<p>It is interesting. I can’t imagine many people actually have three majors. I guess I still don’t understand why not 2 majors as a BA/BS and 1 master’s degree. I’m all about encouraging intellectual curiosity, but where is it leading? What happens after the 5th year and 3rd major. As a parent, I would be asking those questions. It’s pretty darn easy to “stay in school” and much harder to take that step out of college.</p>
<p>Give the kid some slack here! Most students “change” their majors several times, and many do not graduate in 4 years as a result. </p>
<p>This kid is completing every pass he has chosen, even if he finds that he does not like it that much any more. He is also getting one degree that will pretty much ensure immediate employment and income after graduation. Now he found something he really wants to study. </p>
<p>He is not dropping everything, and changing a course - he is asking for another year to explore a field he thinks he will enjoy. Why not let him, if you can afford it?</p>
<p>But he can “explore it” while he gets his master’s degree that fifth year. Daddy can pay for the master’s instead of the fifth year. There is not much difference in cost and a Master’s looks much better than a bachelors.</p>
<p>I don’t think anybody is dissing the OP or the kid. I think some of us are scratching our heads and wondering if there is any value to 3 majors that culminate in a batchelors as opposed to heading into the work force with a double major BA and a master’s. My gut says 3 BAs is an oddity that might need explaining some day. No one is saying that a young person who is intellectually curious is a negative.</p>
<p>Put me down as one of those “scratching our heads and wondering if there is any value to 3 majors.” I just don’t see any value – especially when 2 of the 3 are so closely linked any way. Theoretical math and actuarial math are just different concentrations within the same dept. (math); in other words, they are basically the same subject with different electives.</p>
<p>Yes, some economics classes would be helpful for someone who wants to be an actuary, but a full-blown economics major is not required for that. For that matter, a major in actuarial math isn’t required either. (My son – who also plans to be an actuary – is just a plain vanilla math major, since his school does not offer a specific “actuarial math” or “actuarial science” designation. Yet many insurance and financial management firms recruit at his school and quite a few recent graduates have entered the actuarial field.)</p>
<p>I think the money would be far better spent paying for a year of graduate school than a 5th year of undergraduate studies. Few employers will care that he tripled majored. And a masters degree will always trump a bachelors degree – regardless of how many majors were declared.</p>
<p>May be your DS will be our future Hari Seldon? </p>
<p>( [Paul</a> Krugman’s Asimov Inspiration: Science Fiction in the News](<a href=“http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1925]Paul”>http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1925) )</p>
<p>An economics degree with one probability based math degree and one theoretical math degree opens quite a lot of doors. Now, the doors aren’t in his current sphere of aspirations but they may be in a year. They may be in 5 years.</p>
<p>Now as to whether or not you should let him stay. I think that the fact he started college a year early is the icing on the cake. Graduating in 5 years would be like graduating on time for him and, if wants it, that’s something he should be able to do at the same terms of previous years.</p>
<p>However, a masters should also be considered. They can be teacher (nearly free sometimes) but they take two years.</p>
<p>If he can do a co-term Masters degree at Michigan during that extra year - sure, why not… But that is not necessarily an option for him (though might be worth looking into…)</p>
<p>It wasn’t my impression that the kid’s aspiration is to be an actuary. It sounds like this was something he tried when theoretical math turned out not to be his “thing”. Economics is something he discovered that he likes. He is not just collecting degrees. He is searching for his field of interest (but unlike most, he completes whatever he started on the way…) Why shouldn’t he try to pursue it? He will have his whole life to be an actuary if he wants to. Getting back into academics may not be that simple later on.</p>