<p>Back in the day - I had one major - and that was it. DH - the same. I can't recall any friends with double majors or a major/2 minor combo. But I have recently realized that nowadays - this seems to be the norm. Pretty much every tour guide we have had this year has informed us that they were in one of these categories - to very admiring gasps from the parents in the group. Several of the colleges S2 is looking at actually require a minor in addition to the major.</p>
<p>So my questions are - is this the new norm? Would one be at a disadvantage if one "only" had a major? How does this look to employers? Is the kid with just a major a slacker? Is the kid with a major and double minor more competitive in the job market? Or is this all a new myth colleges are promoting?</p>
<p>My D is double majoring. International Relations and Spanish. She had the opportunity to do a bit of double dipping so it has made this opportunity fairly easy, but she has not been able to take just any “basket weaving 101” classes (I, with only one major enjoyed a few of those!).</p>
<p>But her boyfriend is a Bio-Chem major…labs labs labs…hours hours hours…with some difficulty getting his classes at UCD, so there is no way he could double major if he wanted to.</p>
<p>So I guess it depends on your major, and if you want to dedicate all your free electives to a specific category. For my D’s sake I am hoping it will help her with employment, but I don’t think it is bad to just have one major.</p>
<p>I do NOT believe this is the “norm”. It is possible for some students in some majors to do this at some universities/colleges…and for some it’s even possible to do it all in four years. For others…not possible at all.</p>
<p>UCLA requires you to complete your double major in 4 years or 272 (I think) quarter-units (whichever is more), and only 3 upper div classes can overlap between the two majors, but lower-div prep courses are able to (and often necessarily will) overlap. As a result, not many people are double majoring, and those doubles are often related areas (like mine of applied math and physics).</p>
<p>I guess I’d question the depth of these majors/minors if they managed to do a double major plus a minor (or similar) in 4 years and especially if it wasn’t unusual at that institution. I wouldn’t be impressed with it if it was the norm and would question the point of it versus a more in depth education in a single major or single major/minor combo. </p>
<p>Taking a look at the example, one question would be whether the employer would rather see IR (lite)/Spanish (lite) vs IR (in depth major)/Spanish (minor). Note - I don’t know the details of your D’s program so I’m not stating your D is taking the ‘lite’ versions of the majors - I’m just using it as a possible example.</p>
<p>I will say…DD did do a double major (no minor at all). It was quite the challenge. She overloaded courses for every term she was in school. In addition, she took 15 credits one summer and an online class another summer. Simply put…it was hard work. It happened that her majors were related (bioengineering and biology) so there were many overlap courses…but she still had to fulflll all of the requirements of the college of engineering AND the college of arts and sciences. </p>
<p>I really do not think this is the norm…nor do I think it should be.</p>
<p>I think with the greater availability of AP courses more students can get out of core or other classes, allowing them to take classes for more than one major in the same number of semester hours.</p>
<p>ilovedcollege, May I ask what your D is looking to do when she gets out of college. Because i am looking into pursuing a academic carrer similar to hers</p>
<p>I know someone who went to Harvard who double majored (Philosophy and History) AND double minored (French and German). I don’t know if that’s still possible, he went about twenty years ago. I don’t know what depth there was, but he has Phds in both philosophy and history now.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, I think you’re right. I also think that the colleges which may feel some competitive pressure to offer credit for AP classes might want to ensure that students don’t finish their undergraduate degrees early. Encouraging minors and double majors may help to keep the money flowing.</p>
<p>IMHO this trend towards multiple majors, major/minor combinations is just a matter of packaging and marketing. You take all these classes and pay all this money, so you feel you want to get more for your money.</p>
<p>Unfortunately this can potentially deprive the student of depth <em>and</em> breadth. You focus on meeting requirements for those multiple majors/minors and in the process you might not go deep enough in any one major, and you also have less wiggle room to take classes in fields that are outside those majors.</p>
<p>I’ve never understood the point of these double majors (in most cases). Double major AND double minor… to what end? I’ve seen some young ones post queries about this - they seem to think it will make them more competitive in the job market. Doesn’t seem so to me. And how will they stand out anyway if it’s the “new norm?” Although I don’t think it’s the new norm, but maybe that’s because my S was in Engineering - believe me, one major is more than enough in that field, lol.</p>
<p>Requiring a minor? Not sure what that means, but I know that the U my S attended required breadth and depth. The depth requirement involved going into one field (outside the major) to the point of having one or two courses at the 300 level. Could get close to a minor. </p>
<p>In fact, DS’ advisor mistakenly thought he was aiming for a minor in Econ, since he had a couple or three courses in that field in his early going. So S looked into that, but the course requirements to actually obtain the minor were more than he wanted to get into. Didn’t hurt him at job time. Had offers with “only” a major.</p>
Yeah - that’s not the scenario I mentioned where I raised the concern about depth and isn’t the norm. In your D’s case it sounds as if she truly took 2 different ‘normal’ majors (as opposed to majors lite).</p>
<p>The point about the AP credits is a valid one. Many who have a boatload of APs could probably complete their major in 3 years or less unless it’s major like many engineering/CS ones that are required course (difficult ones) packed majors where it can be tough getting done in 4 years. The major makes a big diffrence here.</p>
<p>Our son graduated with a double major(CompSci and Psych) and a double minor(philosophy and Games and Simulation Arts) aided by AP credits, course overloads and some course overlaps.</p>
<p>His prospective employers seem to be interested in the philosophy minor aspect to his academic program as it was somewhat out of the box.</p>
<p>The downside was that it basically eliminated non-tech elective choices in arts, social sciences and humanities.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand why it’s so hard or impressive to double major at a school without heinous distribution requirements (assuming you’re not in engineering) and without a thesis requirement. Say a normal academic program at your school is 4 classes/semester, or 32 classes throughout college. If each major you’re considering requires 12 classes, and you have 8 classes that go to requirements–and this is a probably more than normal–you still have TWELVE classes that you can take basketweaving for/use as an elective.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that to go greater in depth in two fields could be more intellectually stimulating and challenging, but on the other hand intro courses are often difficult because you are new to the discipline and its way of looking at things.</p>
<p>I have seen schools require a minor depending on the major. I’m not sure of the school but it was for a science eg Computer science taken as a B.A. not a B.S. program and another was an art major that required a minor in something else. Depending on the program, adding a minor can be pretty easy but some require so many classes, you might as well wait and do it as a masters program.</p>
<p>One of my concerns is that if one chooses to major and also double minor - that’s it - you can’t really fit in any other electives. I’m just not sure if that is the right direction to go in. I’d love to hear from anyone who hires young people fresh out of college - are you more likely to hire someone who has a major/minor/minor over just a major? I’d like to understand if this is a plus when it comes to the job market.</p>
<p>I very strongly doubt it matters. It seems to be a trend in our university, at the huge disadvantage of breadth IMHO. Big whoop I say. And I haven’t met a professor yet who thought it was a good idea. So often seems driven by this new ‘instrumental’ resume padding focus of students these days…at the expense of actual education, which often greatly benefits from expanding one’s mind and exploring in different directions.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science requires kids to have a minor. Their thought was that comp sci should be applied to another field. Most kids don’t really use it the way it was intended though. They major in math because it’s convenient, or robotics because it’s in the same department and requires the same skills. They always tell you about the kid whose minor was bagpipe, but there was probably no application at all there! My son is doing physics, because he likes it and is good at it, but he has no intention of actually using it once he’s out of school.</p>
<p>My husband majored in biology and physics at Harvard back in the dark ages. It was easy to do - no thesis required. He says he probably could have majored in chemistry as well. He either had enough courses or was only a course short. There was a lot of overlap. He got his PhD. in Biophysics so he did put both majors to use.</p>
<p>My alma mater stopped minors eons ago- offers only comprehensive majors, ie require more credits than some schools may. Some do double majors, often taking 5 years- a great excuse to stay at a relatively cheap and fantastic campus. Too many makes one a “jack of all trades and master of none”. There was a UW thread recently in which a prospective student asked about trying to do 3 majors- business/economics ones. The responses included some from a business perspective- employers won’t be impressed by dabbling in too many fields. Probably better to add some grad level courses as an undergrad if a student runs out of desired undergrad ones in the major- easily done at a mjor U.</p>