<p>is this possible for long distance schools? assuming I had the finances for it, ie. paying two school's tuitions, room and boards, weekly back and forth plane tickets, etc.... could a student attend classes at college A for monday-wednesday, take a plane on wednesday night, and then finish the week taking classes at college B on thursday-friday, and flying back before monday to attend college A.</p>
<p>i know most classes are blocked mon-wed-fri, or tues-thurs, but lets assume that i would take classes that were one day a week, or blocked as mon-wed or something.
would any universities actually allow this? what if had a good reason, such as, i want to study major X, which is top notch as college A, in addition to major Y, which is best at college B.
what if i did not tell either college, and just went on to get two degrees from different universities?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why colleges would care. For the most part, what you do outside of their college isn’t relevant to them nor their business. </p>
<p>Of course the scenario you describe sounds entirely unrealistic. A full college course load may only be 15 hours a week total in class, but if the school is any good, the work should much beyond the classroom and demands a full time commitment (with labs, reading, projects, studying). If its not, you are aiming too low and getting a non-rigorous education IMHO. And even if for some bizarre reason one found this manageable, then why would they not just double up at the first and finish in 2 years, then do the same at the next school? </p>
<p>I realize this is just hypothetical, but I would have trouble thinking of why someone would find this worthwhile. It would mean getting only part of a college experience at each and the return not worthwhile. No one is going to be impressed. This is a case where more is not better. One would be much better off getting either a double-major, or a dual-degree (these are two very different things), at one institution rather than chasing some kind of ‘top college for X major’.</p>
<p>It is usually a matter of how much coursework is required. Schools vary on requirements, but a major reflects a breadth and depth of course work that is greater than that required for a minor. As but one generic example, you might take, say, 10 courses from a defined set in years 3 and 4 to qualify for a ‘major’ but only, say, 5 courses from that set in years 3 and 4 to qualify for a ‘minor’. In contrast, if one were to do a ‘double major’ it might mean, using the above example, 10 courses in each area of a major. </p>
<p>A big limitation of double majors is that you often end up having to take so many required courses, that you have little choice in your courses, and little opportunity for breadth, exploration, and taking courses outside of your areas of specialization. I am personally a gigantic fan of breadth, and maximizing cross-disciplinary education throughout one’s four years. Too often the students at my school seem to think they “must” double major when our data shows (for our school) that it does not help them in terms of the job market, and yet they become so narrow for instrumental reasons that they miss out on more divergent learning opportunities. Ideally, university education should be expanding your mind and building new connections, not merely vocational training. And I honestly believe that kind of interconnection and mental flexibility that comes from breadth is exactly what the next generation needs, where the great innovations are going to come from and who employers are going to find most valuable. </p>
<p>An easy way to get a sense of what majors, minors and double majors look like is to consider the specifics for your school and interested major. Much better than my generic example because there is HUGE variability across schools and within schools and majors in terms of course requirements and choices in courses one gets to make.</p>
<p>I’m assuming this is just an academic question and you’re not serious about this - right?</p>
<p>Trying to commute between the two schools wouldn’t be practical. You’d probably never be able to arrange the courses on the days you indicated, you need to understand there’s more to college than just showing up for classes - you need to sometimes meet with study or lab groups outside of the normal hours and on weekends, and the commute would be expensive and costly in time including the times the flights are delayed or canceled.</p>
<p>Hmmm…well if you are hoping for ANY financial aid, you can only receive it as a matriculated student (one working towards a degree) at ONE college.</p>
<p>Wasn’t sure if this is just a hypothetical question or not -</p>
<p>Two factors if this were a REAL situation that might cause issues:</p>
<p>1) if you want courses from one school to transfer to the other, then the school receiving the transfer work would need to know about the other institution. At the institution where I am an employee, someone with an awarded degree who is working toward a second major or a second degree doesn’t have to do EVERYTHING from scratch; some of the course work from the first degree/major applies (general education requirements, for example).</p>
<p>2) you mentioned finances being no problem, but if there were any sort of federal financial aid, then no - you can only receive financial aid from one school at a time. Now, you can be registered at one institution, and be simultaneously taking a course at another institution, but to receive aid you would be under a consortium agreement where you could potentially receive aid from school 1 to help pay for school 2, but it would be administered by school 1.</p>
<p>There are also limits to receiving federal financial aid toward the number of hours you are accumulating in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. You can’t be a perpetual student on their dime.</p>
<p>However, in this day and age especially with distance learning, if you have the resources, you can take as many concurrent classes as you want at as many institutions as you want, especially if you don’t care if any of the credits transfer anywhere.</p>
<p>There is one exception for financial aid that I know of. If you are enrolled at a four year school and are completing some work at a community college it is possible to be concurrently enrolled. We have a few students who do this each year taking their remaining classes at the cc (where it’s cheaper) and starting their upper division work at the regional college near us. They often go M/W with us and T/Th at the other school or vice versa.</p>