FIRST for Non-Engineering Students

[Chris27]

In high school, why chose one over the other? Like you, I also play the trumpet. In my senior year, I was both a core member of my robotics team and 1st chair of the trumpet section of my school's symphonic band. A majority of the members of 1625 are also in our school's music programs (or at least when I was there). During the build season, shuttling kids to and from the high school to play at basketball games as part of the school band was very much a part of the team's operation schedule. Additionally, since I qualified for the Illinois All-State orchestra among other music festivals, I had to juggle my obligations to both music and robotics. It was a challenge but not impossible. While I was on the team, I was exclusively a hardware person, however, I did not choose engineering as a career. I am now studying to become a software developer at the CMU School of Computer Science. I have not given up music, but am in my school's marching band (or as we like to say, "precision standing band" ) Regardless of which career path you ultimately choose, the positive impact of the experience of going through the FIRST program is undeniable.

[RoboMom]

I have had the pleasure of getting to know hundreds of students over my years in FIRST. Many of them have never touched the robot, but played important roles on the team and have gone on to major in important fields like teaching and communications and business and yes, music. I know of two who have duel majors in music and engineering. One is involved with engineering of sound (there is a fancier name for it )

There is a reason that 40% of the FIRST scholarships are for students majoring in any field. Colleges know that FIRSTers know how to work as a team, can problem solve and know how to work hard. These are skills useful for any productive member of society.

Follow your dream, understanding that it is ok to to change your mind. Hopefully college will be an experience where you will be exposed to all sorts of opportunities to learn about new things. You may end up majoring in something completely different than you think right now.

I have had lots of wonderful jobs and experiences because I was willing to take some chances. One of the best career decisions I ever made was to drop out of college with 9 credits to go to take a job washing dishes at night so I could hike during the day. This sounds crazy, (and there is obviously a story here) but sometimes life presents itself in crazy ways. Be open to these opportunities.

ps. I did go back to college years later, different major, and also went on to earn a graduate degree.

[RyanCahoon]

Just to add another possibility to the mix... at Carnegie Mellon (at least in the CS dept.), Prof. Roger Dannenberg is mildly famous for being the CS guy who plays the trumpet too. He has cross appointments in the School of Computer Science (SCS) and the College of Fine Arts (CFA). For those who are into computer music, his lab produced both Nyquist (one of the first audio-programming languages) and the Audacity audio editor, and he was doing work on auto-accompaniment software as early as the 1980s. CMU also has a BCSA degree (Bachelor of Computer Science and Art), in which the curriculum is taken from the SCS and CFA and combines them.

Okay, school promotion aside, just saying there may be ways to combine your passions in closer ways than you think.

Luck,
--Ryan

[Chris27]

Originally Posted by RyanCahoon

CMU also has a BCSA degree (Bachelor of Computer Science and Art), in which the curriculum is taken from the SCS and CFA and combines them.

The SCS department/School of Music also gives a Bachelor of Science in Music and Technology.

[FIRSTgirl675]

I think its great though that you have a passion for robotics and music. Most students from my school end up going into engineering (partially because all students are required to take 4 years of engineering and that is one of the perks of the school). I am a student that is kind of like you; caught between 2 paths. I am currently a co-leader of our build team and LOVE engineering, but I am planning on majoring in Biology when I get into college because I want to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. I have had that internal debate about if I really want to become a doctor or an engineer. As a freshman in high school (currently a junior), I was looking at colleges based off of if they had a good pre-medicine program AND engineering program in case I changed my mind because I was so unsure at that moment. All I have to say is do what feels right, and whatever you choose to do will be the right decision. Whatever you choose not to pursue you will still always have.

[Shmee]

Wow, what a story!

Personally, I plan on majoring in Environmental Policy or something of the sort. As a captain, I encourage my kids (I'm also nicknamed Team Mom) to explore all the parts of Robotics-from working on the robot to working on our business plan and other lit. As a freshman, I worked with the robot far more than any business stuff, but now, as a junior, I'm in charge of everything but the robot. For a while, I thought of Environmental Engineering, but since my math and science are somewhat lacking (despite being Chinese, haha), I'm leaning towards other environmental majors. Although I'm not as connected with engineering, I do understand it, and especially as a freshman, was inspired by the things we did.

I also understand your love of music. I'm flute section leader, and I regularly participate in District Bands and other extracurricular bands. I admire your dedication to trumpet, and I think it's awesome that you want to pursue music as your career! I think FIRST does encourage technology, science, and engineering, but at the same time, I think a good part of it is just finding something that you love to do, and from my experiences with FIRST, people will support you whatever you do. From my team, I know that there are budding engineering majors, but also pre-med, and even, I think, a Classics major who happens to be on our build team. I certainly don't think that just because someone works with a robot and loves it means that they have to major in something science/tech/engineering related.

Reading other people's posts...it seems music majors can do anything! For instance, I know one of the admissions people at Wash U in St. Louis majored in music and look what she's doing now

I wish you all the best!
~Hannah

(Incidentally, have you competed in the National Trumpet Competition? One of my best friends also plays trumpet.)

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Shmee

(Incidentally, have you competed in the National Trumpet Competition? One of my best friends also plays trumpet.)

I have not. I wish I was the caliber of these contestants! I could throw my academic life away and practice trumpet all day, but I don't think that's a sustainable plan, either, since even if I practice 10 hours a day and start winning these competitions, there will always be someone better than me -- to get that one orchestral job that I needed to keep myself fed. I'm not too interested in the pure performance and competing with others. I want to spread and share the passion of music by being a teacher. Nonetheless, I have auditions coming up and I'm preparing hard for those! It sucks that it coincides with the robotics season... Anyway...

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Chris27

I was both a core member of my robotics team and 1st chair of the trumpet section of my school's symphonic band. [...] Additionally, since I qualified for the Illinois All-State orchestra among other music festivals, I had to juggle my obligations to both music and robotics.

Wow. In respect to you, I'm not even a trumpet player. Dang, Illinois All-State Orchestra? You must've been one of the best. Chicago students are eligible for Illinois All-State Orchestra, right? Wow. Haha sorry but I'm having one of those "OH WTF" moments (in a very good and hopefully positive way...)

[ehochstein]

Keehun, just being a city away and having not quite the same experience for the first half of your story, but the ending about choosing between band and Robotics/Engineering. I remember everyday at my elementary school going to the library and hoping, that there was a new robotics book in the robot section there. I wanted to know all there was about robotics since I was in elementary school. By my first grade year I had already read every book on robotics in the school library. But once fifth grade came around for me, I too joined the band group in Bloomington. Originally I started with the violin, but after playing the violin for about 6 months I switched to percussion. At this point I forgot all about robotics, band was my life I was in the marching band, I stayed after school every single day to practice my malleting skills on the marimba. I did this until my sophomore year, when I heard about this new thing at my school called "Robotics Club," now many of my friends were in this club, and they convinced me to join, because I too was the so called computer geek of my grade. They said I could fix a computer just by looking at it. My best memory of this was one day when the IT staff was gone, and I ended up fixing all of the computers in my elementary school because of a programming error Apple made with Appleworks at the time >.< anyways, I joined the robotics club and at the same time I joined the school play, which was Charlie and the Chocolate factory, now I admit that, that was a big mistake. I swear no one will ever see me dressed up like an oompa loompa for as long as I live. I ended up missing most of the robotics season because I was always at play practice. The next year I realized that robotics was a big thing in my life and I quit everything except for Band, Marching band and Robotics. I tried so hard for robotics that year (Which was last year) and I ended up becoming the team's driver that year, and the lead programmer. After winning the 10,000 Lakes regional (which I must say REALLY inspired me) and going to Georgia (I must recommend you to going to this even if your team is not going Keehun, It is an amazing experience to have in your life.) I became the summer captain of the team, and ran meetings and events for the team throughout the summer. After the summer past, so at the beginning of this year I was voted captain of the robotics team. Now over this past summer I also participated in Marching Band (Drumline which required about 40 hours of practice every week) and I am in the Wind Ensemble at my school. Because of my continued practicing on the mallets since freshman year, I am now the best mallet player in the school and I can play some things even college members cannot. Alas, I am captain of the robotics team, and leading is a very hard thing to do on Jefferson's Robotics Team, especially since we only have 3 members coming back from last year, not including myself. I have a team of 17 newbies that have no idea what they are doing, but it is my job to inspire and create things in their mind that I hope will inspire them to become like me and lead the robotics team one day. This year we re-named our Robotics Club to Robotics Team. All of this was possible because I planned out the entire season as best as possible before the season started. That officially meant that we were a varsity sport at our school. Marching Band is also a Varsity Sport at our school, which posed quite a large problem. I ended up losing about 2 solos in the drumline because I kept getting too sick from trying to bobble Robotics, Drumline/Marching Band, and homework all into one. I had to make a decision between Robotics and band, and of course I chose band because, well I don't know why I chose it but I did. Now that The robotics season is here I have had to almost quit band, that means the only time I am in band all day is during my last period. I don't have time to practice anything even after school. Now overall I would have to say that my best experience in high school is not one thing, but two. The friends I made in Band, and the accomplishment I felt after going to my first FIRST Robotics Competition Regional. Band helped me get through the rough times, and Robotics inspired me to become a better person, and to try to help people become better people themselves. As a career choice I think I am going to go with Engineering, why? Because I can engineer and still play the mallets, but I can play mallets and engineer. Music has helped me through my life more then I can explain with mere words, but I can always still have music with engineering.

Yeah, this is kind of all my thoughts poured into one run-on paragraph. I've never been good a essays sorry! D: I hope it is at least understandable/readable!

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Wiifi

I am now the best mallet player in the school and I can play some things even college members cannot.

Hey, were you at the University of Minnesota Honor Band? What grade are you in? You definitely need to try out for that and/or All-State.

Anyway, thank you for all your stories! Looks like I'm not quite alone in having the internal debates... (Not that I honestly expected me to be the only person)

[delsaner]

I was on the exact same road as you are on right now. I was considering a career in the music field or the engineering field. After putting a lot of thought into the decision, and asking for peoples' thoughts and opinion regarding the two majors/fields, I decided to go for engineering. I will not list the reasons why I favored engineering instead of music, because I do not want to possibly persuade you from doing what you truly want to do (If you want me to give you my reasons, then I will).

I don't really know my scales at all. I'm a drummer for my schools marching band, so scales are not something I have experience with...

In regards to careers, I agree with the handful of people that have been saying that you should do what you want to do. A good career, in my opinion, is not only about making a decent profit, but it is also about having fun with what you want to do. As of now, I plan on going to college for mechanical engineering (maybe a double major in education), so I can be a physics teacher and/or an engineer when I become older. As it has been said before, do what you think is best for you, and do what makes you happy.

[cbeavers6790]

I am in a similar situation to you. I am involved in the build of our robot and am on the pit crew, but i do not plan on going into any field that involve what i am learning. I feel out of place when judges ask me what i want to go into, because i am not going into engineering, but i still enjoy doing robotics as an extra-curricular, and want to learn as much as I can. i may be only a sophmore, but i would say enjoy your time in robotics, but follow what you really want to do.

[Bill_B]

Keehun, the next time you've got the trumpet in your hands and there's a couple of bars of rest on the score, take the "measure" of your instrument and consider the engineering that must have been required to get it into your hands. Metallurgy, applied physics, etc. etc. all played a part in the fabrication of your horn. If FIRST is the reason you or anyone else has a degree of appreciation for some other discipline, then it's a good result for all of us.

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Keehun, the next time you've got the trumpet in your hands and there's a couple of bars of rest on the score, take the "measure" of your instrument and consider the engineering that must have been required to get it into your hands. Metallurgy, applied physics, etc. etc. all played a part in the fabrication of your horn. If FIRST is the reason you or anyone else has a degree of appreciation for some other discipline, then it's a good result for all of us.

You bring up something I've been thinking about. So some of the best trumpet players around have started up designing their own horns and making companies. Several well known are Vincent Bach and Monette (Monette is like the Lamborghini of all trumpets. 200hrs worth of hand-made artistry craft. Wynton Marsalis plays on one). I was thinking about prototyping my own horn and developing it as I become a better performer. Anyhow, it's just an idea...

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by keehun

I was thinking about prototyping my own horn and developing it as I become a better performer. Anyhow, it's just an idea...

That sounds like fun. When I was in high school I made a trombone out of PVC. A small funnel was used for the mouthpiece and a large one was used for the bell. The challenge was to make an instrument that can play a scale out of plumbing parts. It didn't sound great, but it actually worked.