Colleges where it is possible to do both orchestra and XC/TF?

You could hypothetically do that at any college that has all 3, BUT the brutal lesson you’ll probably learn is that if you want to do engineering AND orchestra AND running in college at least one of those things are going to crash and burn. All of those disciplines are going to ask that you dedicate at least 6 hours a day to each in one way or another and all of those disciplines require downtime to remain mentally sane/physically healthy which might be hard to have.

Your son could probably do this at a school where both the athletics and the music are semi-serious but clearly secondary in everyone’s eyes (coaches, conductors, peers) to academics. So probably not a D-I school. Time in the lab will also cut into flexibility for co-curricular activities.

A friend of mine was a 4.0 chemical engineering student, played in the (very low key) orchestra, and spent all his free time at the gym, and he made it work, but he never traveled for competitions or had to peak for any other particular purpose because he was a highly motivated fitness hobbyist without commitments to teammates or a coach. This also wouldn’t have been possible if he had struggled in any of his courses, which most engineering students do at one point or another (or all the time). My friend is now a physician.

If the goal is to run because your son loves it and play music because he loves it that’s great and maybe he can make it work. But he also may find that it’s too hard to juggle (that’s okay) or he wants to be exceptional at something which requires giving up something else (also okay) or his interests may change entirely (also okay). The great thing about exploring options this young is he can learn about what’s out there and still have time to figure things out.

My nephew ran at St. Olaf College, was first chair and ran at 3 National championships. He traveled all over the world with the orchestra and even played Carnegie Hall. Their running program is national class, but their music programs are world class. Many of his classmates are doing STEM doctorates now and one (another member of the band and school-record hurdler) is working as an Engineer.

Right now his main focus has been on the athletics, but that might be because he is a freshman and trying to "prove himself" on a large competitive suburban team in a top notch conference. He was able to hit the varsity standards for both XC and track, and he was on the practice squad all the way to states for XC but has not stayed on to the post season squad in track. At this point, I'd guess he really wants to compete in college and views music as something he really enjoys doing and would like to keep in his life in some organized way. He is such a strong musician that he can do reasonably well with not much practicing at all, despite lessons, playing two instruments in two different orchestras (including one doing real symphonic works) and a biweekly chamber music group. I am thinking the amount of time including practice time, lessons and rehearsals he'd spend on his music is likely more like 6 hours A WEEK (at most) rather than 6 hours a day. But based on my limited experience, music rehearsals and athletic practices on college campuses typically happen at the same time of day which might make it impossible to do both. I totally understand though about strong high school honors students struggling in science classes in college as I witness (and contribute to that) everyday! I suspect he might be lulled into thinking he can do it all in college based on the fact that he is juggling it all without any difficulty now. I'm doing some of the negotiating between the factions competing for his time; I'm trying to offload more of that to him!...:)

It is great to hear that is possible. St. Olaf is a great school! I'm a big fan of small liberal ats schools. I am not sure I'll be able to talk him into one though since he is coming from a huge public school. I am hoping I can change his mind because I think that might be the best way for him to keep doing what he enjoys.

My son is (hopefully) going to get to play at Carnegie Hall with the Indianapolis Youth Symphony Orchestra next year! He is very excited about that opportunity.

He's a high school freshman? Slow your roll, tiger dad, and simply let him enjoy being in high school and then focus more on college in a couple years when he's a junior.