Double majoring

<p>Do double majors have to take four CI-M hass classes?</p>

<p>Yes, two CI-M's per major...</p>

<p>It depends on the requirements for the major.</p>

<p>I actually only took three, because I'm [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/catalogue/degre.scien.biolo.shtml#under%5D7-A%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/catalogue/degre.scien.biolo.shtml#under]7-A[/url&lt;/a&gt;], and one of my course 9 CI-Ms counted for course 7 as well.</p>

<p>If each department requires two, then you have to take four. If one of them can count for both majors, you only have to take three.</p>

<p>which are some of the more popular double majors?</p>

<p>Um... 9/7, 6/15, 10/7, 6/8, 8/18 -- those are the ones I can think of several people doing.</p>

<p>The number of second majors in each department can be found [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/2majorfinal.html%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/2majorfinal.html]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;], although admittedly it doesn't tell you what the combinations are.</p>

<p>I would like 6/8 or 8/18, seems like nice combinations, but yeah, lots of hard work</p>

<p>I'm 18/6, for reference; it's not that bad</p>

<p>What percentage of the people at MIT actually graduate with double majors?</p>

<p>About 20% -- from that link I gave in post #5, you can see that there are 180 seniors declared as double majors; 180/1000 = 18%.</p>

<p>Other good sites on doubling at MIT can be found [url="<a href="http://www.ianybarra.com/blog/archives/2004/04/what_matters_in.htm%22%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://www.ianybarra.com/blog/archives/2004/04/what_matters_in.htm"]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;] and [url="<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=103813%22%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=103813"]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. :)</p>

<p>in following then, I'd like to pose a question to Mollie and River Phoenix:</p>

<p>What thought processes drew you to choose to double major?</p>

<p>My thought process can be described as follows:
1. Changing interests. When I came to MIT, I thought I'd rather just do BCS, but as I took further classes in biology, I realized I actually liked biology better.
2. Sheer stubbornness. Sophomore year, I was bored at lunch one day, so I grabbed a copy of the course catalogue and realized it was possible for me to double. I then stuck with the double for six semesters, mostly because I could.
3. Academic masochism. I actually secretly like taking 75-unit terms. I wish I were kidding.</p>

<p>I wouldn't ever advise anybody to double because they think it will give them an advantage in employment/grad school admissions/life... it's something you should do if you genuinely like two fields and can't imagine giving one up, or if you're honestly on track to graduate with two degrees if you just take one or two more classes.</p>

<p>What if you have 2 interests that are very different, and you cant yet decide between them? I realize that I should take classes and see, but if that still persists, would that be a reasonable situation in which to choose to double major?</p>

<p>A little-known fact is that Mollie is actually two people parading as one, and this is in fact how she gets all her classwork + labs + social life taken care of.</p>

<p>I'm with molliebatmit in that I think double-majoring is overrated, and I say that having doubled twice, once as an undergrad, once as a grad student. What mollie has said is absolutely true - PRACTICALLY NOBODY will care about your double. The only person who will care is yourself. You are, sadly, not going to get a significant edge in hiring or promotion because you have a double. You are not going to get much of an edge in getting into graduate school. If you are looking for an edge for getting a job, you are probably better off spending your time doing something else, like networking or doing an internship, or other such activities. I wish it wasn't true, but it is true. I have seen many people with doubles lose out on jobs to people who have just single degrees. What you will often get is some words on 'good job on your double' and 'I see that you realy studied hard'... and then you find out the next day that they made an offer to somebody else. </p>

<p>
[quote]
What if you have 2 interests that are very different, and you cant yet decide between them? I realize that I should take classes and see, but if that still persists, would that be a reasonable situation in which to choose to double major?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that you don't have to take a class in order to learn a subject. You really can learn a lot just by getting the books and reading them yourself in your spare time. There are very few things in life where you actually need a class in order to learn something. Maybe foreign languages. Maybe skills like swimming, dancing, and riding motorcycles. But that's really about it. Most academic subjects really can be learned just by reading the books yourself. </p>

<p>Incidentally, if you ever decide to get a doctorate, most of the things you need to know to complete the degree will be things you will have to learn by yourself. That's part of the doctoral student journey. </p>

<p>To give you an example, one of the most knowledgeable people about history and political science that I know never majored in either of those subjects. Instead, he was a former physics major at MIT. But his hobby is reading books on history and politics in his spare time. In fact, his knowledge is so expansive that I would say he actually knows more than a lot of people who actually majored in those subjects. He's living proof that you don't need classes to learn something very well. </p>

<p>The point is, if you have 2 disparate interest, you can just learn one of them through self-study. You don't need to major in something in order to learn it. Personally, what I think you should do is get a major in the most marketable of your 2 interests. That way, you will have enough income to buy books that will satisfy your curiosity in the second subject. That's what my friend does. He works as a staff scientist, and he uses the money he makes to travel to the historical places that he reads about.</p>

<p>
[quote]
What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that you don't have to take a class in order to learn a subject. You really can learn a lot just by getting the books and reading them yourself in your spare time.

[/quote]

I agree with this, and would add that classes at MIT aren't generally major-restricted -- so if you really can't live without those music/math/biology/whatever classes, you can take as many classes as you'd like, just without fulfilling the explicit double-major requirements.</p>