<p>...to double major in unrelated fields? I know there are a lot of double majors at UCSB, however a lot of their concentrations overlap (i.e. political science & international relations).</p>
<p>I am really passionate about physiology, but my primary goal is to major in economics. These majors share few required classes in common. I'm a Regents Scholar, honors program student, and have many AP credits (took 9 APs in high school), so getting the classes I want wouldn't be that huge of a problem, since I'll get a little bit of priority when it comes to registration. The problem I worry about is not being able to fulfill all the classes within four years, which is a must because I can't afford to stay for 5 years.</p>
<p>I know most students take 12-16 units a quarter, which is 3 to 4 classes. I'm wondering if I taking 4 classes for most quarters will allow me to finish in time.</p>
<p>I disagree that you will be able to tackle Physiology and Economics in 4 years. The pre-Biology program is really tough. In the first two years, you need 6 quarters of Chemistry (5-7 units each quarter), Calculus 3 quarters, Physics 3 quarters, and Biology 3 quarters. These are big classes and the professors would rather weed down the number of students than give a lot of individual help.</p>
<p>Pre-Economics requires taking 3 Economic classes and getting a “B” average. These are also weeder classes that are graded on curves to basically get rid of more than 50% of the students.</p>
<p>The AP credits need to be the right classes to really help you. Calculus AB and BC would be helpful. It isn’t so much on how smart you are, but more about fitting classes and labs into time slots and actually getting the grades you need while competing against students that are just as smart as you. The other thing that is a certainty, is that you won’t have a normal college experience at all with this kind of load.</p>
<p>My advice is to start out trying to both majors and see where you end up with grades and passion after a few quarters. Take some freshman seminars the first year in each field to give you an idea of what the field is really like. And definitely see some advisors, as they may say no right from the start on this double major. Year two is when you get into the hardest chemistry classes, and you better be sure that you are up for that before starting year two.</p>
<p>Thanks for the honest response, Californiadream. </p>
<p>I actually know people who’ve majored in both and have graduated in 4 years, so I’ll try it out first and see how it goes. If all doesn’t go well, I’ll just drop one. One of the reasons why I want to major in Physiology is because I might want to acquire an MD, OD, or PharmD in the future, but those require so many science classes that I’d thought I’d just major in a science. I love and have skills in both fields, science and social science, but I’m not sure if I want to go to professional school.</p>