How hard is it to do Dual Major at GA Tech, my DS is interested in Computer Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, he is expecting around 40+ AP/IB/DL Credits.
Anyone who took dual engineering majors please explain Pros and Cons, difficulties.
Thanks
I hope this finds you well,
I have a lot of experience with Georgia Tech and its students and programs, having worked there for some time. Nevertheless, I will tell you that my words are limited in the sense that I did not attend as a student, but I have had many many interactions with students, faculty, and my own colleagues, some of who are GT grads.
Double Majoring at GT, to the best of my knowledge, is not practical, useful, or easy by any means. Allow me to elaborate. At GT, there is no such thing as a double major, and according to the GT ME website (which applies to the whole GT):
(GT) “does not offer double majors but does offer a second undergraduate degree. You must meet all of the requirements for both degrees and earn credit for a total of at least 36 additional hours in excess of the first degree.”
This means that your child will be working towards not one, but two rigorous engineering degrees. It is not feasible that your son will graduate in 4, or even 5 years without taking a relatively heavy summer load. If your son ultimately wants to be an engineer, this means that he will miss out on valuable and extremely important internships. If he wants to go to grad school, this means that he will miss out on important research opportunities (although he can probably balance his classwork with research, it will be difficult).
Now I took a reread at your comment, I realized that you mentioned that your son has 40+ college credits. I still think my information above is useful to someone else, so I won’t delete it. In this case, maybe it will be more practical in theory, but you need to remember, GT has a reputation for being very rigorous. It will be a lot of work, and really it won’t really serve a benefit. Both CE and AE are great majors, but I would recommend maybe majoring in just one with a Minor in the other, or doing something that is more broad like ME or EE. The reason I say this is that both majors are very broad, and can lead to a variety of jobs.
I would like to answer your question more in detail, but I would like to ask you, What does your son see himself doing? With this knowledge, I can try to guide you to what the ideal major/minor would be. Obviously, your son’s plans may change, but I like the fact that you are trying to preplan things out. Many people will tell you that your son doesn’t need to have everything planned (which is true to some extent), or that he can take his time figuring things out (true to some extent, but that time is limited), but these sentiments are not very effective. If one plans their path out, they will be more prepared and ultimatley succeed more, in my humble experience.
Thanks @college450,
Very well information and suggestion, I think the same because my son is a hard worker but not heavy worker. He is a junior now.
He finally wants to do masters in Aerospace Computational Engineering from MIT, as you said it may change in future.
Thanks Once again.
@RightDirection I’m a current double major in EE and CS also pursuing a physics minor. I came in with 62 credits and was more or less able to skip out of non-major classes. I am expected to graduate in 5 years at this rate. There’s just a lot to do 
Not a problem at all. For something like Aerospace Computational Engineering, Computer Engineering will not be very useful. A degree in AE with a Minor in Applied Mathematics or Computer Science is better. Additionally, he will need to get into some research positions while at GT (or wherever he decides to go). A GT, we have the CCL (Computational Combusion Lab) for instance. I think that is, from your description, what your son wants to do. This will be more useful. It’s difficult enough to get a high GPA (which is needed to go to MIT for a M.S. or PhD) in Aerospace Engineering. But, if your son gets that 3.8+ (It’s possible, I’ve seen it happen, don’t let anyone scare you), and does research, gets a paper or two in, and other such things, he will no doubt be ready for MIT. Otherwise, schools like Caltech, UMich, GT, Penn State, etc., have just as good programs in Aerospace Computational Engineering. MIT, though, is an awesome place to aim for. Best wishes to you and your son.
Thanks @TodaysEinstein @college450
So many have these great intentions of double majoring etc, only to get kicked in the teeth by how difficult it is to succeed with just one engineering major at GT. Why do this to yourself? Go, take the intro classes, and see what you really like. Better to use your precious extra time for other activities. All grads of GT have tons of opportunities.
Yes, but that is exactly why the questioner is asking for advice. There is nothing wrong with asking for advice and planning ahead (or at least trying to). It is not that difficult to succeed in an Engineering major at any institution if 1) You are dedicated and persistent - 2) You are passionate about you field, and 3) You are ambitious.
^ And my advice is don’t bother double majoring in engineering. At best, you will have two degrees that make you barely more marketable (if at all) than having just one, which is impressive by itself. At worst, you will struggle or miss out on other things.
I agree. A double major in Engineering is career suicide.
A double major that fits together like math and CS, or math and aerospace makes a lot more sense than CE and Aerospace in my mind. Many colleges have add on math majors, not sure if GT is set up that way though for such a double major.(applied math and aerospace or applied math and CS??) CE and Aerospace make little sense to me as a double major. I agree with @college450 both EE and mechanical engineering are broader than Aerospace and for some students,may be better. For MIT admissions, call MIT and look over their requirements now. Some departments at MIT focus on breadth of coursework, and the GRE score, as well as what research a student has accomplished to judge suitability to masters level work. If its a coursework masters though the GPA may matter more. So check if the masters degree is a thesis masters, so research matter or coursework masters, where the student simply takes additional courses, with no research requirement. Then ask for advise on major from the department at MIT. They will help you out. Physics is a very good major for an aerospace masters. The more math the better for MIT’s programs.
I would not double major in Engineering. I would just make sure I pick one major, and specialize and become very good @ it. From my perspective, CS / CE is a more versatile major than AE, so I would pick CS as a major, and take advanced coursework or research (grad level) where I could combine the two… For example doing computational vision research after a CS degree in the AE department.
Or another example is to do AE, and add a CS bend to it by taking advanced CS classes to do software engineering for autonomous flying objects (machine learning, robotics etc…).
Double majoring is a huge waste of time because you’ll spend so much time doing intro classes that have no use to you and are just coursework fillers.
Also employers would take a 4.0 GPA with just a CS degree who has AE interests everyday over a double major in CS and AE who’s good @ neither with a 3.2 GPA.