<p>Do you have experience with a student who is double majoring? My son is in the second semester of his sophomore year and has just proposed doing a double major in Geology and Economics/Environmental studies (which is like resource management). Of course, this will add an extra semester to his undergraduate degree (extra time, extra money) but it sounds like it would really broaden his knowledge base. </p>
<p>What was your experience with double majoring?</p>
<p>My D decided to double major sometime after freshman year and also to cover the premed requirements. She graduated in 4 years but ended up going to summer school sophomore and junior years and graduated with an enormous number of credit hours. She worked hard and played hard …probably would’ve had a higher GPA had she just focused on one subject but really enjoyed both and I think the double major made her more employable.</p>
<p>Son added comp sci to math. Many students have two majors, not always requiring extra time. Great idea for your son- encourage him. The extra semester now is worth it to have the credentials in two fields.</p>
<p>I’m planning on double majoring, but, well, I go to Grinnell. It seems like everyone double majors here because it’s so easy to do it and still graduate on time thanks to the open curriculum.</p>
<p>My son is a double major in economics and political science and has four minors. He had lots and lots of AP credit, so he could study several areas. His broad base probably led to an incredible scholarship/internship offer for this summer.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, the general consensus seems to be that double majoring will be a good thing. I guess I was a little worried because he really hasn’t focused on this until the end of his sophomore year, and he goes to a small LAC where every class isn’t offered every semester, so he’ll probably have to take summer school one summer and then tack on an extra semester. The other summers he’ll need to do geology field studies and a research project. Oh dear, will he have to do two final projects? I never asked that question?</p>
<p>My S double majored at a smaller LAC. Because of his AP credits he had an advantage in course selection since his second year he was considered a junior in the course selection procedure.</p>
<p>He finished in 4 years with no summer courses needed to meet cirriculum requirements. Yes, there was a final project/thesis/paper in both.</p>
<p>Make sure the school knows what you are doing; Mrs. T. completed requirements for both Comp Sci and Statistics in 4 years by, ehem, careful selection of electives and an extra course here and there (all you can eat tuition). Unfortunately Cajun State required that you declare a double major well in advance and additional coursework (not merely scratching off check lists for both degrees).</p>
<p>Good idea in either case, but will likely require extra time in summer, etc. to complete in a reasonable amount of time.</p>
<p>DS started off in CS and in the soph year picked up EE. Since there was a lot of synergy it didn’t dramatically increase the courses needed.</p>
<p>My D is double majoring. It’s a great thing for her because her interests are very specific. She is an IB diploma holder, so most of her core requirements were already out of the way.</p>
<p>I have a masters degree in Regional Land Planning, and worked in two consulting firms and one government agency in the late 1970’s. I had to take two graduate science courses for that masters degree: Advanced Geomorphology and Plant Botany. Fortunately, as an undergraduate, I had taken already taken my science distribution requirements as Geology 101, followed by Glacial Geology. </p>
<p>The mathematical foudation of geology was more than I needed to know. For example, the equations that define how quickly meandering water wears down the river bank were things I needed to handle geology exams, but never used again. That said, the ability to categorize a landscape according to key terms was very helpful to me as a “generalist” conversing with the harder scientists on the consulting teams. It gave me confidence and a 3-dimensionality to understand debates over development on floodplains, or the value of prime agricultural land proposed for suburban development. </p>
<p>His second undergraduate major in Geology complements his other major in Environment/Economics. Together, they will provide good foundation if he wants to do graduate work in Natural Resouces Management and Planning.</p>
<p>I guess I am a dissenter here. I don’t think double-majoring is an especially good idea at all, absent some special circumstances (which aren’t that uncommon).</p>
<p>Very few college majors actually qualify a student for anything. (I’m not talking about nursing or engineering here. I’m talking about the kind of majors the OP wants.) For me, the point of a major is to give your studies focus, and also to ensure that a student has at least a glimpse of what depth means in a field, and how you go about obtaining it. You don’t need to do that twice to do it well, and doing it twice doesn’t double the value of the experience (or anything even close to that).</p>
<p>Now, a student’s college course work – which is certainly related to, but by no means the same as, the student’s major(s) – also provides a base of mainly introductory knowledge in some broad fields, that the student expects to build on with employment and graduate studies. And obviously, the student should choose his or her course work with an eye to what sort of building he or she may want to do. But I don’t think you have to slap every thing you study with a label like “major” or “minor”. And to some extent accumulating those labels can get in the way of building a more eclectic curriculum that allows for a bit of personal exploration, not to mention choosing some courses because they are valuable in and of themselves rather than as part of the requirements for a major or minor. It’s the rare major or minor that doesn’t have some absolute duds as requirements; why should one volunteer for more of those than necessary?</p>
<p>If you can go to medical school and become a doctor without majoring in biology, chemistry, or something related shows that what major you have actually has little importance in many common, significant circumstances.</p>
<p>There seem to be three reasons why students love double majors. First they think it gives them a leg up with employers. I doubt that. That’s not to say that, for example, environmental management coursework might not be a valuable addition for a geology major, but the additional oomph that the double major supplies is negligible. (And, sorry, as an employer I would be seriously turned off by a kid whose resume showed a double major and four minors.) Second, I think it’s a continuation of the attitude that leads high schoolers to accumulate 14 APs. It’s coup-counting, and it’s not respectable. And finally I think many students see a double major as an expression of their individuality, and a rebellion against the narrowing of focus that college otherwise requires. “I’m not just an X major. I’m an X and Y major!” That’s fine, but it’s also not something I respect. Having one major doesn’t make you a boring person, or a person with only one interest. And I would rather see you do one major well than two majors at the bare minimum.</p>
<p>Where double majoring requires an extension of college, and extra tuition – that makes it really, really hard to justify. In general, it’s not valuable, but it’s not all that harmful, either. When you start spending (and borrowing!) extra money to do it, then it’s harmful, too.</p>
<p>A few exceptions I recognize, at least as long as they don’t make you spend a lot of extra money: (1) You have substantial interest in an area, and because of preferential registration for majors you wouldn’t have access to the best courses without declaring the additional major. (2) You change your mind about what you want to do after substantially completing major 1, and major 1 is of a sort that might lead people interested in major 2 not to take you seriously unless you get the full major 2 credential. This is especially believable if one of them is something like Feminist Studies or Theater or Basket Weaving, and the other is Economics or Physics. In either direction. This happened to my wife – she was two classes shy of completing her Psychology major when she decided she would rather do American Studies. It wasn’t hard to complete the Psychology major, and it didn’t get in the way of American Studies. (Interestingly, after not using either in the workplace for close to 20 years, for the past 10 years or so she has been in positions where her Psychology background was actually useful. But not so much the major.)</p>
<p>D is doing a double major, the classes required for the first major gave her a minor in the second subject so the additional effort was not huge. </p>
<p>She will need summer school to finish in the four years. Considering how difficult it would be to find a summer job in her field I think it’s better than a non-career related job</p>
<p>I agree with JHS in this sense: if he hopes to go directly from college to work, having two undergraduate majors won’t position him any better than the one major. </p>
<p>But perhaps that particular double major might appeal to the admissions division of a graduate school in regional planning or natural resource economics, because it hits all the right academic chords in that field.</p>
<p>From grad school, he can prepare to enter the world of work. As I wrote:
</p>
<p>For now, the question might be: is it $$ <em>worth it</em> to study geology as an undergraduate or just get to Graduate school and take whatever geology they require for their masters degree. </p>
<p>My experience is now too dated to answer, but a graduate professor in the Natural Resources departments might advise.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions: Thanks very much for your input, it was very helpful. JHS: very thought provoking.</p>
<p>Our daughter had double major… Engineering and biology. She took 15 credits one summer to complete her degree in the four year time frame. For her, it was a great choice.</p>
<p>@JHS: My daughter, like your wife, completed a double major in Psychology and American Studies. It was a good decision for her. She finished in just over three years, but stayed on for the final year to complete an undergraduate thesis in each major. She thoroughly enjoyed her college experience, and, for her, working with two departments added to that enjoyment.</p>
<p>I can very much see your point, but some students have more than one interest that they feel compelled to pursue. It’s their time to figure things out for themselves.</p>
<p>For some jobs you will not make the first cut without a degree in the correct field so a double major will help. DW double majored. DD2 has a major and two minors. YMMV.</p>
<p>The question about not having two very heavy senior projects is important to know. The answer is specific to each school, of course.</p>
<p>S-1 first thought he’d double-major in Theater and Law/Jurisprudence/Social Thought (a mouthful but one department there). By soph year: too many scheduling conflicts, so LJST retreated to just taking the favorite courses. For awhile, he considered double majoring in Theater and History, which genuinely reflects his academic passion areas. His advisor discouraged it because Theater and History happened there to require the most time-consuming senior projects of any 2 departments in that school. Then somewhere around junior year, he discovered he’d taken enough Music courses that, if he just added 2 more, he could get the double major. So it just fit in kind of nicely at the end. What was helpful was that he could swing a collaboration for his Theater capstone project that included participation (a chamber pit orchestra and conductor provided) from the Music department. He could only generate that perk for his play because he was also a Music Major. </p>
<p>D never double-majored but found she could add “Concentrations” in her major, along with a Minor, that fully expressed her academic interests. She has one major, though.</p>
<p>S-2 began as a freshman declared Screenwriting major in the Film department of a university outside of L.A. He quickly added a double major in History. He found no trouble handling the second major, perhaps because he decided early on so the courses just fit right in. Now he likes having the History as double major on his Film/Screenwriting resume, I guess to show he has a serious mind.</p>
<p>This is all great information, thanks so much!</p>