<p>I'm currently a junior who is almost done with my school's business management requirements and would like to add an Economics major to my transcript. In addition those two majors, I also plan on getting a psychology minor, a Chinese minor, and an International Relations Certificate. I'm also in the university's Honors College, which has its own set of requirements, including a huge thesis/project at the end of the year.</p>
<p>The problem is, I don't think I'll be able to finish all of the above in four years. Financially and time-wise (I'm a year older than most juniors), it's probably the best for me to graduate on time in four years. This semester, I'm carrying a load of 9 classes and it's been really rough, to say the least. If I were to finish all my majors and minors listed above, then I'll be overloading credits during my senior year like a maniac. This could potentially jeopardize my GPA, which is currently a number high enough to qualify me as the top 1% in my class.</p>
<p>So the question is, am I doing the right thing? Is getting all these majors and minors worth the effort? I'm planning to work after graduation and get an MBA in the future. I have had great internships for the past two years and am very involved in leadership positions on campus. I feel like there something missing from all of this, and that is the GMAT. Should I cut back on my ambitious list of majors and minors and instead dedicate some time to prepare for the GMAT?</p>
<p>I do understand that this is a parents forum, but because I am so conflicted (and also the first kid in my family to attend college), I welcome suggestions from anyone, and certainly nothing is more valuable than the wisdom of parents who understand a lot more about the real world. I am eager to hear some great ideas!</p>
<p>I’m at loss to understand this newfangled fascination with minors and double and triple majors that seems to inhabit the college scene nowadays. Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, we had a major–maybe one minor that we could pick up with the addition of one class or so. For example, some biology majors had to take so much chemistry that they could add a minor with the addition of one more chemistry class.</p>
<p>Minors are fluff. Finish your one major. Finish your honors thesis. Don’t screw around with your GPA. Prepare for the GMAT which will do more to get you into biz school than unrelated minors.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you with regards to the “newfangled fascination with minors and double and triple majors”. I do admit that I interact with a lot of achievement oriented students, and they are all the same: super involved, multiple majors and minors and degrees, with super high GPAs. We more or less influence each other.</p>
<p>This all started when I realized that it may be smart to compliment my management major with Economics, which is more focused on theories and analytical applications. I keep having this mentality that a transcript with two majors, two minors, and a certificate will knock out other competitors, especially when it comes to grad school admissions.</p>
<p>That is not to say, however, that I am doing all of this just to be competitive. I am genuinely interested in all of the subject matters listed above, but the work load is taking a toll on me, and that’s when my GPA and GMAT comes into play.</p>
<p>Thanks for the critiques! I need more of them, haha.</p>
<p>I know that a lot of parents are talking about their kids’ acceptance letters and all, and my topic is probably the least of interest to them, haha. But any additional suggestions from parents are welcomed. =)</p>
<p>I’m not a parent (Junior in HS actually!) but I think Business Schools care amount GPA, GMAT and Work Experience more than Majors/Double Majors/Minors, so unless you think all those extra majors/minors are worth the potential dip in your GPA and detraction from ECs by providing you better job offers, I wouldn’t do them…</p>
<p>Business School seems like a logical Grad school choice for me (then again it’s more than 5 years away), I’m considering majoring in Economics and doubling in Political Science for the heck of it (I really like politics if you couldn’t tell )</p>
<p>The real question is what do you want to do after graduation and with your education? Maybe it’s only me, but management major at the undergraduate level is just that, a BS degree. You can’t manage and you can’t consult. No offense here; I’ve seen it enough to make such a sweeping generalization. So economics major makes sense. I’d stick with the two, since you’re done with one already. If you want to go on to the MBA, get a job after graduation and progress steadily for the next two or three years. That helps more than more minors, certificates etc.</p>
<p>I do intend on going to grad school to get my MBA in the future, though I will certainly be working for at least 3 years before doing that. I entertained the idea of picking up the econ major because I thought it would be a great compliment to my management major, which is a little more broad. But would a strong GMAT score and a high GPA trump the econ major?</p>
<p>Yes, a strong GMAT score and high GPA are probably more valuable than the extra major. But the extra major won’t affect your GMAT score one way or the other, so that’s a false trade-off.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t have a problem with the double-major between management and economics. Since management is kind of iffy as an academic subject, showing that you have a solid grounding in some traditional, theory-based academic field is not a bad idea. But if you add all those minors and certificates to the mix, it looks like you are some obsessive-compulsive credential collector. Knowing Chinese is great – that should be on your resume. A “minor” in Chinese adds nothing. I don’t know what a minor in psychology adds, either, unless the coursework meaningfully deepened that of your management major. Ultimately, the question is what have you learned, and how can you use it, not how many notches you have on your belt.</p>
<p>And I can’t imagine that any of this will make a difference in business school admission. Your academic record matters there, but so does your non-academic record. Accumulating majors and minors won’t impress anyone. Start a company, or get a meaningful job, or win a sales contest . . . any of those would be worth more than all your majors and minors combined.</p>
<p>Thanks JHS. I guess I should concentrate more on my non-academic record. I have had great internships in the past (and one coming up), and I’m very involved on campus, so I hope those things will show the other side of me.</p>
<p>Does anyone think that I should abandon my university’s honor’s program? All it is is extra work, including a huge project/thesis for seniors. Besides that, it offers nothing else special (you can get highest honors, but so can other students with high GPAs). Dropping that could lighten my academic load significantly.</p>
<p>I agree that these things are what will make you more competitive against the applicant pool, not a conglomeration of majors and minors.</p>
<p>9 classes a semester is nuts. </p>
<p>In considering what JHS and hillbillie have said about adding the Econ major as a more academic major, I’d have to agree. Add the econ major, lose all the rest of the minors and lose the thesis if you aren’t committed to it.</p>
<p>Keep it simple: GPA, GMAT, Work experience!</p>
<p>You don’t need to minor in Chinese, all you need to do is put on your resume “I speak fluent Chinese”, or whatever level it is you speak, though fluency is likely to be the most useful in a business setting.</p>
<p>Business school admission isn’t all that sensitive to the details of an already high GPA, in the way that law or medical school admissions are. It also isn’t nearly as academics-sensitive as a funded PhD program. </p>
<p>Demonstrated quantitative competence is more important, especially for those interested in finance. Economic courses, to the extent they are advanced, quantitative, theoretical, or visibly competitive, are likely to be useful. Basic economics will impart a grasp of some standard vocabulary that a management major would probably know already, so the value is not clear. Exposure to math, econometrics, statistics, engineering, hard science, or computer programming can help. High GRE scores don’t hurt.</p>
<p>Academics are much less than 100 percent of the decision.</p>
<p>Also, taking Chinese at all seems like the worst decision for someone in a rush to graduate and accumulate course credits. It is completely replaceable by private study in the years between graduation and application, and without having to compete for grades with semi-native speakers boosting their GPA’s.</p>
<p>These are all great suggestions… thank you, parents!</p>
<p>I’ve recently decided to drop out of my school’s honors college and keep the double major in Management and Economics, double minor in psychology and Chinese, and the International Relations Certificate. I found out that these will translate into a dual degree in the end. Hope that will give me the competitive advantage that I need when it comes to business school admissions - along with work experience and good GMAT scores, of course.</p>
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