Let me start by saying I don’t know much about how colleges work - classes, majors, etc. But I do know this - someone correct me if I’m wrong.
Before you’re allowed to be in the actual major program, you have to have taken the pre-req courses for it. Once you have, and have declared that major, you then complete the courses required for the major.
Is it the same for your second major?
My freshman year of college, I want to knock out some gen ed courses and some of my major pre-reqs. I’m listing English as my major on college apps, and I want to double
major in that and Psychology. 1) When do I start taking pre-reqs for my second major (psych)? Can I start doing that my freshman year too, if there’s room? 2) Do I need to notify someone at the school that I’m taking pre-reqs for a second major, or do I only tell them when I’ve completed the pre-reqs and am officially declaring my second major? 3) Who do I speak to at the college I end up attending in order to find out more information about this?
I’m still in high school so I know there isn’t any rush to figure all this out first, but I’m still confused and I don’t want to go into college without any idea of how to handle double
majors.
While this will vary somewhat based on what school / department / majors you’re interested in, it generally works like so:
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The school will a list of general ed. / core requirements that everyone must take to graduate. These tend to be lower-level courses distributed across several disciplines. All or most of these will be standard across many different majors, but there might be some individual variance by college or major. Example: Humanities majors may take Physics for Poets to satisfy one of their science requirements but hard science majors have to take a more rigorous course instead.
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Each major will have a checklist of courses you’ll need to take to earn that major. Example in Psychology: Psych 101, Stats for Psych, Research methods, choose 4 classes from a list of 6 in the 200 level, then choose 4 more classes, including one lab, at the 300 / 400 level.
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For a double major, you will have to complete the general ed requirements and two entire checklists, one for each major.
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You can normally take lower level courses in both English and Psych without declaring a major. Classes taken before you declare typically still count toward the major after you declare. Details about how and when to declare, and rules for double majors are up to each department, so you’ll have to ask.
@DiotimaDM Thank you for the help! 1) If I start out taking classes for English and Psychology with the intention of majoring in both, but then later decide I want to major in one and minor in the other - could the prereq classes for (example) a Psych major also fulfill the requirements for the Psych minor? If so, I’m thinking of taking classes in both subjects before deciding which I want to major in (if I don’t want to major in both). 2) Can some general education classes also go towards the prereq requirements or major requirements for my major? For example, if I want to major in English, is it possible to take a course that fulfills the general ed requirement that also fulfills a requirement for my major? Killing two birds with one stone, in other words. 3) You mentioned that each major has a checklist of required courses, something I’m familiar with. What about the checklist for the major’s prereqs? Can I just view it as one big checklist of courses I must complete to graduate with that major, as long as I take the prereq courses first? 4) Do all majors have prereq courses that you take before officially entering that major’s program, or is it only for certain majors that require more credits?
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Yes, classes that would count toward a major also count toward a minor.
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Some gen ed course also count toward major requirements. Psych 101, for example, typically counts for both a gen ed social / behavioral science requirement and as a class toward a psych major/ minor. Ditto for some of the introductory English classes.
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If a master checklist exists, you’d have to get it from each individual department. You can get a general idea, however, by doing a search for general ad requirements and major requirements at each different school you’re considering. I’m posting links to two samples below. Keep in mind that each one is only applicable to the specific school and department. The ones at your school may be different.
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Only certain majors. This will vary school by school and major by major.
https://www.sbcc.edu/transfercenter/files/IGETC.pdf
https://psych.unm.edu/assets/docs/undergrad/ba-psy-checklist.pdf
@DiotimaDM thanks so much for your feedback and the links!!!
I don’t know of any colleges that will accept a freshman as a double major. For the types of majors you are talking about, all you need to do is file a form at most schools - at others, it is a lot more complicated than that with threshold GPAs and pre-reqs but, it will all make sense when you are there. Most large schools have some sort of pre-major declaration but, don’t worry about it yet. Get into a good school with one major and take it from there.
@DiotimaDM I just wanted to mention that sometimes schools cap the amount of major classes that can be applied towards a minor. For example, I’m going to Drexel, and I’m thinking about picking up an economics minor. The economics minor only allows me to apply 2 courses from my major to it, which will end up being micro and macroeconomics.
@philbegas - I know that not all schools cap the amount of major classes students can apply to their minor, but since your school does, I’ll ask you. If I start out with one major, Psych and one minor, English and then later decide I want to change them (major in English, minor in Psych) - at a school like yours where it’s capped, would most of the classes I already completed for the Psych major not count towards my Psych minor once I switched?
Honestly I don’t know, that’s a super specific scenario but it’s a perfectly valid question. I would think that you would be able to apply them though.
However, keep in mind that during your first couple years you’re doing core curriculum classes. So if for example, you did core curriculum classes for an economics major in my school:
http://catalog.drexel.edu/undergraduate/schoolofeconomics/economics/#degreerequirementsbstext
and then switched it to the minor:
http://catalog.drexel.edu/undergraduate/schoolofeconomics/economics/#minortext
It would depend on the actual classes you had done already.
IMO, the place where you would be most likely to lose classes is that if the Psych and English majors have different core requirements, you might find that you have to re-take some of the basic things. But that’s the sort of thing that will really depend school-to-school. It will probably depend on whether or not english and psychology are within the same area of studies. For example, there might be different core requirements for the literature department vs sciences. All depends on what school the major is in.
@philbegas thank you so much for the links and help!