of class and I couldn't do them both. I chose zoology because
I felt that is where my real talent lay - I can always get back in to
theater through community groups but I don't think I could have made it
professionally. I could have minored in theater if I had cared to - but
chose instead to get more research experience...
You should make whatever choice you feel comfortable with. I recommend
ignoring any advice that says you can't do something (that is in general)
and instead - if what you want to do is minor in archaeology or biology and
major in theater, go for it! You may find, after a couple of years of
school, that you can balance this approach, or that it doesn't work - but
that will be your decision. Meanwhile, you will have a good background in
your other interest (biology/archaeology) and that may help you decide what
you want to do with it - even if your career is in theater. Meanwhile, you
will be one of the only people in the theater department who can explain how
cells work... always a good thing!
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A: FROM MENTOR NANCY WHITE IN WA

Well, I majored in Marine Botany and did a TON of musical theatre. Most of it was with a student group so it involved fewer formal classes, but most rehersals are in the evenings and on weekends, so it did not interfere with the pattern that most of my sciences classes took - lecture in am and labs in the afternoon.

I found the skills needed in the full production of musicals gave me great scientific presentation skills and confidence, the stage work complimented lab design work and the dancing kept me fit. Blends work!

Nancy White in Seattle (still singing in the shower)