<p>Sorry for the dumb question, but when a person graduates with a double major, how does he/she present that on his/her resume going forward?</p>
<p>How about: East North Dakota State University, B.A. 2007 (Majors: Basketweaving and Caribbean Studies)?</p>
<p>Substantively: My sister-in-law the famous (in her field) professor was visiting over the weekend, and one of the things she talked about was how unfortunate she thought the tendency among undergraduates was to do double-majors and/or multiple minors. She thinks that many of them are not getting enough depth in a particular subject to be prepared adequately for graduate school or to really form relationships with the faculty in any department. This applies to her daughter as well, a senior at her university. Although the daughter will graduate with a degree in her mother's field (and in another one), her mother thinks that she has never gotten beyond a very superficial level of work because she was doing the minimum in two departments.</p>
<p>Interesting point JHS. I had never thought about that. Here I was encouraging son to do the double major or major/minor/minor route and maybe I was way off base.</p>
<p>I don't know how much I agree with her, although clearly there's something to what she says. There's some irony here, too, because one of the hats she wears is Director of an interdisciplinary studies program, the kind of thing that practically ensures superficial understanding of a number of different areas as they relate to one particular subject. I didn't ask her about that, but I suspect the program is more PR than real.</p>
<p>I suspect double-majoring, or major-minoring, can be a good marketing idea for a kid looking for a job or a professional school admittance, especially if one of the majors is less-than-commercial. My college didn't have minors, but I made sure that anyone looking at my resume and transcript would see a lot of Economics and Accounting on there with the Comp Lit.</p>
<p>In plain words, I think double majors are a bad idea. I was formerly a departmental undergraduate advisor at a large university and I always discouraged my students from double majoring. That's what minors are for. There is nothing to stop any student (except those in majors where the courses are programmed from freshman year) from taking whatever courses they want once they meet the distribution requirements. Neither grad schools nor employers reward double majors. (A foreign language might be an exception, but it could be handled as a minor.) Additionally, the couses needed for a double major may cause the student to stay beyond four years to finish. I totally agree with JHS on this and have preached this sermon many times. Since I informally advise lots of daughter's friends, I would welcome a different perspective.</p>
<p>Oops, I guess JHS and I don't agree after all! (Crossposted)</p>
<p>No, I think we probably agree. I am a big fan of depth. But I am also a big fan of majoring in French Literature, and I wouldn't discourage anyone interested in that from at least doing a minor in something that looks practical. And I'm afraid that if you tell students that they can't choose to major in both French and Accounting, pretty soon no one but trust fund babies will ever major in French.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about double majors. What if you go to college with a full year of credits behind you?</p>
<p>Is double majoring in business and a liberal arts subject really not worth it?</p>
<p>A science major or a math major or a foreign language major, or an econ major along with a bus ad major look pretty good to me.</p>
<p>Double degree programs that take 5 years make very little sense to me.</p>
<p>This is all very interesting and quite helpful. The reasons I asked are twofold: first, my niece is graduating in May with a double major and I just flat-out wondered what she would put on her resume. The other reason is because daughter met with the professor in charge of her chosen program (five-year masters that will give her a bachelor's in biology and a master's in secondary education) who mentioned to her that the required courses play out in such a way that if she took only a few more classes (like over the summer or something) she would qualify for a chemistry degree as well. Just curiousity on my part and it sort of struck me as cool to have degrees in biology and chemistry and not have to choose.</p>
<p>Having degrees in biology and chemistry might make her a more desirable high school teacher prospect.</p>
<p>With a daughter who is graduating in May with one major and has decided now to follow a different track--I wish she had double majored. She couldn't go on to grad school as the programs in which she was interested wanted bachelor's degrees in the area of study. Now she will be returning to UG and doing another couple years to pick up another major. Of course much of this is due to her poor planning and lack of future goal setting.;).</p>
<p>Your daughter's case is one where a double major could be helpful in that it will increase the kinds of teaching jobs she could apply for. Plus, they are somewhat related. Around here, however, first time teachers with masters are having a very hard time getting jobs as the districts don't want to pay them more than the starting salary for a bachelor's degree and the union won't allow otherwise.</p>
<p>We're in NYC and she would have to have the master's within two years of the bachelor's, which is fine in theory, but very difficult in practice because it's so hard to get the classes needed in the time allowed (did that make sense at all?). So Zoosergirl decided to do this five year program because she swears she doesn't want to deal with getting the classes. They're desperate for qualified science teachers at the high school level here, so we're thinking she'll probably be employable. She's done internships in biochemistry and won nice awards in environmental science, so she does have an affinity for both, but decided to skew to biology because it's mandatory for graduation here, where chemistry is not. I guess the bottom line for her is that if it strikes her fancy to take those extra chem classes, fine, and if not, that's fine too.</p>
<p>Zooser,</p>
<p>In your D's case, I would recommend her doing her 5 year program as planned. Working for the NYC dept of ED, she would start teaching with her masters and the next bump on the pay scale would be 30 credits above the masters (which could be in anything and she would end up going back for the money bump anyway, which would put her at the top of the pay scale then she would just have to put in time). The 30+ could be in anything and she could then take the second major or take the credits toward being certified in another area (in this case, chemistry)</p>
<p>My CV lists both of my degrees -- one on one line and one on the next. (Of course, that might only be appropriate because I was actually awarded two physical bachelor's degrees? I don't know how it works for schools that award a single diploma with two majors on it.)</p>
<p>I ended up double-majoring almost by happenstance. I started off in one major, but over the course of my undergraduate years realized I really leaned more toward a second department, so I picked up a major in the second department. I don't think it helped me get into graduate school, but I am awfully glad I did it. I had to take a few insane-o semesters of death to complete the double, and it was totally awesome.</p>
<p>I think the unfortunate thing about double-majors is that many people do them just for the sake of saying they're double-majors. I think undergrads would be well-served by people telling them early and often that they can take as many classes as they want in a department without having to be official majors.</p>
<p>It depends on the majors. At Stanford, from which my son graduated, some majors had many more course requirements than others. It was much easier to double major in subjects with fewer requirements, although some dedicated (insane?) students (probably with a lot of AP/college credits) double major in things like Economics and Computer Science.</p>
<p>Hey Sybbie, thank you for the link!</p>
<p>Sybbie is right! Back when I was finishing my undergraduate degree, commuting 400 miles a week to a small regional state school, and raising a family, all I could think of was getting as much value as possible out of my full tuition scholarship so that I could enhance my employability and not have to go back for additional certifications right away. I maxed out on credits every term and double majored in social science education and Spanish and also picked up the requirements for certification in language arts and ESL. Well, I easily found a job, but I probably would have anyway (without loading up like that).</p>
<p>What I didn't get at the time was that if I had just done the minimum to get teaching certification in one area, graduated, and then done the rest, every credit would have counted toward a boost on the pay scale, and I would have been two columns over on the chart within a year or two and benefitting from that higher pay for the rest of my working life instead of taking quite a few more years (and additional money out in tuition at that point anyway) to get there.</p>
<p>I think there are several areas where a double degree makes sense. Teaching has already been mentioned. DD's are also fairly common for music, dance, and art majors. Employment opportunities can be a little thin for a performer. Having an additional degree in a more practical major can be a good hedge and often makes it possible for the student to find employment in their chosen area without being limited to being only a performer or artist. A DD could also make sense for the student with interests and strengths in two diverse areas. Even a 5th year might be worth it. Contrary to the stereotypes, a scientist might benefit greatly from a major in literature, business, or even philosophy.</p>
<p>In many colleges and/or majors the disadvantage of a double major is not one of depth rather breadth. If the graduation requirements have a significant number of distribution requirements outside the major and as a result provide for only one or two free electives, the student choosing a double major will complete an academic plan which concentrates the distribution courses in a narrow range of choices.</p>
<p>Of course the entire situation is remedied for those students who receive college credit for AP courses, summer courses and semester overloads. In fact many students who graduate with a double major do so with a combination of these and the depth concern in both majors is a non-issue.</p>
<p>In fact the opposite could be argued. Students with double majors who graduate with in excess of a semester load of courses, will have an excellent education in two, not one area of learning.</p>