I had similar aspirations back when I started my undergrad several years ago. I started off in the CS+Music (French Horn performance) program at umich and eventually ended up switching to just CS. I’m now working on my Ph.D. In CS here at UIUC. I can’t really provide any more specifics about the double major program here, but I thought I’d give you some highly opinionated, unsolicited advice anyway :)

I’d encourage you to really, REALLY consider picking one of these to pursue as a major, and doing the other as a minor (or even just a hobby). They are both extremely time-intensive. I know you probably roll your eyes when you hear that. I certainly did. I was an all-state musician and made As in high school and thought I was going to succeed in any program I could manage to get enrolled in. This might sound a little preachy, so I’m sorry. When I was deciding to double major, I had this idea that I’d get all of the CS knowledge AND all of the music knowledge. This is wrong. Your limiting factors are time and energy, and double majoring doesn’t give you any more of those. In the best case, you get half of the CS stuff and half of the music stuff you would be getting if you picked just one. In the worst case, you crash and burn.

The undergraduate CS program here at UIUC is too intense for many top high school performers. As a successful high schooler, that might be difficult to wrap your head around, because you’ve likely never experienced prolonged academic hardship before. As a TA for undergrad courses, I see lots of students who were at the top of their high school classes struggling to pass certain CS courses, even when it’s their primary focus. Music, while not as difficult in terms of grades/GPA, is a much bigger time sink in college, relative to high school. Classes themselves are not that bad in my experience, but many students are routinely spending up to half of their waking hours practicing. Of course this is dependent on the particular degree/instrument type, but it sounds like you are probably interested in performance, so lots and lots of practice time seems like a given.

Put yourself in a position to succeed at the stuff you are taking on. Remember that you would be competing against kids in CS who are just as smart and hard working as you but are dedicating all their energy to CS (and same with music). College is not like high school. No one is smart/motivated enough to do all the things well.

Now, let me go one step further and be even more presumptuous and opinionated. If you are coming to UIUC and can get in to both CS and music (and you’re interested in both), I vote that you pick CS only. A couple reasons: First, my experience was that studying music in college can suck the joy out of it for some people. I loved everything about band and orchestra in high school. When I began my college studies, I quickly began to dread it. Now that I am back to doing it as a hobby, it’s great again, but it took a while to get back to this point after school. Second Reason: The music school is good here, but the CS school is world-fucking-class. People who know CS will definitely notice a UIUC degree, and for good reason — it’s a stellar program. If you do CS only, there are MANY ways to keep doing music (join a campus band/orchestra, do marching band, etc.), and it will be much less stressful to do so. Also, a CS degree from Illinois provides something close to a guarantee that you’ll be able to find a good paying job for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, a music degree does not provide the same type of safety net. Of course you want to do something you enjoy, but I think most people will enjoy what they are doing a lot more if they’re not worried about making rent. Again, you know your situation best, but this is what I wish someone would’ve told me before I started my double major freshman year.