How possible is a double major with a triple minor?

<p>oh, lol. I get it now</p>

<p>As mentioned, Brown gives you a lot of flexibility and is strong in many of those fields. However, Brown has no minors and you are limited to 2 majors (though you’re certainly welcome to complete the requirements for more). I believe Princeton limits you to 1 major, though you can complete “certificates” or something similar, which are somewhat like minors.</p>

<p>While I would agree that it would be useful to narrow down your goals, I don’t think it’s vital to do so now. You know you have many interests, so it is likely to your advantage to go to a college without a large, rigid core. This gives you time to try things and see what you like best. FWIW I’m a Classics and Math-Computer Science major at Brown, and to complete just that with a couple of modern language classes on the side, I need the maximum courseload every term, in part because Brown does not accept many AP scores for credit, just a notation on your transcript. That’s not something you want to count on doing, as it often means you don’t do clubs or have much of a social life. So keep focusing on those areas and see which you like, but you don’t need to major or minor in them to pursue them.</p>

<p>I know the classes:</p>

<p>AP World History
AP U.S. History
AP Microeconomics - maybe
AP Bio. - maybe
AP Calc. AB
AP Enivro.
AP English Lit.
AP English Lang.
AP Italian IV… doesn’t have an AP exam
AP Computer Science A: Java
AP Art History</p>

<p>I know the classes:</p>

<p>AP World History
AP U.S. History
AP Microeconomics - maybe
AP Bio. - maybe
AP Calc. AB
AP Enivro.
AP English Lit.
AP English Lang.
AP Italian IV - doesn’t have an AP exam
AP Computer Science A: Java
AP Art History</p>

<p>As far as your language question, you likely wouldn’t gain fluency in college without study abroad, but a few years would give proficiency. College language courses go much faster than high school courses, but there’s no substitute for actually living in the country for awhile.</p>

<p>I’d probably be ok with proficiency…</p>

<p>Looking over those AP courses, you’d get AP credit at Brown for Bio, Calc, and Art History, but its lack of requirements means you wouldn’t need AP credits to fulfill core requirements, so only Calc would be particularly useful (since math through linear algebra is particularly helpful both for CS and the statistics of Computational Linguistics).</p>

<p>It seems, however, that you’re not interested in computational linguistics, but rather you care about communicating in those languages. You have a solid background in Italian; it seems if you were to take 2 years of the other languages and another year of Italian, you would be more or less proficient without the need for the literature courses. Then you could continue to take courses as time allows to work towards fluency (though I am curious why you chose that group of languages. German’s useful for research in most fields, but that’s about it).</p>

<p>I’m double majoring and double minoring at Cornell on top of being a varsity athlete and a member of a fraternity. The trick: be a scheduling mastermind. You’ve got to know all the requirements, cross-listed classes, and the course book like the back of your hand. It’s definitely possible</p>

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<p>Like many questions posed on College Confidential (“chance me” questions, “which is better?” questions) there is no easy answer to this. It depends on your ability and effort, the quality and pace of the course, the language, how you define and measure fluency, etc.</p>

<p>I believe many people have too low a standard for proficiency and underestimate the effort it takes to achieve it. To me, proficiency means the ability to read a newspaper with only occasional use of a dictionary, to hold a long conversation with a native speaker on many topics, to get the gist of broadcast news reports, etc. </p>

<p>Two of the best ways I know are to study abroad or to enroll in a summer immersion program such as the Middlebury language schools. You need to avoid speaking English and apply yourself completely to the foreign language. I found that it takes at least a year of near-continuous immersion effort to begin to become proficient especially in difficult languages such as Japanese, Chinese, or Arabic. Two years of study in normal college courses (one 3 credit course per semester), even at the best universities and in a language similar to English (German etc.), may not be enough to become truly proficient in my opinion … but your mileage may vary.</p>

<p>For that super Cornell guy,</p>

<p>In what areas? In 4 years?</p>

<p>You’re joking right? I’m going to guess by your statements that you’re not even a high school Junior yet. </p>

<p>A double major in the sciences and a triple major in unrelated humanities? Summer classes? </p>

<p>Sometimes it’s best to plan things out one step at a time, and sometimes its best to plan realistically for the future. That way, you’re not disappointed. Just focus on getting into a college you’re interested in first, and then explore your options. </p>

<p>But let me tell you, I graduated high school passing 12 AP tests, and I’ve used none of them in college for credit. It just doesn’t work that way. AP’s are only good for waiving the most introductory courses.</p>

<p>i didn’t read through the whole thread, but credit-wise, it’s possible, it just means no time to yourself. i’m a rising junior and i’ll have 111 credits at the end of the summer. my goal isn’t multiple majors, it’s for pre-med requirements and just general classes that interest me that i dont have time for over the regular semester, but i think that having that many would have put me at a double major and probably a minor or 2 by now. i’m half-way done with about 7 minors (none of which i’m pursuing; it’s just a coincidence) so with careful planning and the understanding that you get no breaks, it can happen. this will be my second summer in a row taking classes all sessions and i gave up 2 winter breaks as well, plus overloaded during the regular academic semesters. don’t burn yourself out for no reason, though. find what you like and stick with it. you don’t need to have “major” or “minor” to qualify your skills. i think i saw something about languages, so just pick those up on your own with rosetta stone or something.</p>

<p>You’re currently a high school freshman. CHILL OUT AND ENJOY HIGH SCHOOL!!! Don’t worry about college for another couple of years!</p>

<p>As for your original question, your life would be miserable and your college experience would suck.</p>

<p>Why do you need to know three different languages from College courses?</p>

<p>My advice: Get fluent in one language now in High School, then you can major in one in College, and if its really necessary for you to know another, buy some Rosetta Stone when you graduate.</p>

<p>I wonder why you care about actually having the minor in the language, as opposed to just speaking it? If you’re worried about employability, a future employer just cares if you speak the language – it’s of no concern to them whether you happened to have minored in it, have just taken classes, or have learned it some other way (such as Rosetta Stone, immersion camp, etc.). In other words, “Fluent in XXX” is what counts – not “Minored in XX.”</p>

<p>It’s worth reiterating that you won’t get fluent just through classes or Rosetta Stone or Middlebury’s programs, anyways. Proficiency is something that can be attained if you work hard enough at it, but generally, fluency takes many years spent in the countries. Otherwise, though, I agree that it won’t matter that you have a major/minor/no degree in the languages, just that you have some level of ability with it.</p>

<p>At many of the top schools, though, such a double major would be very difficult, since engineering tends to take up a majority of your allotted courses.</p>

<p>I know someone who is majoring in Mandarin at Stanford who has studied abroad in China for a little over a year and who is not even close to being proficient enough in the language to be able to talk about robotics. Your plan is really flawed. If you think you’ll just learn proficient Korean in a few classes in order to be able to talk about robotics in Korean (which would involve VERY advanced vocabulary), you do not know what you are getting yourself into.</p>

<p>Learning the computer science/robotics (and perhaps principles of linguistics) is more important than learning the languages for what you want to do. Relax, enjoy high school, set reasonable goals.</p>