<p>First, not sure if this is the right place or not...I didn't see a "general questions" section.</p>
<p>Here is my question.</p>
<p>I am a current Communication Major at a Top 15 public. I plan to double major in Psychology---I have a research assistantship this fall and my current plan is to go into a Psychology Ph.D program, teach/research, and then go into entrepreneurship if I feel like it.</p>
<p>However---I am still not AT ALL sure that that is what I want to do. I am currently 10 credits below Junior standing (took an odd number of classes at community college), and because of some extenuating factors, I have virtually zero math ability. However, there is a chance that I will want to go into hard science/economics, and as such, I find myself asking the following question: Should I spend an extra year at my university to take math and science classes?</p>
<p>Another thing that makes a bit of a huge difference---I started college early. If I don't take an extra year, I'll graduate when I am 19. If I take an extra year...well, you get the picture.</p>
<p>Oh, and if I do take an extra year, and get all As (I am an A student for the vast majority of classes) I can graduate Magna Cum Laude instead of just Cum Laude---what I will have otherwise.</p>
<p>Without any additional information, the best advice I can give you is this: for the time being, plan your coursework so that you could graduate with (at least) one major after 4 years. You said yourself that you don’t actually know what you want to do. It would be rather unfortunate if you started messing with your schedule in a way that committed you to staying in school for an additional year, only to lose interest in your science or communications courses after one semester.</p>
<p>If you give us a bit more information, you might get responses that are more useful for you. For instance:</p>
<p>Is money a concern? Most families would strongly prefer not to pay a 5th year of tuition. If you are currently receiving financial aid, check if that’s available for a 5th year. My own undergraduate college cut students off of financial aid after 4 years. (Transfer students were told at the time of admission how many semesters of financial aid they would be eligible for.)</p>
<p>If money is a concern, it might make more sense to finish your current degree ASAP and then take the additional math and science classes cheaply. You could take a few classes at community college, for example, while working a job. Some fields even prefer graduate applicants with some work or life experience. I don’t know if psychology is one of them, but I’d encourage you to find out if you haven’t already.</p>
<p>You also didn’t tell us what math/science you wanted to take and for what purpose. Depending on your goals, it might make more sense to drop one of your two majors and take a few more math/science classes in your regular time to graduation. Or you may not even need all of those math/science courses you currently have in mind. For example, the next two years should be plenty to learn enough statistics for the purposes of a psychology PhD program. You could even learn enough math for a graduate program in econ if you are willing to take a few summer classes (e.g. concurrently with a psychology summer research position). On the other hand, if you decided that you cared about neuroscience, you might actually need an additional year to complete all of the science courses that would make you a good candidate for the better PhD programs.</p>
<p>If you are currently not interested in a science career, staying in school longer just to have the option to pursue something more sciency later seems silly. You can always go back to school and pay for those classes later if and when you actually need them.</p>