Double majoring at MIT

<p>Also, to make quotes, do something like this, removing the spaces before the ] brackets:

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I am a quote
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<p>and it will turn out like this:

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Yeah and I have a friend who smokes and doesn’t have cancer.</p>

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<p>Tip o’ the cap!</p>

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<p>It all depends on the individual and what they need, and the particular set of classes they are taking. An engineering major will be very time-consuming, but it will vary depending on what the person is actually taking. For instance, if you place out of a semester of GIR classes (calc I, intro. bio, intro chem, and/or intro to physics), obviously in that case you can spread your required engineering classes more and have more space for other classes. Some engineering majors are more intensive and have more requirements than others (aerospace engineering), and some engineering majors have two versions, one of which has less advanced classes so that people can get more breadth. It is very common to have bio as a second major with EECS or Chem E; the biggest reason for this is that people are interested in biomedical engineering; usually these people take the version with less advanced classes. For instance, in course 10C (one version of chem E), you don’t have to take the year long sequence (integrated chemical engineering, or I.C.E.) where you learn how to design a plant. EECS/math, EECS/physics, or physics/math are other common double majors; management is also a common double major for engineering majors. Again, it helps to have credit coming in.</p>

<p>As for your proposed double major, humanities and engineering, there are plenty of people who do this. In fact, almost all people who have a humanities major are doubling with science or engineering, so you can find the number of people doing this by finding the number of people with humanities majors (probably listed online somewhere.) As for whether this is necessary, well that depends on you. Humanities education is helpful in developing right-brain thinking, which is useful for creativity in engineering. It is also useful for writing, and can be linked with skill in recognizes how to navigate the politics that arises in one’s career. This is the liberal arts philosophy. However, it is more important for people who have a need for it. If you are unhappy because you are forcing yourself to be engineering-heavy, then you may actually be less engaged in your engineering classes. On the other hand, ask yourself whether you really need more than one college class in humanities per term, because that is the requirement for anyone regardless of major. I was very interested in literature, but was satisfied with one class per term. I don’t know how many more you may need for a second major. Some people do varsity sports on top of hard majors. Probably, it would be possible to be better at their major or go more in depth if they didn’t have such a huge time commitment. I know that was the case for me, and I dropped my sport. However, people are built differently. I know someone who told me they get “weird” in their words if they don’t have like 3 hrs of intense physical activity a day. So for them, they are probably more productive by having the varsity sport. For most people, an hour or two of physical activity a week is probably enough. That is what it’s like for me, though, with humanities. I need that engagement in pure right-brained thinking.</p>

<p>Another option, which depends on your own financial state, is to take a little longer to graduate.</p>

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<p>I have plenty of those friends.</p>

<p>But seriously, you don’t have to get a DEGREE in humanities to be good at this stuff. I think it’s pretty obvious.</p>

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I’m a scientist. I double-majored in Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and then went directly to the PhD program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard. I did my PhD on the development of different subtypes of neurons in the neocortex of the brain, and I’m now a postdoctoral fellow in a lab that studies developmental disorders of the human nervous system.</p>

<p>So I’m not as far into my career as some other posters – I graduated from MIT seven years ago.</p>

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No, I don’t think it detracted for me, at all. For what I do, which is molecular/cellular/developmental biology in the nervous system, having an undergraduate education in both biology broadly and neuroscience more deeply has been a tremendously useful asset. If I had to do it over again, I’d take exactly the same classes (except that I’d take this one neuroanatomy class that I avoided as an undergrad but really needed as a grad student!). But I don’t think the advantage is in actually having gone through the process to have the double major – I think the advantage is in having taken those classes and getting that education.</p>

<p>A lot of people come to MIT with the idea that they’ll double in this and that. I just want to point out that having that goal as an end in and of itself isn’t always worth it, and there are sometimes more important goals to keep in mind.</p>

<p>Thank you very much, Molliebatmit.</p>

<p>My #1 takeaway from your post is,

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<p>What do you people think about Electrical and Mechanical Engineering?</p>