Help me decide on which programs to double major in?

College Majors
1

So I am currently going for my Associate Degree in Graphic Design and my local community college (Waukesha County Tech.) and am trying to decide which program to double major in…which of the three situations below do you think will give me the best hand in the job market:

A.) 3 Years at WCTC and 2 Years at Seattle Pacific University (where I intend to transfer for my BFA completion):

Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design [ x ] - wctc + spu.
Associate Degree in Web Design / Programming [ x ] - wctc.

B.) 2 Years at WCTC and 2 Years at Seattle Pacific University:

Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design [ x ] - wctc + spu.
Associates Degree in Marketing [ x ] wctc.

C.) 3-4 Years at WCTC and 2-3 Years at Seattle Pacific University:
(Total Years dependent on how much the course programs transfer)

Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design [ x ] - wctc + spu.
Associate Degree in Marketing [ x ] - wctc
Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing [ x ] - spu.

My technical college also offers certificates, which are tacked on to your associate degrees, and count as ‘experience with a certain program’, (like Marketing or Business or Photography) but do not result in a secondary degree.

So, you could major in Graphic Design with a certificate in Marketing, or you could double major and leave with Associate Degrees in both Graphic Design and Marketing and choose which (if not both) you would like to advance to a Bachelors at a 4-year University. Although I don’t intend on wasting time with certificates and added labels…I would rather have an additional degree.

I’ve just heard from multiple parties that if you intend to major in Graphic Design, majoring in Web Design can be very beneficial to employers, although I’ve also heard that a Graphic Design major is better off majoring in Marketing & Advertising if they intend to add to their skill set, as a marketing degree is valuable to more employers / companies out there than the programming skills needed to code and create websites. (In other words, leave the programming to the programmers -if a company needs both a Graphic Designer and a Web Designer, they would rather hire two different people than a Graphic Designer without an additional degree in Marketing.) Or rather, do you think they would hire a single employee with degrees in Graphic and Web design rather than two people for something that could be a single person job?

Just looking for your opinions and suggestions here - I greatly appreciate it!

2

So it makes pretty much no sense to spend 6-7 years earning a bachelor’s degree, so I’d throw out the last one completely.

It isn’t majors that makes you competitive on the job market - it’s skills and abilities. You could do 4 years total at WCTC + SPU and major in graphic design, but take some web development classes on the side/as a minor and have that skill, too. You don’t need to get an associate’s degree in it and add time to your degree.

I think out of the options presented A sounds the best. I disagree that a marketing degree is more valuable to employers than website development skills. A lot of employers will hire an artist/designer to do their website, either in-house or freelance. Or you might work on a team with someone who has hardcore programming skills - you might do the initial design and maintenance of the appearance and they might do the nitty-gritty background stuff. Besides, this is all idiosyncratic - it depends on the business; there’s no one answer. Some businesses would prefer to leave the marketing to the marketing department but would love to have a graphic designer who could also build them a website. I would wager that there are more businesses like than than there are businesses who want their graphic designer to be able to market but not design a website.

I also think you are overthinking this. It’s clear that your major interest is in graphic design, so major in that. Then use electives, part-time jobs, and internships to build your skills in web design and marketing. You don’t have to get 2-3 degrees to do that.

3

@Juillet Thank you so much for your input. I do appreciate it and you pointed out some very good points to keep in mind.

So would you recommend focusing on Graphic Design as my major, and tack on the Web Design as a certificate?
(Total of 2 years at WCTC - 2 at SPU.)

Or, in option A, I was including that WCTC offers a 3-year graduation plan if Graphic Design majors also choose to double major in Web Design…so I would graduate 3 years from now with two Associate Degrees and attend SPU directly after to receive my BFA in Graphic Design after 2 more years.