Does anyone have any more information about the ScB/AB combined degree program than what’s on the website? I am interested in two concentrations that fit the bill (cognitive neuroscience ScB and linguistics AB) and I want to know if taking a fifth year is viable or not. Does financial aid drop off after year 4?
As per my concentration advisor in the Classics when I told him I wanted to do an ScB in Biology and an AB in Classics: The program is a total waste. If you can do enough to fulfill both concentrations in 4 years, do that. You end up with “an ScB in Cog Neuro and additional concentration in Linguistics.” Your transcript will say you fulfilled the concentration requirements for both. Literally the only difference between that and the dual degree is the extra year of school and the extra diploma. No employer or grad program will draw a distinction between “ScB in Cog Neuro and AB in Linguisitics in 5 years” and “ScB with Cog Neuro and additional concentration in Linguistics in 4 years.”
There’s simply no point to it unless you either can’t fit it in 4 years or you really want to take significant coursework outside of your concentrations. For example, my ScB was 20 courses and my AB was 8. That left me with literally 4 courses that didn’t have to fulfill concentration requirements (extracurriculars made 5 courses/semester undoable for me). For some, that might be too little. For me, 2 out of those 4 ended up being classes that could have counted towards my concentrations if I needed them too anyway so I obviously didn’t have a problem with it.
EDIT: I do believe you get aid during the 5th year but don’t hold me to it.
I do want to take significant coursework outside of my majors…if I do four courses per semester (with work study and potential ECs I’m not sure if five is viable), I’ll only have 6 courses outside my concentration. Considering I want to do a pretty significant amount of comp sci stuff as well as take foreign language classes, and some miscellaneous stuff in other areas. My concern is more about whether it’s financially feasible–if financial aid isn’t as good, I won’t be able to do it. Thank you for the info, though!