Dual Major

<p>How many extra credits would it take to dual major, if both majors were in LSA? Say communications and english.</p>

<p>COMM and English would not be bad at all. You’d probably be looking at around 130 credits, and how many extra that is all depends on AP credits amongst other things. Let’s just say of all double majors, English and COMM would be one of the easiest.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how hard it would be to double major in Mechanical Engineering and Electric Engineering? Or if that is even possible?</p>

<p>Double majoring in anything is possible, it’s just a question of if you can get it all in four years as well as how much misery you’re willing to endure with two fields like that. English and comm is a very doable double major, but even kids in CoE with just one major barely get their eyes off the books. That would be a very difficult double major but if you’re willing to sacrifice a lot of free time then you’re free to go for it. I’d strongly recommend you talk to an advisor about it, though.</p>

<p>My recommendation with double majors (as well as the recommendations of all my advisors ever) has been to only do it if it would add value to your resume or overall ability to succeed wherever you will end up. Just doing a double major for fun is often not practical, lots of work for very little return because of all the requirements that come with a major over a minor. If you’re interested in something just for fun, minor in it.</p>

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<p>Unless you’re happy with spending extra time, pretty hard. I wouldn’t recommend it. </p>

<p>I’m double majoring but one of the majors only requires like 38 credits, so it’s not as bad as double majoring where each major has like 60 credits. </p>

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<p>A lot of things don’t have minors, but I guess if you’re just doing it for fun you could just pick and choose what classes you want to take in it.</p>

<p>Vladenschlutte, what are you dual majoring in, if I may ask?</p>

<p>CSE and IOE</p>

<p>How many credit hours would it take to do a dual major in two different schools, say english LSA and Ross’ BBA program?</p>

<p>The ross/lsa dual degree is easy to obtain since there is substantial overlap in the respective distribution requirements. I remember reading an official statistic before that ~1/3 of ross students pursue dual degrees with LSA. I think there is a strict 150 credit requirement for the dual degree as well that forces you to complete 150 credits regardless of whether or not you complete the individual program requirements.</p>

<p>^This is half correct and half incorrect (I’m dual-degreeing in Ross right now). </p>

<p>If you plan to dual degree, start planning the beginning of your FRESHMAN year, it makes life much easier in terms of fulfilling requirements.</p>

<p>Depending on the major, getting all these requirements can be an absolute pain in the ass. Some majors may only require 24 credits of in-major study, but they also have prerequisites, additional requirements, and other things that you will have no idea about until you talk to an advisor. A good example is majoring in a language, where you can’t even start gaining credits that count towards the concentration until you’ve knocked out 5 semesters of the language. Add the LSA distribution on top of that (Ross only makes you do 3/4 parts of the distribution, and ignores things like Race and Ethnicity reqs) and you have yourself one hell of a time. Certainly dual degreeing in something like the School of Art and Ross would be much more difficult, but LSA & Ross is still not easy. 150 credits is a lot more than the 120 that Ross requires, (2 extra 15 credit semesters). If you don’t do summer summer classes or come in with a decent amount of AP credits its impossible to do in 4 years. </p>

<p>If you know you want to double major, I’d highly recommend taking either spring or summer term in Ann Arbor after freshman year and knocking down 10 LSA distribution credits, it will open up a LOT more possibilities.</p>

<p>the vast majority of the requirements for LSA/Ross can be overlapped. it is definitely one of the easiest, if not the easiest, dual degree to obtain at UM.</p>

<p>if you really think it’s impossible to do the dual degree in 4 years unless you take summer classes or unless you have a “decent” amount of AP credits (whatever this means), then you have no idea what you’re talking about.</p>

<p>Um no, you need the 150 credits. If you don’t have many AP’s or any spring/summer terms, you could get close by taking 18 credits EVERY semester you’re in college.</p>

<p>It also depends on the LSA major. If you do econ, you’ll need at least 35 credits of econ classes. That doesn’t include math you might need if you want to do more quantitative stuff.</p>

<p>I never said you don’t need the 150 credits. The reason it is easy is because the bba core requirements are so minimal. Really, the business degree boils down to the 45 business credits since the remaining credits will/can overlap with LSA. You make it sound as if majoring in econ is difficult because of the 35 econ credits, but you fail to account for the fact that 8 of those credits (101, 102) are required as part of the bba program anyways. In reality it’s just 27 credits. I assume you’re in the bschool, in which case you should know that a ton of students do dual degrees with with LSA econ.</p>

<p>We may be disagreeing on what it means to come in with “many” AP credits. Many students, in particular those in Ross, have quite a few AP credits. In that case, it stands that the dual degree is far from impossible to complete in 4 years without summer/spring terms.</p>

<p>Yes I am in the b school and doubling in econ. </p>

<p>Econ 101 and 102 are not counted as a part of the BBA core however. You need 101 to apply, 102 done at some point during sophomore year, and none of those 8 credits count toward the 45 required. </p>

<p>Then account for the fact that you need all lsa distributions, it adds drag. Its not impossible to do in four years, but its not the norm</p>

<p>My point was that econ 101 and 102 are required for the BBA, so getting the econ major is really only 27 additional econ credits. Additionally, the lsa distribution and bba distributions are extremely similar and can easily be overlapped.</p>

<p>nubs I’m sorry but you don’t understand the full picture. The requirements are not the issue and the BBA requirements are only 66% of LSA reqs when you count out the number of items on the list. Most of the LSA Distribution is overlapped, and if you come in with the language requirement done that opens up more doors. Let me lay out the numbers,</p>

<p>Ross limits you to 45 credits coming in combining into sophomore year, which means 105 / 3 = 35 credits a year, or 17.5 a semester. Of those 45 credits, every AP credit will not count towards the LSA distribution, so that already puts a 10-15 credit hole in your scheduling. Add in ECON and CALC and you’re another 12 credits behind for a total of 22-27 that will not support either your second major or the LSA distribution. 78 Credits may seem like a lot, but once you hash everything out, almost every credit becomes important.</p>

<p>17.5 credits for 6 semesters is a BIG commitment. If you have not completed you language requirement or even throw away four credits, or decide to change majors, etc. It will likely become impossible. Yes, the distributions overlap, but LSA requires an interdisciplinary course, upper level writing, race & ethnicity among other things, so you have to be VERY careful scheduling. If you have not planned out a schedule by the end of freshman year that covers the next 3 years of classes you will hit a wall where you need more than 18 credits a semester to graduate on time, making summer courses necessary to lighten the load.</p>

<p>You have to know by the end of freshman year that you want to double major, and you have to know what you’re going to double major in, as well as begun completing some of the requirements associated with that. If all of the above have not been started, you’re looking at summer school for one semester if not more. Ross does NOT make life easier in terms of getting two majors because of its strict requirements towards BBA classes alone, and only doing 15 elective credits is not very attractive to most people who are going for a business degree.</p>

<p>The only thing the 45 credit limit affects is your registration time. ALL of the credits you have entering sophomore year (regardless of whether or not they exceed 45) will count towards your dual degree. It seems like you are not aware of some of the important technical details of the dual degree.</p>

<p>If you are planning carefully, you can find courses that satisfy R/E, ULWR, and count towards SS or HU all in 1 course. If you are not taking advantage of things like this, then yes, the dual degree may be a hassle. There is no reason to not take courses that will satisfy multiple requirements at once, though.</p>

<p>Basically all LSA major concentration plans boil down to ~30 credits, as mentioned above. Thus, you need 45 business credits, ~30 credits for your LSA major concentration, distribution requirements (let’s say this even takes 50 credits, which is being EXTREMELY generous/reckless in planning). You’re at ~125 credits now. The remaining credits do not matter. The main difficulty that most Ross/LSA dual degrees encounter is just hitting the 150 credit minimum (if they don’t have many AP credits coming in, as you said). But this is easy considering there are no requirements on those credits. Even if you’re taking 17-18 credits semesters, the courses you’re actually in are not difficult. </p>

<p>I have met many students that pursue dual degrees with Ross, as I’m sure you have as well. You cannot honestly say the majority of them struggle to graduate in 4 years.</p>

<p>I completely agree that it’s wise to start planning as early as possible. You are simply wrong, though, to say that you must know going into sophomore year if you’re going to dual degree and what major you’re going to pursue in LSA. I recommend you make an appointment with Andrea to get your degree requirements clarified. It really is not as bad/difficult as you’re making it seem. Please point out if I’m missing anything in the “big picture” still. I have looked over many Ross dual degree 4 year plans from current students, and the majority of them do not even need to take 17-18 credit semesters throughout their 4 years.</p>

<p>^I’m almost 100% sure that you are maxed at 45 credits because that’s all that Ross recognizes when you enter, and you are forced to have Ross as your home school within the university. This did not apply to me however, so I have not tested it myself, but going based on the policy it is pretty clear that you must start at 45 credits. Since we don’t have perfect information however, this is the beginning of our disagreement. What I write below is assuming that I am correct.</p>

<p>Overall you are correct, you can knock out a ULWR and HU or RE & SS at the same time if you do it right. Big picture wise, what I think you’re missing is that you can’t double count these credits. So if I’m doing a SOC double major, I can’t use a SOC class I took and count it towards my HU or SS distribution, they can’t be double counted. At the same time, you cannot count any cross listed courses towards Ross and LSA at the same time, they can fulfill requirements but don’t add to the overall credit count. LSA dist is 24 credits at a minimum and 40 max (w/ or w/o language). Majors can be between 24-30, Ross takes 16 (including ECON 101, 102, MATH 115, ENG 125), and AP req’s get you nothing but filling prereqs so would squeeze 12-15 more. So you only have at best 24 spare credits, and at worse 8. This is where the problem comes in.</p>

<p>Ross only recognizes 45, but LSA recognizes the rest. When getting a dual degree, LSA needs you to get to 150 total credits with 100 being in LSA. Ross basically recognizes 45 and requires you to get to 120 before you graduate. </p>

<p>nub, you’re pretty much spot on in that it just takes a lot of time to get enough credits. Let’s assume someone has 16 APs, and plans PERFECTLY all distribution/RE/ULWR/etc and we assume the major requires only 25-30 credits. This person will need 134 total credits in college, which averages out to 16.75 credits/term. As Ross classes are usually 1.5 or 3 credits, have fun taking 6 classes every term in college. </p>

<p>Also, the BBA core being “minimal” is an illusion. It’s 45 credits (minimum), yet all classes are either 1.5 or 3 credits. So compared with Econ where 4 credit classes are a large part of a 35 credit (again-minimum) requirement, the bba takes a lot of time away you need to get your 100 LSA credits. Oh, and scheduling sucks too. That one LSA class you may need for some ULWR/RE thing is right when you have accounting. </p>

<p>Plan well.</p>