<p>What are the advantages of double majoring in college? Does it cost more money, or is the workload just more than a regular major? Are there any significant disadvantages? Thanks.</p>
<p>If you are a workaholic go ahead and double major. If you want to spend an extra year in school, have no social life, and spend more student loan money, go ahead and double major. If you are sensible, just minor in the subject that is a field you are not going into.</p>
<p>I'm curious about minors... does it also cost more money to have a minor? How much more work involved?</p>
<p>A double major can be accomplished without spending 5 years. If you major in things that can overlap such as, Political Science and Economics, then you can graduate on time.</p>
<p>I think double majoring can be a tad foolish if you are doing it just to do it. I think for subjects very intense (i.e. math, philosophy, physics, bio) double majoring can be tricky.</p>
<p>double majoring is cool. its like killing two birds with one stone.</p>
<p>Assuming that that person "needs" to kill that second bird. Double majoring won't help in law school or med school admissions. I say only double major if you are very interested in BOTH subjects and if can handle their work loads. Also, two similar majors would be great too (i.e. Latin and Classical Civilizations, Polisci/Pub Policy, Philosophy/Math (share axiomatic principles), etc).</p>
<p>a minor can be added on within four years, especially if it helps fill core requirements and you've got AP credits.
depends on the major and minor though.</p>
<p>Why double major? What's the motivation? I'm majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Philosophy. I'm interested in both subjects but I don't ever plan to go into the law field but still interested in Philosophy. So I'm minoring in it (which means taking 5 or so classes for it).</p>
<p>Double majoring might be a class or two away from minoring, so therefore not a big issue and perhaps worth doing in the minds of many people. Double majoring may have many motivations, such as sincere interest in two fields, as was previously mentioned, the complimenting of subjects. Some people double major thinking that it is more impressive or looks better, and perhaps it does, but law school and med school adcoms don't usually care, and grad schools will usually not care unless it significantly relates to the potential subject.</p>
<p>Double majoring will only cost you more money if you have to stay for longer than otherwise at your university, which means more living expenses, book costs, and class costs, time, ect. The workload could be equivalent to many single majors, but you are using your time, energy, money, and units on a specific second subject instead of being free to take many diverse courses. If you are more interested in as deep an understanding of the second subject as you can get over having some general knowledge of various other subject, double majoring or minoring might be for you.</p>
<p>Continuing on workload, there might be more "weeder" courses through which you must pass, because, potentially, there are weeder courses in BOTH subjects that you will study. Significant disadvantages might include lack of flexibility in your schedule, potential sacrifice of time, money, and other resources such as energy, for gaining only a more thorough understanding of a subject, completing more work, and having a greatly limited ability to take courses for fun and not graduate in fitting time.</p>
<p>If one is minoring, I dont understand why one would say, Oh, why double major? Its so much harder! They are practically the same thing at many universities, and many people would bunch them together as being quite similar. You gain a much more thorough understanding of a subject, you allow yourself to be intellectually curious, you learn about something in which you are interested in or think is practical. If you dont formally need the title, so be it. Minoring in a second subject or double majoring is not for everyone, but both are definite possibilities in most universities and colleges if one is willing to deal with the positive and negative consequences.</p>
<p>The only disadvantage I see is not being able to take as many electives. At the school to which I am going, core classes are a third of the cirriculum, major classes are another third, and electives are the final third. You can use your electives to double major, minor, whatever, but you miss out on being able to take whatever classes you want, because your schedule has to be so rigidly structured.</p>
<p>An advantage would be more career possibilities. Say you like history and English, so you double major. If you find out that the English field is not as fertile in job offerings as you thought, you could always switch to your other major, a field in which you are equally prepared instead of getting out into the workforce and finding that you made a mistake, and you can't switch. It just gives you more freedom (after college that is).</p>
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If one is minoring, I dont understand why one would say, Oh, why double major? Its so much harder! They are practically the same thing at many universities
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<p>Not at mine. The Philosophy minor at my school requires 15 hours of Philosophy courses and the major requires around 30. Big difference.</p>
<p>And of course I love to learn. I wish I could stay in school for more than 4 years but I probably won't be able to.</p>
<p>It depends on the school and the majors. For some it may involve a lot more work and extra time, for others it's just a matter of giving up electives. My advice is to go through a course schedule and jot down which classes really interest you. In my case, they were primarily concentrated in two subjects, so it makes sense for me to double major. But if it looks like you favor one subject much more than the other, a minor might be a better idea.</p>
<p>When you work for a company or any other place of occupation, do you get paid more if both majors (within the double major) is relevant to your job? I understand that one shouldn't go double major solely for getting money, etc., but I was wondering if it was a perk.</p>
<p>It can make you more employable in some cases and less employable in others, but i have never heard of anyone getting paid more merely because of a double major. However, the knowledge mighth help you, the potentially harder college life may help you ascend the ranks, ect.</p>
<p>adconrad, i wish the best for yah. sorry about the anger in the last post, it was pretty late and i was pretty tired. where do you go, or if you don't want to say, what are your philosophical interests?</p>
<p>I love my double major, I think you just have to start out by looking at where you are starting in your majors and how many classes you are going to have to take for each. I figured out that it's do-able for me to do a double in math and spanish as long as I take two classes in each almost every semester until I graduate and it won't take more than the four years. It just depends on the person, the majors and the school you're attending.</p>
<p>I think the biggest help a double major can offer in terms of employment is that it can make you a strong candidate for a wider range of jobs. I've never heard of someone being hired, let alone earning a larger salary, because they double majored.</p>
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It can make you ... less employable
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How could a double major make you LESS employable??</p>
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adconrad, i wish the best for yah. sorry about the anger in the last post, it was pretty late and i was pretty tired. where do you go, or if you don't want to say, what are your philosophical interests?
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<p>You didn't seem angry. I guess every school is different as far as the majors and minors go. My philosophical interests include ancient philosophy, ethics, philosophy of technology, philosophy of the mind, metaphysics, and pretty much anything else really but those things I just mentioned are the ones I'm most interested in.</p>
<p>I just thought that a double major might be beneficial when it comes to how much you get paid (kind of like a masters over a bachelors degree).</p>