<p>I fell in love with Rice when I visited last fall, and really want to attend. However, I want to major in International Relations. Rice has a major in Policy Studies with an area of concentration in International Affairs, but it can only be a second major. Given that I want to continue studying both Russian and Arabic through Rice's language center, and neither of those can be used as a major, would I be taking on too much to try to double major in something else, probably Economics or Classical Studies, and do Policy Studies, Russian, Arabic, hopefully an internship, study abroad, have a life? (All this assumes I even get accepted ED this fall, of course!)</p>
<p>The double major thing shouldn’t be too hard. Policy Studies and Classical Studies are both BAs, and I’m pretty sure Classical Studies is a 30 hour (10 class) major, meaning it’s really easy to take other classes along with it (I know next to nothing about Economics, and can’t really comment on it). However, doing those majors and a language will eat up most of your class time, and you won’t have much space to take classes just for fun, so make sure you like the classes you’ll have to take.</p>
<p>Two languages at a time might be pushing it, though. Language classes at the intro level will now have to be attended every weekday, probably meaning homework every night, and it could get time-consuming (this is in addition to your regular homework). They may also get in the way of you being able to take major-required classes. This will be completely dependent on what classes you want to/have to take, and when they’re offered. </p>
<p>Most of this is in terms of being able to attend all of the classes. You should always be able to have a social life - you just might have a few nights of the week you dedicate to homework and not to partying.</p>
<p>Nah you’ll be fine. I’m planning to do pretty much all you are doing (small changes here and there) and possibly even an extra minor, and I have a life.</p>
<p>Thank you both so much! I just don’t want to get in over my head since I’m sure Rice will be MUCH harder than high school - lol! I should be above intro level in Russian too so hopefully that will help. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I actually found my first semester at Rice easier than high school personally, but I also didn’t have any intro science courses haha. Glad we could help.</p>
<p>Economics is a 12-course major, which makes it quite suitable for double-majoring, especially since Policy Studies is an 11-course major.</p>
<p>As long as you’re willing to take a few semesters with an 18-credit/6-course load, you’ll have plenty of time for your languages and other electives. Study abroad is something that’s possible for just about everything as long as you start planning for it early enough and choose programs that will help you with your degree. This is something your advisors can help you out with–I think it’ll definitely be doable with proper planning.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind for Economics is that you do need to take many of the courses in a certain order, so that’s something you’ll need to plan well. If you don’t test out of Math 101, you should take that in your first semester, along with Econ 201 (unless they’ve started requiring Math 101 for that, which it looks like they might have, but I haven’t heard anything about such a change).</p>
<p>I’m planning to do a double major and a minor, and I still have plenty of room for extra electives.</p>
<p>Edit: My first semester at Rice was also easier than high school, but that was largely a result of the courses I was taking. My second semester was harder than high school (although not significantly harder–I felt very prepared still).</p>