Leaving Second Major off Resume/Application?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a rising senior and as such, I'll be looking at grad schools in the near future. My course of study has been quite...unconventional. I'm at a top 25 engineering college as a Civil Engineer, and my junior year I added another major in Music onto that (yeah, I know). I'll be graduating on-time, completing both majors in 4 years, though it's been quite the overload, usually taking 23, 24 credits a semester. My GPA is interesting as well. My freshman year I was battling some major suicide and depression and was shooting below a 3 (due more to adjusting to college life than anything- that was even before I considered picking up the second major in music). Barring my first year, my other years have been solid. Not counting my freshman year, my GPA is 3.72 (I even got a 4.0 this past semester junior year). But including it, my cumulative GPA sits at 3.38.</p>

<p>I'm certain I want to go to grad school for civil engineering right after I graduate I've been wondering: should I just leave the music major off my resume? On one hand, it might make me look indecisive, like I'm not committed to Civil Engineering or haven't been giving it my 100%. The sheer fact that I can fit in both in 4 years might cause one to question the quality of the engineering curriculum. Heck, looking purely at that 3.38 cumulative GPA and without knowing my history, you could argue whether or not I really am successfully balancing two majors or struggling to stay afloat. But by listing just my B.S. Civil Engineering major I'd be removing a large portion of my work. A 3.38 as just a Civil Engineer is terrible. Listing the music major at least justifies where a huge portion of my time has been going and shows I'm well-rounded. On top of that, I'm clueless as to the quality of grad schools I'd be qualified for.</p>

<p>(Also it should be mentioned that I had a 4.00 cumulative unweighted in high school, my letters of recommendation are excellent from the professors who know my story, my EC's are fantastic and rooted in both music and engineering, my GRE scores look to be decent (159 Quantitative and 156 Verbal in practice tests) and I have experience in both research and internships. I like to think I'm a good student, or at least I was in high school. My track record in college is understandably up for debate. My GPA and the story it tells on my resume is my weakest link, and it's a real killer).</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read my story!</p>

2

<p>Grad schools don’t put much weight on freshman grades, they care more about your upper level classes and even more about your letters and research experience. There is also no need to leave your music major off your resume, they won’t really look at that. For example, my friend had a second major (another science major) which he ended up hating and did very poorly in. However, since he had good grades in the field he was applying in, it seemed like they may not even have cared about the grades for his second major.</p>

<p>You should also try to get a better qualitative score on your GRE. It doesn’t need to be perfect but your probably want to score at least in the low 160s as an engineering student. The verbal score is fine, it won’t really matter.</p>

3

<p>You HS grades won’t be considered or will ECs.except if it happens to be related to studying or researching or interning in engineering. Did you calculate your major gpa? You can put that separately on the resume. Remember they have all your transcripts so they will see your program, there isn’t any need to ‘hide’ music or use it to explain anything. </p>