EXCLUSIVE
Nick Cannon is ALMOST living the plot of his movie "Drumline" now that he's an actual freshman in college ... it's just missing one thing.
We got Nick at Dulles Airport, and he told us the real reason he's enrolled at Howard University. Turns out he's working on an interesting major ... as far as TMZ's concerned.
As for trying out for the marching band -- Nick played it coy, but still seems pretty confident he could pull off a walk-on spot.
