EE + Math and CS Double Major

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello all, I'm about to enter my fall semester as a Mathematics and Computer Science major.
I will most likely be going to Santa Clara University. However, I would really like to make things challenging for myself, so I am thinking about either adding on either a electrical engineering or a computer engineering major to my mathematics and computer science major. This isn't something that I want to do just because it will lead to greater job prospects or something like that, rather I have a great interest in all of these fields I've mentioned and I want to take advantage of the next 4 years in uni to grow as a person not only socially but I also want to really push myself academically. So this is my reason for wanting to do this double major.
I have contacted the chair of the mathematics and computer science department at santa clara and he brought up 2 points for me to consider:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>the scheduling might be hard to do because of overlap between CE and CS for example, and courses taken can not count for both majors.</p></li>
<li><p>when applying for a job/internship/etc, you will have to explain your academic background. Thus I'd have to give a legitimate reason for doing such a double major. I was thinking I could give reasons along the lines of:</p></li>
</ol>

<p>a. I wanted to push myself beyond the norm and since I have a great interest in said 2nd major, I decided to do this double major.</p>

<p>b. I wanted to have a very complete understanding of computers from the very lowest levels of the circuit to the highest level software engineering perspective and be able to have a job that involved any particular portion of this spectrum.</p>

<p>c. I have a very great interest in both of these subjects and thus double majored in them.</p>

<p>I am not so much concerned about the 1st point (scheduling issues and the like) because I just emailed an adviser at santa clara to see if this would present a major issue or not and I'm sure she could elaborate more on how much of a problem this would be.</p>

<p>However the 2nd point about explaining my academic background is something I've been thinking about. For example, my mother brought up the point that if I simply said I wanted to push myself beyond the norm then they might ask a question like: Well didn't you go to a good school? Didn't they push you already without a double major in these subjects?
So I was wondering what others might have to say about this. I am mainly looking for commentary about how this would look on a resume or a graduate school application.</p>

<p>Thank you very much,
mikfig</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>You mention wanting to double major in two very demanding fields, but also mention a desire to grow socially. These things can very easily end up being mutually exclusive.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>CE alone will satisfy this criterion fairly well, and you can always augment your CE studies with a few electrical engineering courses to give you a good idea of circuit theory without the need for another major entirely.</p>

<p>You already have a leg up over many other incoming freshmen in that you have at least a pretty good idea of what you want to study. It seems to me that you need to be less concerned with what looks good on your resume (i.e. what other people think) and more concerned introspectively with what you will really enjoy studying for 4 whole years. I think a few semesters of introductory mathematics/EE/CS courses will be very beneficial in helping to better focus your interests.</p>

3

<p>Computer Science is my main major because its my main interest, specifically Artificial Intelligence, Computer Security, and Computer Graphics. I’ve had experience in each of these “subfields” through my own self-study. However, if I major only in Mathematics and Computer Science, I feel I won’t be challenging myself as much. At the same time, I also have a great interest in electronics. Before I was thinking of double majoring in either electrical or computer engineering, I started taking the MIT-x Circuits and Electronics course that started early last month. And I know that even if I don’t end up double majoring, I will definitely end up doing electronics as a hobby. So without a doubt, I will be majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. The only question is if it makes sense to double major.</p>