I’ll be attending UVA this fall at the E-School
So, I want to double major in Econ & Engineering (Civil hopefully…maybe biomedical)
But before I do, I want to know the advantages & disadvantages of doing so…
like is there anything I should be doing right now before I start my first year? Will it increase my chances of getting a job when compared to other people who just majored in engineering? Do you think I’ll also have free time? And so on…
I would love to hear from people who actually did a double major at UVA but all inputs and advice are welcome (and most needed)!
On a side note: I’m a very indecisive person (I don’t know if I want to go into civil, biomedical, or computer science) but once I do make a decision, I tend to stick with it until the end.
You will have little free time if you double major between schools. However there is an engineering business minor you could do. Engineering leaves you with little free time as it is. I know a few people who doubled but I wouldn’t recommend it.
@superkjkim a double major is possible in E-School, but it’s a lot less stressful if you come in with a lot of test/dual enrollment credits. Like @hazelorb mentioned, you should consider the engineering business minor, it’s a great way to get a working knowledge of business and take McIntire classes without having to dedicate too much of your time to it. Increasing your chances for career prospects really depends on what you want to do; if you want to go into industry, it would probably be more helpful there than if you were to go to graduate school. In terms of what you “should be doing” before first-year, you can take a look at the curriculum for CE/BME/CS and read course descriptions to get a better idea of what you’d be taking for whatever major you want to go into. Of course, that isn’t a definitive way to choose a major by any means, but it’s a place to start. If you have other questions, feel free to ask.
There is also a new student organization in the E-School starting this fall called Xplore Engineering, where you sign up for a 4 week session that includes a lot of hands on workshops and activities for any E-School major. Each major is led by upperclassmen in that respective major, and they encourage you to ask them informal questions about their field of study. There’s three 4 week sessions, so you can choose more than one major to check out.
@“Dean J” There is a planned informational/interest meeting for all interested students this fall; you are certainly welcome to attend! I will forward the email about it to you once it is sent in a few months. Here’s our atUVA page (a full independent website is currently in the works): https://atuva.student.virginia.edu/organization/xploreengineering
If you’re interested, here’s some more information about it:
The primary goal is to help first-year engineering students decide on a major, but students from CLAS/SARC/NURS/etc are also welcome if they want to learn more about engineering and are possibly considering switching into SEAS. Each major includes hands-on 90 minute sessions (meeting once a week for 4 weeks) led by upperclassmen in their respective major, and there is a decent amount of informal query time built in for the students. The curriculum for each major has been planned from the ground up by the student leaders in the organization, so this fall will be a great test run for what we have come up with. We’re currently discussing our plans with Professor Cahen (SEAS Experiential Programs Director) and some of the majors have reached out to their respective department chairs.
