By Jordan Bickham
Staff Writer

With a natural talent for music and a knack for math, senior Max Ginnell was faced with a tough decision when it came to picking a college major, which lead to his choice to pursue a double major in mathematics and music.

Since this dream is very unique, Ginnell’s search for the perfect college was quite the challenge.

After applying to a variety of schools, such as Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pepperdine, Rice and Northwestern, Ginnell was accepted to many highly acclaimed universities around the country. He later found out that he had been accepted to Northwestern, Rice and Pepperdine. Finally, after weeks of comparing and contrasting his choices, he chose Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., a school that includes everything needed to succeed for both a musician and a mathematician.

“I chose it mainly because I thought it was the most well-rounded for me and for the majors that I am going to college for,” Ginnell said. “Weather was a huge factor in deciding because Northwestern was a little bit too cold and Rice was really hot, but California always has perfect weather.”

Not only was the weather perfect and the school great, but the location also had a lot to offer an incoming student. College is the time when many young adults begin their careers and get a jump-start making lifelong connections, another great aspect that Pepperdine offers.

“I also chose Pepperdine because of its location and how close it is to like Hollywood and Los Angeles, all the major connections you can have are there,” Ginnell said. “So the city was a lot better than being in Chicago or Houston.”

Another huge factor for making the perfect college choice was finding a university that had the best to offer for everything that he is interested in. While most students are interested in one common major, Ginnell is interested in not only being a mathematician, but a musician.

“My dream job is to become a film score composer and to work on the soundtracks for films,” Ginnell said. “Maybe realistically, to become a mathematician in some area and maybe I’ll decide to perform in a city orchestra or just go into composition and start composing my own music.”

Ginnell has always done well in school and has been very involved in the band program. Many of Ginnell’s friends and fellow students support his school choice and are confident that he will do well in the future, especially in music.

“I admire his plans to keep his music going because I definitely think he is very talented and music has a lot to offer for him,” sophomore band member Sydney Owens said. “Max has always been a very strong player.”

Owens has only played percussion alongside him for two years, but she has learned a lot about him in that short period of time.

“From those two years I have gotten to spend with him, I have noticed that he is very hard working, he is very dedicated, very, very talented and most of all, he is a caring person with a big heart,” Owens said. “That will take him very far in college and especially in life.”

While Owens has been a close friend of Ginnell’s, even fellow musicians of Ginnell believe he is going to go far in music and in college based on how well he has done in the band program.

“Majoring in music is difficult, it is harder than most people think,” senior Blake Varnell said. “Many of Max’s percussion directors [Mike Hodges and Alan Miller] have done it and have done really well musically. Mr. Miller is going off to compose music which goes to show that going to school for music can get you far in life, if you do well. If Max commits himself like he did in the band program to college, he will do really well in the future.”

Not only do Ginnell’s friends and fellow students think he will succeed majoring in both music and mathematics, but his long time percussion director who majored in music himself at West Texas A&M thinks he will do well in the future.

“Majoring in music is very time consuming and very difficult,” said Miller, Ginnell’s percussion director since the eighth grade. “But Max has gotten better every year and he is very hard working.”

Ginnell has much support about his college choice and interests as he steps into the future by many of his peers, friends and instructors. While it took him a bit of time to make the perfect decision, it was worth it to make sure Pepperdine was the right choice for him and his goals. At the moment, because of all the time he put into it, Ginnell has no regrets over his decision.

“I know as time goes on, I am going to have some regrets because I am always going to be thinking, ‘what if I had made this choice’ or ‘what if I had chosen this college instead of this one,” Ginnell said. “But right now, at this moment, I feel like I made the right choice.”