Hey guys! I’m incoming international freshman who will be majoring in neuroscience. I kinda want to double major, but I’m afraid of the sh*t load of work. Is anyone double majoring or planning to? What do you think? Is it worth it? Also, Im concerned because Im intl lol. If not double major then minor. Im interested in math minor, but what are the benefits of MATH minor?
A major in most US colleges ensures that the student has taken most of the expected/important courses associated with the topic area. So having a major can be helpful to the student and to perspective employers and/or for admissions to higher level education. But a minor does not do that. Rather, it signals that a particular topic area is of interest to the student and it suggests that the student probably took more courses relevant to the minor compared to other subject areas outside the student’s major. It really does not do much beyond that because there is no standardized set of courses that constitutes a minor that is similar across schools. In fact, you could simply write: Additional focus: X topic on your resume without ever officially having a minor and you’d lose nothing.
Double majors are generally not helpful in the job market. Not harmful, either. If a second major will require extra time/money, then it’s almost certainly not worth it. Either way, you don’t need to decide any of this now. You can always change/declare majors later. A couple semesters in college will give you a better idea for the college workload, whether or not double majoring or minoring would be practical, or whether you even want to have multiple majors/minors. Most students change their major or course plan at some point.
From a practical standpoint, having a math major places you on the stem opt list, whereas I don’t think Neuroscience does.