<p>so it seems like even if i can do a double major in two engineering field without much trouble (graduating in 4 yr, etc), that double major wouldnt help me much when i try to get a job or apply to a grad school.</p>
<p>is it? </p>
<p>p.s : ithought if there are two students who are similar (in terms of GPA, GRE, and others), but one student has a 2nd major, he woould be better off.</p>
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so it seems like even if i can do a double major in two engineering field without much trouble (graduating in 4 yr, etc), that double major wouldnt help me much when i try to get a job or apply to a grad school.</p>
<p>is it? </p>
<p>p.s : ithought if there are two students who are similar (in terms of GPA, GRE, and others), but one student has a 2nd major, he woould be better off.
[/quote]
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<p>In theory, yeah, but the slight benefit you might gain in a job interview or grad-school admissions from having a double major is almost certainly not worth the time it would take for you to get it.</p>
<p>Look, the truth is, grad-school admissions and job hiring are rather random, especially the latter. The truth is, you are going to be hired or not hired, admitted or not admitted based on things that are far more arbitrary than whether you have a double major or not. A lot of these things hinge on the interview itself, and interviews, by their nature, are highly arbitrary. If the interviewer just happens to dislike you, or you are nervous in your interview, or any number of other things, then you are not going to get the job offer, or you are not going to get admitted no matter how qualified you are. On the other hand, if you happen to find an interviewer who likes you a lot, whether it's because you share the same interests, or whatever it is, then you're in like Flynn. I know a guy who got a plum job offer who basically told me that the only reason why he thinks he got the offer was because it was revealed that both he and his interviewer just happened to be fans of the same football (soccer) club in the English FA Premier League. I know another guy who also got a plum job offer almost certainly because he happened to be golfing buddies with the son of one of the high executives of the company. </p>
<p>Hence, I would only do a double major if you truly have an academic interest in both fields. If the goal is just to improve your attractiveness to employers or grad schools, then I think it's a waste of time. You are probably better off taking that time to work on your social skills (especially your public speaking skills) as well as doing a lot of networking to built your Rolodex. Whether we like it or not, that's the way that hiring really works. It's not really what you know, but WHO you know, and it's not really about how good you are, but rather about developing that charisma and salesmanship to convince others that you are good.</p>
<p>I've seen quite a few geniuses with 'perfect transcripts' get beat out for jobs by people with quite mediocre academic records, but who knew how to sell themselves. In fact, a number of those geniuses have told me privately that they would have been better off had they spent less time studying and getting top grades, and spending more time developing their interview and communications skills.</p>
<p>Check that they would let you double count all the classes that will surely overlap.</p>