<p>My son had a major and 2 minors when getting the last course got to be too difficult for double majoring (wasn’t offered that year and he didn’t want to pay for it out of school) For him, the combination of Psych, Econ and Spanish were just his interests, he had to do a breadth in most areas so he got a well-rounded schedule and classes.
He found Spanish to be the best compliment to his major Psych, helpfull in the area he wanted to work, but he loved what he learned in Econ also, so all was well there. He felt his senior project/thesis was more impressive to grad school that how many major/minors, but grad school and the job market are two different things.</p>
<p>Double majors and minors do seem to be more common these days.</p>
<p>For a student interested in two different areas and doesn’t know which one they like best, I think it makes a lot of sense to start out assuming that they will double major, even if they end up ultimately deciding to only major in one of the two. Switching majors later can cause problems with getting pre-requisite courses in sequence in order to graduate on time.</p>
<p>That’s also a thought I had looking at the HS '07 -> College '11 thread, that the 2-1/1-2/2-2 combination of majors and minors seemed to be the norm rather than the exception. I’m a student, current freshman, who plans to double major and may add a minor, and here’s my reasoning -</p>
<p>I’m enrolled in a BFA, not BA program, and my distribution requirements are not strict. I’m required to take at least eight credits of natural or social science, at least eight credits of humanities, and at least 36 credits of both those types of classes combined. In many cases, a major in one of those fields requires between 36 to 44 credits. After going through the course catalog, I came to the conclusion that if I were to take only one class in a particular department, it would be difficult for me to put that knowledge in the context of that entire field of study - a bit of “jack of all trades, master of none”. For example, I came across one class called “Medicine, Race and the Body” (Asian/Pacific/American Studies). As someone from the Asia-Pacific, I can guess at what the class might cover - however, I can’t really see how that class might be useful or informative to someone who doesn’t have the background to put that information in the context of Asia-Pacific culture. It’s like a branch without a tree. For that reason I feel it’s better to concentrate those credits in one or two areas, beginning from the intro classes and moving up to the advanced classes, and getting something approaching a masterful understanding of one or two fields, rather than a scattered understanding of many. </p>
<p>The thing is, this doesn’t necessarily come at the cost of breadth, unless you consider what appears on the transcript particularly important. With the Internet, it’s easy to get hold of material relating to low-level instruction. You can pick up a lot of 101-level or elective-class-type material online with some judicious sifting and curating. What is hard to learn through online material is the higher-level stuff, and I’d rather spend expensive tuition money on that.</p>
<p>However, I’m also from a non-US school system that favors relatively early specialization, and at the same time I read a lot, so I’m not too concerned about losing breadth. In any case, my second major will fulfill my humanities requirement, and my maybe-minor will fulfill my science requirement, so in effect I will have as much breadth as and more depth than my program demands. YMMV.</p>
<p>All 3 of my kids have double majors, in which one was their primary preoccupation and the second enhanced the first and gave more focus to the first. The chance to talk about the double major has always been a positive aspect of job interviews and auditions, post-college.</p>
<p>S-1 has a B.A. with majors in Theater/Dance (one department) and a second major in Music. Since he’s a professional actor, this helps him because it gives resume credibility to justify everything he does in auditions and roles where the character sings or plays piano. At his small LAC, there was no Musical Theater major, so he put it together this way. For a while, he considered other double majors: Theater/Dance plus French; Theater/Dance plus Law/Jurisprudence (scheduling snafus everywhere), or Theater/Dance plus History. At his college, however, both Theater and History departments required a killer project as senior thesis, making that combination the only “double” NOT recommended at that college. </p>
<p>D’s BA has a double major in Religion and Art. Her focus in the Religion department was on the diverse practices and rituals people follow and use to express their religious philosophy. In college she wrote a knock-out Religion paper on “The ‘Trickster’ in African Storytelling” that connected that genre of storytelling with specific African religions from the same regions. That’s more “her” kind of paper than, say, a comparative study of Kierkegaard vs. Jonathan Edwards (two theologians) on sin or salvation. By having the double major, she is able to explain this in work interviews, and it illuminates her thinking more than saying either one major. </p>
<p>S-2 has a B.A. with double majors in Screenwriting and History. Like his sister, that second major (History) defines his approach to his primary concern (Screenwriting) best of all. His original scripts and adaptations always have a huge component of research and diverse historical settings to tell an imaginative story. As well, as a matter of intellectual pride, he feels it presents him as the serious guy he is…and gets away from the “Basketweaving = Screenwriting” non-serious major dilemma. </p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s the norm, but I know that for my 3, it’s been a matter of great pride to have a double major. In every interview situation since college, it’s generated a question asking them to explain how and why they connected the two disciplines. Since all 6 of the above majors are not “practical” but their work fields are very creative, they demonstrate creativity whenever they try to connect those dots for interviewers. That’s not why they chose their various double majors, but it turns out to serve them well as a talking point at every interview.</p>
<p>I’m double-majoring because I want to study both Drama and French, and may as well get recognition for the amount of study I’ve put into both departments. Why on earth would I take 10 classes in a department and not want credit for it? Also, it’s far easy to get into higher-level classes once you’ve declared your major.</p>