<p>I am interested in taking an Economics and Math double major but I'm not sure how hard this combination will be. Do Math classes at NYU have severe grade deflation? I need to keep my GPA up for job prospects and probably grad school, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to learn as much as I can during college.</p>
<p>double major is always hard to do(especially if you need to do interns and jobs to pay the loan)… you should know that for a fact.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>I completely disagree with the above; in fact I find it to be a common myth.</p>
<p>A major at NYU is 8-10 classes, which translates to only 32 to 40 credits. A double major would translate into 64-80 credits (for math and economics, I think both majors are 40 credits). You have to take 128 credits to graduate - which means after you complete all the courses for a double major, you still have 48 credits that you have to take. </p>
<p>But, you also have to complete the MAP.
The MAP requirements consists of the following:
1 ‘Writing the Essay’ Course
2 Sciences Course
1 Math Course
4 Foreign Language Courses
4 Foundations of Contemporary Culture </p>
<p>In total that’s 12 courses - 48 credits. </p>
<p>BUT You can test out of the math requirement; you can test out of the language requirement if you’re fluent enough in a foreign language; your economics major will you exempt you from one of the Foundations of Contemporary Culture courses. </p>
<p>That removes 6 courses from the MAP (2 if you’re not fluent enough in a foreign language). That leaves you more than enough time to complete a double major - you just need to plan your schedule carefully and pay attention to all of the requirements you need to satisfy.</p>
<p>Personally, I double majored in philosophy and politics and minored in psychology - if NYU allowed triple majors I would have graduated with a triple major. It’s not difficult at all.</p>
<p>what about opinions specific to the combination I mentioned? ie Econs+Math
is Math generally graded harshly at NYU?</p>
<p>@NYU2013, have you heard of the Math + Computer Science minor, is it basically a 50/50 split of CS and mathematics?</p>
<p>@millionth</p>
<p>Math + Econ should each be 40 credits, but you check online - each department’s website will list all of the requirements for each major. </p>
<p>Because you’ll be taking econ and math you’ll be exempt from 2 of the general education requirements (quantitative and one of the social requirements). </p>
<p>NYU has one of the best math departments in the US, but I have no idea how harshly they grade. The average GPA at NYU is quite high and is above the national average, so I don’t think you would have to worry too much about grading.</p>
<p>@deathblade127</p>
<p>Yes, I believe it’s two CS courses and Calc I and II</p>
<p>@NYU2013 I knew a few who took double major in U of T who can not find any time to do outside jobs, in fact they nearly studied to an insane level towards the end of first year. But they are not in NYU , I merely thought that difference should not be great between university.</p>
<p>As for the op, clearly you should listen to him , as i am only relaying the information I got from some students that’s not in NYU.</p>
<p>@jack</p>
<p>That doesn’t actually make any sense. Doing a double major does not add any additional work load to a student’s schedule. Those individuals which you know were merely having issues handling the normal college workload - that difference is not attributable to differences between their university and NYU.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether or not a student does a double major or not, they will be taking the EXACT SAME NUMBER of courses per semester. At NYU, this is 4 courses. At others it’s 5 or 6. Regardless of whether or not you are taking a double major, you will be expected to take the same number of courses per semester. </p>
<p>In order to graduate, students are required to complete a major and a required number of credits - this means that students have to take a minimum number of courses per semester (e.g. 4 at NYU). A student doing a double major will still be taking 4 courses per semester, because they still have to complete a certain number of credits to graduate. This means that you will be doing the EXACT SAME AMOUNT of work per semester if you’re doing only one major or if you’re doing a double major.</p>
<p>@NYU2013, I believe he is doing Engineering , that’s probably why. (Or does that not make any sense either?) </p>
<p>I will confirm with him again, but i was told that its too much workload.</p>
<p>@jack </p>
<p>Engineering requires a lot of time, but if he’s doing engineering and another major then regardless of whether or not he was doing the other major he would still have the same workload. I.e. doing just engineering or doing engineering + another major requires taking the same number of classes per term. So let’s say a regular engineering major takes 5 classes per term - 2 engineering courses and 3 assorted liberal arts courses. An engineering + math major, for example, might take 2 engineering courses, 2 math courses and 1 assorted liberal arts course. </p>
<p>They’re both taking the same number of courses, so their workload should be almost identical (although that will differ by individual class). The major difference between, say, math/physics/chemistry/engineering and non-STEM majors will be that one will spend most of their time solving problems while the other will spend most of their time reading.</p>
<p>@NYU2013
I see, thank you so much for clear that up.</p>
<p>From a math major, I’ll provide you with some more accurate information since it seems no one bothered to look up actual major requirements.</p>
<p>First and foremost, Math is a 12 course major, 48 credits. Not 40. They are also very strict with AP credits; don’t expect to be exempt unless you scored a 5, and even then, it’s more for placement than for credit. They still expect, and want you, to complete 48 credits AT NYU.</p>
<p>Economics is the same, as far as AP credits go. Placement, not credit. Economics is also a 12 course major, if taken a lone, due to the math requirement. If you plan on double majoring, it would only be 10. This applies to both econ concentrations.</p>
<p>Speaking of concentrations, you could choose to do a joint major if you’re interested in economics theory, instead of policy, if you don’t feel you have the time for a double major. It’s nothing to sneeze at either, you take a pretty decent chunk of math major courses. If I am not mistaken, this is an 18 course joint major with 9 in each department.</p>
<p>Other possibilities include A major in one and a minor in the other (Anywhere from 14-18 courses).</p>
<p>As far as grading goes, I only have experience with the math department, and they are more than fair. All the calc classes take the same tests written by the same guy, Leingang (great professor!), and they get steadily more and more brutal. Calc 1 final was a joke, Calc 2 sucked, Calc 3 was utterly horrendous. In fact, the average for my Calc 3 final was a 60, that’s one point above an F, with a standard deviation of 15%. I can’t attest to whether there was a normal distribution but this would, generally, imply that 70% of the test takers scored between a 45 and a 75.</p>
<p>Having said that, letter grades are cut off based on this, they try to bring the grades a little closer to previous averages. They grade very fairly, if you do well on homework assignments and quizzes, as long as you’re consistant, your grade will reflect it due to curves. If you do horribly on a final, and you were getting Bs all semester long, that probably means they wrote a horrible final and they will adjust grades. They don’t hand out free As, however.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure what NYU2013 is saying about Engineering + Math as opposed to just Engineering. While it’s true you take the same amount of credits, that does not, in the slightest possible sense, imply the same workload.</p>
<p>If this were true, that would imply all majors have the same workloads, and that is just non sensical. I might be biased as a math major, but I fail to see how a Math/Physics double major would have the same workload as a Sociology major.</p>
<p>Just my two cents, I’ll keep an eye on this page in case you have any other questions.</p>
<p>Oh, before I forget, the Math/CS joint major is not a 50/50 split, it’s actually 10 math courses and 8 CS courses. It makes sense since the CS major actually requires 2 or 3 math courses.</p>
<p>Also, did not realize the other question addressed was regarding the Math/CS minor, skimmed it and assumed it was the major. It is indeed Calc 1 + Calc 2 and two CS courses (Intro to Comp Sci and Data Structures, both of which, I believe, are Java).</p>
<p>@Zophar237, how proficient will I become at programming if I pursue a Math/CS minor? Or if I want to go deeper, should i try the pure CS minor? Thanks!</p>
<p>@Zophar237
“Math/Physics double major would have the same workload as a Sociology major” </p>
<p>Just because a math/physics major has to do problems for homework doesn’t mean that they have a larger workload than any other major. The presumption that STEM majors de facto have more work qua STEM majors isn’t a logical assumption. </p>
<p>Your ‘workload’ also probably depends on how well you can ‘do’ a certain subject. For example, I know plenty of STEM majors who can’t handle ‘doing’ philosophy because it’s too abstract for them. Vice versa, I never liked taking math or science courses. </p>
<p>The major difference between a math/physics major and a say sociology/politics major will be that one is doing mostly problems, while the other is doing predominantly reading. </p>
<p>The whole point of a ‘credit’ system is that it’s designed so that classes that require more time out of class to do the work for and/or require more time in class will award more credits.</p>
<p>And while there are difference between majors in terms of workload in some cases, these difference should be quite negligible and easy to handle.</p>
<p>I will agree to disagree. </p>
<p>Even completely ignoring natural ability at certain subjects, I would say you are flat out wrong.</p>
<p>Assuming you complete a single major, with no minors or anything else, you will, most likely, only be going on to advanced courses in one subject area. I think it’s safe to say that, the vast majority of the time, an upper level course in any major will have a heavier workload than an intro level course or a survey course anywhere else. Keyword here being “majority”, I’m very careful not to use absolutes.</p>
<p>Some majors have a higher workload than others, that is an indisputable fact. There is a large variety based on your preferences and natural inclinations, but it exists.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure what the point you’re trying to make regarding the credit system is. NYU is not a school that has a large variety in quantities of credits like many other schools, 90% of the courses are 4 credits irrespective of difficulty or time required. While courses with lab components throw an extra credit your way, that does not imply that credit system reflects work required in the slightest.</p>
<p>If this were true, then the history class I took this semester that had no reading, no homework, no papers, just a midterm and a final (laughably easy, multiple choice with little to no analysis required), would be worth 1 credit. On the other hand, the Calculus 3 course I took, even as a math major and given my affinity to the subject, with 20-30 web assign problems due every thursday, 20-30 web assign problems due every saturday, plus a more “conceptual” assignment, usually 4 problems, due every tuesday would certainly be worth more than 4 credits. Just to put it in perspective, that conceptual assignment was EXPECTED and assigned with the INTENT to take 4-8 hours, alone. Not including the 2 other weekly assignments, bi-weekly quizzes, or 3 tests per semester.</p>
<p>You’re only half right on credits. The credit system accurately represents the amount of time you are in class. That’s why they’re called credit hours. It has absolutely no reflection on the difficulty or the course or the amount of time you are expected to be working outside of the classroom on that course. </p>
<p>I’m not particularly good at english, philosophy, politics, psychology, video game design, or sociology. Why then, have all those courses had a lower workload than even the pre-calculus course I took?</p>
<p>If the flaw in my logic is that STEM majors are harder than non-STEM majors, I’m okay with that. I would never, ever, outright say that, since there are majors that are harder than some stem majors, especially at particular schools, but as an over-arching generalization, I wouldn’t be ashamed to think that. I might be biased, as a STEM major, but then why are there hundreds of articles complaining about the lack of stem majors, the difficulties of stem majors, the lower GPAs of stem majors, the higher workload of stem majors?</p>
<p>I don’t want to make this a X v X debate, but not all majors are created equal. Assuming equal difficulty non-major electives(important), if you seriously think a 9-course sociology major will have an equivalent workload, over 4 years, to a 22+ Math/Physics double major, which will have at least 5 or 6 lab components, I have nothing to say because I am speechless.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant, I’m on edge about moving out immediately after finals, don’t even have time to take a breather.</p>
<p>P.S. No offense meant to sociology majors, simply chosen as it is ranked one of the easiest majors on average and happens to have one of the smallest course requirements here at NYU. Used mainly for the fact it has only 9 required courses.</p>
<p>P.P.S. Excuse typos, suffering from sausage finger syndrome today.</p>
<p>Research from the Higher Education Policy Institute shows that, unsurprisingly, Zophar is biased because he’s a STEM major. </p>
<p>[Revealed:</a> Who works hardest | The Tab Warwick](<a href=“http://warwick.tab.co.uk/2013/05/16/revealed-who-has-the-most-hours/]Revealed:”>http://warwick.tab.co.uk/2013/05/16/revealed-who-has-the-most-hours/)</p>
<p>Math and computer science majors and philosophy and history majors only spend, on average, 1 hour difference a week on their work. </p>
<p>That difference is only 4 hours per week between philosophy/history and other STEM majors. The difference between social science majors and all STEM majors is only around 6 hours per week.</p>
<p>WOW! STEM majors work 51 minutes more per day than other students on average. Such a huge work load difference!</p>
<p>Looks like that credit system is actually pretty accurate (and yes, the credit system is supposed to take account of time spent in class and out of class, which is why upper-level CAS classes are 4 credits even though they only meet in-class 3 hours per week; whereas lower level courses which have less reading meet 4 hours per week).</p>
<p>But, I bet Zophar is going to say his anecdotal evidence is superior to the research conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute.</p>
<p>Well, browser crashed deleting everything and I am way too lazy to do everything in detail, so I’ll keep it brief.</p>
<p>British Survey by a British product consumer and a British think tank on a British tabloid with no sources, citations, links, and no way to look it up? No. I will not say by anecodtal evidence is superior to anything, but this research is poor and with a sample that is entirely irrelevant to us.</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at a survey by the NSSE, which I will not bother linking since you can actually find it on the internet as opposed to solely on a british tabloid! Also, they polled 600+ universities and 400,000+ undergraduate students, so it has a decent sample.</p>
<p>To keep it brief, this is time spent outside of class:</p>
<p>Engineering: 19 hours
Physical Sciences: 18 hours
Social Sciences: 14 hours.</p>
<p>So if you were an engineering/chemistry double major, you would be somewhere in the ball park of 28-37 hours, due to possible overlap of material. Correct me if I’m wrong, but any of the numbers between 28 and 37 are larger than 14 correct?</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at something you said earlier.</p>
<p>"doing just engineering or doing engineering + another major requires taking the same number of classes per term. So let’s say a regular engineering major takes 5 classes per term - 2 engineering courses and 3 assorted liberal arts courses. An engineering + math major, for example, might take 2 engineering courses, 2 math courses and 1 assorted liberal arts course. </p>
<p>They’re both taking the same number of courses, so their workload should be almost identical (although that will differ by individual class)."</p>
<p>Due to the nature of your argument, we should be able to swap out Math for Chemistry (I do this to avoid confusion as to the nature of math, is it a science? a physical science?).</p>
<p>Based on the statistics I just quoted, this workload would not at all be the same as a social science majors’ workload.</p>
<p>I am not sure why the notion that some majors have a higher workload than others is hard to swallow. Departments make their own curriculum, is it hard to believe that there will be non-negligible differences in a school with hundreds of departments of vastly varying strengths?</p>
<p>As for credit hours, again, no. Do you know the definition of a college credit? This is a huge problem in academia, as is it measured by contact hours. Ie. how much time you are in the class room, lab or lecture. That is, quite literally, the very definition of what a credit is so no, it does not, at 90% of institution, measure how much time is necessary or expected out of the class.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me? Log in to Albert. I checked intro, medium, and advanced level courses in the English, Philosophy, Math, Computer Science, and Economics departments.</p>
<p>Courses were assigned credits based on time in the class room.</p>
<p>Now, as you seem to dedicate time to guess what I will do next as opposed to doing any meaningful or relevant research, including googling what a credit is, I will pay you back in kind.</p>
<p>But, I bet NYU2013 is going to say his lack of understanding of statistics is superior to a math majors and his british survey of questionable repute and irrelevant sample has a larger impact than a study that has been analyzed and has a proper sample. Moreover, I bet the definition he has invented of credits is superior to the accepted definition of what a credit is plus empirical evidence plus the anecdotal evidence he seems to have missed.</p>
<p>Either way, I am done with this discussion. You argue the most asinine points with shoddy statistics while failing to even confirm anything in terms of your own institution.</p>
<p>To anyone who reads this thread, keep in mind the saying, “Statistics don’t lie but liars use statistics”. This applies to me as well, I might very well have been mislead by statistics and have drawn wrong conclusions. Take everything with a grain of salt and do your own research.</p>
<p>Your argument is incorrect because you misunderstand the statistics you’re trying to quote. </p>
<p>Adding another major doesn’t double the work load (i.e. a STEM major estimated time 19 hours per week, adding another STEM major) does NOT double the workload. Nice try. </p>
<p>Let’s try this instead, since it’s far more accurate: <a href=“http://nsse.iub.edu/_/index.cfm?cid=449[/url]”>http://nsse.iub.edu/_/index.cfm?cid=449</a></p>
<p>Physical science students reported spending 4.3 hours of preparation time per class in said subject. Social science student reported 3.7; arts & humanities 4.0. Engineering 4.6. </p>
<p>The difference between various majors is not huge - 0.3 to 0.6 between the majority of majors. </p>
<p>Suppose that a biology and chemistry student takes ONLY bio and chem courses during the semester (unlikely because of general education requirements) - they should be spending… 17.2 hours prepping for classes, on average, according to the above study. </p>
<p>Suppose that a chemistry student takes 2 chem courses and 2 general education requirements - that’s about 16 hours. </p>
<p>So, the double major perhaps added 1.2 hours of work per week. Like I originally said, the workload difference is not important. It’s negligible, all things considered. </p>
<p>“As for credit hours, again, no. Do you know the definition of a college credit? This is a huge problem in academia, as is it measured by contact hours. Ie. how much time you are in the class room, lab or lecture. That is, quite literally, the very definition of what a credit is so no, it does not, at 90% of institution, measure how much time is necessary or expected out of the class.”</p>
<p>Again, as someone who has ALREADY graduated from NYU AND who has already moved onto graduate studies, I have far more experience with how credit hours work than you. </p>
<p>"Don’t believe me? Log in to Albert. I checked intro, medium, and advanced level courses in the English, Philosophy, Math, Computer Science, and Economics departments.</p>
<p>Courses were assigned credits based on time in the class room." </p>
<p>That’s nice, apparently you didn’t actually spend enough time looking. Advanced philosophy courses (advanced topics in contemporary moral and political philosophy, taught yearly by professor Peter Unger) only have 3 contact hours per week; yet they count for 4 hours. American Constitution, offered by the political science department only has 3 contact hours, but 4 credits. The same for logic, gender in law, dictatorship & democracy and I’m sure there are plenty of others; these are merely some of the ones I’ve taken.</p>