<p>Hey guys, I was just perusing some of the other threads in the UChicago forum and saw that a lot of applicants were hoping to double major. I too am considering two majors, Anthropology and Geophysical Science. But, I've heard so much about the work load at UChicago and how extensive and time consuming the core is. So, i was just wondering how many people actually end up completing two majors at Chicago. </p>
<p>Is the workload that much harder than it would be for one major with a bunch of electives? </p>
<p>And i would assume that two majors and the core would end up consuming all of your classes, right? </p>
<p>Could any current or past double majors comment on their experience. Did you feel isolated or like you were missing out on all of the other opportunities and cool classes that were available outside of your two majors? Did the core satisfy your interest in the areas not covered by your majors?</p>
<p>1) If the core is time-consuming, the majors feel easy to complete. Most of them. They vary from about 10 courses to 17 courses, but when you consider that a full year is 12 courses, it could be very easy to double-major.</p>
<p>2) Depends what you think of as hard, I guess, and depends on your major. Is a Physics and BioChem double major going to be rough? You bet. But econ and poly sci? Psychology and English? Much easier. Antro and Geo shouldn't be too unreasonably rough, plus if they're things you like, you won't find them as hard as others might.</p>
<p>It's also important to point out that lots of people start out thinking about a double major and end up dropping one. It's not because it's hard to do, they just realize that they like one major a lot more than another. Most of my friends are double majors, or finished about half of their second major before deciding to refocus their energies.</p>
<p>Basically, your interests change a lot during college, and where you end up is almost never the same place where you started.</p>
<p>3) As far as intellectual satisfaction goes, I would say that you're probably going to be quite happy with anthro, geo, and core. But don't take my word for it-- look closely at the course offerings for each and the major requirements. (Also, a lot of geo classes make the math/science components of core redundant; sosc will be playtime for an aspiring anthro major and hum will feel like an elective. Civ you can take abroad, and art/music/drama is just fun).</p>
<p>For me, it's going to be relatively easy to double major. Not necessarily because they are easy majors (Bio has 16 courses and Geos has 15 or 18, depending on BA/BS), but because there is tremendous overlap between the two (one is Geophysical Sciences, other is Bio). This is why you see a lot of Econ/Math or Math/Physics majors. So I will end up with a grand total of about 18 electives. But I did start out with a ton of AP credit. And a few of those electives may go towards more bio courses, because there are so many cool ones I want to take.</p>
<p>That said, I don't think there is much, if any, overlap between anthro and geosci. But they are both very flexible majors-basically, here's a big long delicious list of classes, and choose x number of them. (Geosci does require chem, calc, bio, physics, and an intro sequence, but the first four overlap with core anyway. Anthro might also have an intro sequence, but I don't know.) Because the non-intro courses in the majors are so flexible, they tend to feel like electives. There are courses in almost every physical science department (geos, bio, chem, math, phys, stat) that can count for geosci. The anthro courses are just ridiculously cool and range in topic from Intensive Study of Pirates or Chicago Blues to Comparative Primate Morphology. In short, you'll probably be able to take a lot of the electives you'd want to take anyway and have them count for your major.</p>
<p>Be aware that not every department lets one cross-count courses. My S's intended minor will not allow him to count any of those courses towards his major. His major has a significant Physical Sciences requirement. The graduate work he wants to do lives in two different departments, depending on the school he attends, so getting a minor in the area doing the level of coursework he plans is an important goal for him. (The various departmental requirements mean that he may wind up taking more minor courses than major courses!) Makes life interesting as he tries to plan out four years.</p>
<p>writonthetransom, Chicago will only grant 6 units of AP credit. On the other hand, S has found profs to be quite willing make placement accommodations.</p>
<p>You can't double count when minors are involved, but you can for most, if not all, majors. This was what my advisor told me last year.</p>
<p>And you can only get 6 electives through AP. You can get a lot more for math and science, plus the language requirement. I fulfilled all of my math/science/language core requirements with AP credit, and calc and chem also count for my major.</p>
<p>Just a reminder that students vastly, vastly overrate the importance of double majors in the employment and graduate school markets. Do one thing well, make certain that your resume and transcript has enough on it to make clear that your interest in Field X is legitimate and longstanding, and you will be fine. For grad school, having preparation and faculty recommenders is the key thing, and whether you have a "major" or a "minor" is pretty irrelevant. (To some extent, you could have an advantage by majoring in something else. People in every field want students who know something different than they do.) In the job market, majors are just one element of your plan for marketing yourself, and a weak element at that.</p>
<p>I have a related question: When general ed requirements are waived, is a student considered to have completed that requirement <em>and the unit of credit</em> or does it mean that a student must replace the waived course with something else? </p>
<p>S is getting conflicting info. One department says that for any 10000-level course that is waived, one must replace it with an upper-level course. Makes sense to me. Other departments' descriptions in the catalog are annoyingly vague. He is concerned that he's going to get burned down the road by having lots of waived courses and then having to scramble to find things that will meet the requirements of his major/minor (and yes, his department requires a minor).</p>
<p>In addition -- S got AP credit for all three courses of the 12000-level physics sequence, and based on the calc placement test and his AP Physics scores, can start at 14300. He is thinking about taking a couple of physics courses for his PSCD requrements, but they want 13300/14300 as a pre-requisite. General advisor has told him if he takes 14300 he loses all three quarters of AP credit. He took the equivalent of the 14000 sequence last year so is well-prepared from both the math and physics end of things. Surely there is a way around this? </p>
<p>Would love to hear from someone who's a 3rd-4th year who is in PSCD. S is in an unusual situation.</p>
<p>"Just a reminder that students vastly, vastly overrate the importance of double majors in the employment and graduate school markets."</p>
<p>Well, yeah, I want to double major because i want to study both, not just to make my transcript look better or anything. Anthropology is my main educational interest and I will probably go into a PhD program in Anthropology after graduation. I want to study mankind's rise to dominance(monkey->caveman->hunter gatherer->civilization) and i figured that a good understanding of the earth and it's history would be extremely useful. I've always enjoyed physical sciences and will probably take a bunch of Geos courses as electives if i decide not to pursue two majors.</p>
<p>also, i didn't know that you could count one course for both majors. But if you can, i think that there are a few evolution/ecology courses that can count for either Geos or Anthro, so that could make it a little easier for me. </p>
<p>yeah, ive already spent hours looking over it, mostly the course guide, and didn't see anything about double counting courses, but ill check it again and look specifically for double counting. thanks</p>
<p>I'm fairly certain double counting is ALWAYS allowed if it's for your major. However, a class CANNOT double count toward both your major and minor.</p>
<p>Here's the conundrum:
Student majors in math, minors in CS (a minor is required in the math department). Math major requires seven non-math PSCD courses as part of the BS Math degree. Student chooses to take CS courses to meet this requirement. The problem: None of those courses will count towards CS minor. Student must take seven MORE CS courses to complete minor. Student will have taken more CS courses than math by graduation. (On the other hand, student will be superbly prepared for CS or Math for grad school.)</p>
<p>I'm just saying, tread carefully. Minors seem to be where the double-counting is an issue.</p>
<p>I guess that you would have to talk to your advisor at Chicago to see how realistic a particular double major would be. In my child's case, she is double majoring in History and Latin American Studies. There doesn't seem to be too much extra work involved and she actually states that there is not nearly as much work as she expected and she is getting pretty high grades. So, depending on what you want to double major in, it clearly can be done.</p>