<p>I was looking to major in ChemE and Econ. How hard do you guys think this would be? The website says they made the econ major so that it could double well, and they mention some majors like CivE, but not ChemE. Thanks.</p>
<p>It depends on the majors. Look at the requirements for the ones you are interested in, below:</p>
<p>Economics: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
Chemical Engineering: <a href=“Welcome! < MIT”>Welcome! < MIT;
<p>I don’t know anything about either of these majors, but it does not seem that there is much overlap.</p>
<p>Make a list of the courses you would need to take with both majors, including general institute requirements (and required humanities concentration). Lay them out over eight semesters. How many classes do you have per semester? If there are 4 (48 units), that’s a normal courseload. If there are 5, that’s an above normal courseload, but a courseload that plenty of MIT students take on. If there are 6, that’s less manageable. Keep in mind that you can survive more than 4 classes per semester just fine, but it is likely that your GPA will be a bit lower. What are your future plans? Will they be hurt by a lower GPA? Is that a tradeoff you are willing to make?</p>
<p>Keep in mind, also, that a lot of people switch their major(s). I would try classes that would contribute to your endgoal, but try not to worry about your major or majors until at least your sophomore year. Life doesn’t always work out the way you expect, and things like interests and careers seem to work themselves out better if you don’t get too attached to any particular path. Not that there’s anything wrong with obsessively planning if that’s fun for you (it is for me).</p>
<p>ChemE is a particularly hard major (though of things to double it with, econ isn’t bad). That said, I agree with lidusha here. Take classes that fulfill your endgoals, and complete at least one major. What your looking for might be better achieved through spending extra time UROPing or something rather than additional classes for a second major.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with lidusha and Piper but I’ll add one thing: completing the chemical engineering major gives you an ABET accredited chemical engineering degree which may or may not be important if you want to do chemical engineering (I’m not sure about ChemE in particular but at least in some fields ABET accreditation is important). Having a formal econ degree versus lots of econ classes gives no comparable advantage.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I’m not sure how many courses are required for Course 10, but I do know for econ there are ~16 courses required for a major. That’s two full years of work. Your GIRs will probably take about a year, given the credit limit, and I believe Course 10 is a challenging major with a lot of required classes. You might be able to do it, but you’ll probably be hovering around taking 5 or 6 classes a semester, which when combined with a UROP, isn’t all that much fun. </p>
<p>^ You can fit 6 of those 16 classes in the HASS requirement. You will need to take another 4 electives, you can make those econ too. So at the end, you have 6 classes. If you take one extra class per term after freshman year, you get your double major. This requires extra planning, but it’s completely doable. But I don’t think it’s worth it unless you legitimately have no interest in other classes (or can take very high courseloads).</p>
<p>The actual numbers being cited in this thread are slightly off. The economics major requires 13 subjects of which 3 can count towards the HASS requirement (I believe this used to be 6 until fairly recently). Course 10 already requires 18 more units than normal so to graduate with a 10+14 double major you would need ~90 more units than normal and this is with zero unrestricted electives. As others have said this is certainly doable particularly if you have some AP credit or are a strong student but would probably leave you with so flexibility to be undesirable. </p>
<p>UMTYMP student, why 3 instead of 6? You need one H, one A, and one SS – then you need a concentration of 3-4 subjects that may include one of the previous, then you need remaining elective HASSes to make a total of 8. With economics, the only two that can’t fall in the requirement are your H and A.</p>
<p>I believe there is a rule limiting you to counting 3 subjects from a HASS major towards the HASS requirement. <a href=“MIT SHASS: Undergraduate Studies - FAQS - Majors”>http://shass.mit.edu/undergraduate/faqs/majors</a></p>
<p>^ Huh! TIL, thank you for informing me.</p>