<p>So I know that in applying to graduate school, one of the most important things is the courses that you have taken within your major, and the grades you received in those classes. However, I'm worried about the issue of breadth and depth. Do graduate programs (specifically, I'm going for history) care what coursework you do outside of your major, so long as you fulfill all the requirements to graduate? Basically, aside from one math class, I could fill my last four semesters with all history and politics (my two majors) classes--and be quite happy doing so, because they'd all be classes I'd be very interested in. But how would graduate programs view that? I'm very passionate about those two fields, but I worry that that could be seen as lacking breadth.</p>
<p>Any perspectives?</p>
<p>For history you will usually need to know another language to be competitive as a graduate student (which language(s) depends on your field). They mostly do not care (or do not evaluate) how you do in unrelated coursework.</p>
<p>Well, I’m aiming to learn Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish in the next couple of years. Likely not much of that will be in formal coursework during the school year though. And I’m not even talking about how I do in unrelated coursework…but whether or not I even do unrelated coursework.</p>
<p>Your plan is fine. Breadth and depth is expected within the major, not outside of it. No one in a history graduate program will care if you know calculus.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, you REALLY need to get the language study on your transcript. Grad programs will have no way of knowing how well you know these languages without seeing a course-level. And no one is going to simply take your word for it. </p>
<p>And without knowing your field, Arabic and Chinese and Spanish seem random. You will NEED either French or German (reading ability, not conversation) to be a competitive candidate for PhD admissions, and you will NEED a few years of study of the languages relevant to your specific intended area of subspecialization. On your transcript, not self-study.</p>
<p>Well, what I’m intending are programs, just not during the school year. For example, this summer I am going to take courses in the city where I’m going to be working, so they’ll be transferred to my college. And next summer, I intend to go abroad with the state department program for language study. So I will be learning them in some official capacity, to the point that I can take upper level language courses, and not do the introductory courses that take large numbers of credits. I’ve discussed the language matter with one of my history professors, and he said that those three languages would make me a distinct candidate, especially since I intend to study world history, which does not have a particular national limitation.</p>