<p>Hi! I am in high school right now, just doing my college researching. I really want to double major in Aerospace Engineering and Physics, and I have heard USC is great with double major and major-minor options.</p>
<p>Has anyone here had experience double-majoring engineering and physics? How tough is it/would it be? I know engineering typically takes longer, and later I plan on getting a Master's in engineering, as well as a Ph.D. in physics. Maybe I'm completely overloading myself and just need to choose one path, but thoughts, anyone?</p>
<p>I would also really love to do USC's Renaissance Scholars Program with possibly a minor in Music Industry or Popular Music Studies. Can one do a double-major plus a minor?</p>
<p>As you can see, the major requires 130 units by itself. You then also must satisfy certain USC requirements (GE/ writing courses). </p>
<p>Trying to fit in another major would probably not work, and certainly fitting in a double major and minor as you asked would not work in a 4 year plan.</p>
<p>Other majors at USC require far fewer units and are easier to combine in double majors and minors. Engineering degrees are not so easy to combine in a 4 year plan.</p>
<p>Without giving the detail as camomof3 has stated, it will be hard to fit all that without taking summer/extra semesters. Engineering doesn’t allow for much flexibility as many other majors with less unit requirements.</p>
<p>While good to dream, I concur with above, I think you are trying to do too much in the undergrad years. Pick one then use your graduate work to focus on the other and perhaps take electives in that during the undergrad span. While part of the attraction of going to USC is the ability to double major in 4 years, that really doesn’t pertain to engineering. Not impossible, but a real challenge. Between the requirements and the GE’s, it is a pretty tight 4 years.</p>
<p>In case you were wondering, there is a lot of overlap between the aerospace/mechanical engineering programs and the physics programs at USC, but they are both fairly intensive. The old rule of thumb for double majors or minors are that additional majors are a “major amount of work,” and that minors are a “minor amount of work.” That said, you could likely satisfy the degree requirements for both within a span of five or six years, which is not all that uncommon at a school like USC. You could also get an undergraduate degree in something like physics, and many engineering graduate schools will let you in for a particular type of engineering with a physics degree, and physics graduate schools will of course admit you. Many of the undergraduate courses in the AME department are essentially physics courses, like Statics, Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics, etc. In fact, if you like both aerospace and physics, a good compromise might be concentrating on fluid dynamics, since aerospace uses aerodynamics and physicists concern themselves with almost any sort of dynamics, even fluid dynamics. That sort of concentration would open up both physics and aerospace engineering as future career paths.</p>
<p>When our S enrolled at Viterbi at USC, the dean advised all the engineering students to consider taking courses in fields of interest rather than trying to double-major or major/minor. Engineering at USC takes a LOT of courses and credits. We do know one guy who was VERY highly motivated who got a bachelor’s in petroleum engineering, a bachelor’s in finance and a master’s in chemical engineering all in 4 years plus a few summers. He took over 18 credits a term and was HIGHLY unusual.</p>
<p>Our S was an EE and took courses in geology, sailing and other courses he was interested in. He entered with 60 credits from APs and could have graduated one or two semesters early, but didn’t go for a minor or 2nd major or 2nd bachelor’s. He got 3 job offers in engineering by Feb of SR year.</p>