Double Major = Good soft factor?

<p>What do you think? E.g. economics + philosophy</p>

<p>Makes no difference at all. The only double majors that help--and only a little bit--are wildly diverse ones, e.g., one person I know double majored in creative writing and computer engineering.</p>

<p>I don't understand how wildly diverse majors would help if they were useless. For example, music + underwater basket weaving would not seem suitable preparation for law school.</p>

<p>Obviously, that's not what he means (although music is not a bad major).</p>

<p>Double majoring in unrelated subjects is a way for an individual to demonstrate versatility and interests in different fields. Maybe it would be used as a tiebreaker or something between applicants with similar qualities.</p>

<p>Again, that's assuming they're in different fields. A Biology/Biochemistry double is unlikely to see any gains from this.</p>

<p>It doesn't matter. What's challenging about most double majors? Nothing really, besides planning ahead to take courses in just a few limited areas.</p>

<p>Okay, so the vast majority of opinions I have seen on this (albeit from non-authoritative sources) is that double majoring is not really a significant soft factor. However, what about non-law-school-wise? What about, for example, non-law and law-related careers? Anyone know anything about this?</p>

<p>Probably same analysis: if they're two good and diverse majors.</p>

<p>Now add one more case: if the majors are "vocational"-ish in nature (which is normally bad for law school but not necessarily for the job market) then adding extra actual skills is always a good thing.</p>

<p>I think that having a major in a quantitative subject such as econ and then double-majoring in a subject such as English shows that a student has both strong writing and quantitative skills.</p>

<p>The quantitative skills required for a typical law practice are rudimentary.</p>

<p>Yeah, quant skills are only good in the sense that they promote analytical thinking.</p>

<p>Moreover, if you plan on putting in all the work to get into a t14 then you might as well do it knowing you just can't do the quant in banking.</p>

<p>what about political science and finance?</p>

<p>My gut reaction: because finance is a vocational major, it is unlikely to matter. However, the political science will keep the finance from actually harming you -- which is good. And that way, if you need the finance degree (for something else), you'll have that too.</p>

<p>How about bioengineering and economics? I'm serious =P</p>

<p>Are we going to evaluate every possible combination? It's fine.</p>

<p>So basically, it seems that the best course of action would possibly be to major in the more practical (economics) and minor in the less practical but still entertaining <a href="philosophy">to me</a>. If I at least minor in philosophy and do well, it's still proof that my writing/reading/analytical/etc. skills are good and intact.</p>

<p>Nobody will care about a minor. But a major in economics is fine too.</p>

<p>Well the big question is, will anyone care about a philosophy major outside of the law or academic professions?</p>