She has been looking into a program in South Africa and another in Serbia. I don’t have the specifics, other than potential travel dates. I think she doesn’t want to get her hopes up without knowing for sure about the funding. They have given her a checklist of things to be working on, should the funding become available. She is assuming they cover rising seniors first, then rising juniors and if that is the case, she thinks her chances will improve next year since she wasn’t flat out rejected this time.
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Sorry - I strongly disagree. You were an engineering manager and my son is doing a geography minor with MechE and he was asked several times why not major.
My son told me at his job last summer they said to double major or minor in English.
It’s another facet.
If you are applying for a position and have experience in it, you will not be looked down upon for having a second major. I’ve worked professionally for 30 years - and that’s ridiculous (sorry - but it is).
What i’d say is - and someone pointed it out - stats, data science any of that is all great.
But no one is getting thrown out as a history major because they added sociology or geography or anthropology or urban studies, etc. And yes, some majors are pre professional and others like econ will help more than some. I’m sure there are plenty of successful Amherst grads or Wesleyan grads…or even Kalamazoo and Beloit grads who have a similar background to what the student wants.
Now if there’s a government type internship - then sure - it might require something unpaid - even here in the US. My daughter has networked at school with a gentleman who runs a presidential foundation for regional relations (of another region of the world) and they have a research internship. At the same time, the student might find research with a professor - or guess what, a summer job at the grocery store is “work experience.” No one called my son after first year - was it covid or lack of work experience.
He detailed cars - made great $$ and more importantly - the next summer - had lots of calls.
I agree with your planning and all that. But the student isn’t going to find their life long job now. They might not even find a job relevant to what they want.
But to say having a second major is hurtful - i’m sorry - i’m not buying it.
Will it make them more money? Not necessarily. Will it make them more interesting and accomplished and have something more to talk about? Absolutely.
Good luck to the student.
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Yes, I agree that saying a second major is harmful makes no sense.
I didn’t read through every post, does your child have any interest in teaching? History major here. I had initially intended to go to law school but ended up getting a graduate degree in history as well as a credential and teaching.
She is adamant she doesn’t want to be a teacher (or a lawyer, despite her ability to argue the minutiae in any discussion). She wants to see the far corners of the world and help those who are less fortunate. She’s not looking to get rich so it’s a good thing she won’t have any student loans.
There are certain majors (ie nursing) that follow more of a predictable path. I don’t like making blanket statements, because I realize there are undergraduate nursing majors who may travel to South America to do health related internships etc.
Other majors/double majors/ major-minor combinations etc depend more on your undergrad resume, and somewhat less on the major (I am thinking in terms of history, biology, sociology, etc). This is my opinion and based on observations.
Examples:
My daughter was a biology major with a double minor in chemistry and Hispanic Studies. She had an offer to do public health research in the Middle East as a rising junior. Her resume (as the dreaded biology major) helped land several decent paying jobs following graduation. By decent I mean she could move out and support herself until moving on with her schooling.
My D’s friend was a sociology major. She had a job following graduation helping HS students throughout the country. She did similar work while in undergrad.
Another friend was also a sociology major who worked with local refugees while in undergrad. She moved abroad following graduation and helped refugees through an organization.
In other words, sometimes what you do and the resume you build holds more weight than the actual major.
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It sounds like maybe international relations of global studies could be good double majors for her. None of us really know what our path will be. I majored in history thinking law school, but ended up teaching because it worked for the life and family I wanted. She’ll figure it out!
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A double major could potentially be harmful if it ends up diluting both areas of concentration such that only a minimum number of courses are taken in each topic. When you consider a typical undergraduate degree, spreading your courses across too many fields of interest may lead a student to not have a significant level of knowledge in any particular area. This isn’t a problem if you are targeting employment based on more general skills, but for careers that require a requisite level of knowledge acquired in the major (like many professional degrees) this can be problematic.
Are you saying that a student should only take classes in their intended major even if they have room for other classes after meeting all the requirements?
Don’t be so sure. My husband has a PhD and I have a Masters in Architecture. My older son (Comp Sci major/physics minor) has a great job earning more than either parent. The younger son majored in International Studies with a focus on security issues and four years of Arabic and after working for a couple of NGOs decided to become a Naval Officer. He might go to grad school on the Navy’s dime, but not any time soon. The NGO jobs liked the fact that he had run conferences as an undergrad and knew his way around an Excel spreadsheet. Agree with observation upthread that GPA can be a cutoff for many jobs and internships. (Arabic as not necessarily a great choice for my kid in that regard! Though he got A’s after a year of immersion. Sadly none of his jobs have made use of his Arabic skills.)
I don’t think it really matters much. What ends up getting most kids jobs is the internships they fall into, the connections they make with professors, the specific skills they end up with. Your daughter can always start off double majoring if something looks interesting and turn it into a minor or drop it all together if she changes her mind.
BTW my international relations kid says if he had it to do over he would have majored in history which would have allowed him to take more of the courses he liked and fewer of the ones he didn’t. (Political science and economics.) For some people those 300/400 level classes may be fun electives, for others not so much.
My college boyfriend majored in East Asian Studies and ended up with an international law firm stationed in Taiwan. That was a long time ago.
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I think that OP should read the “How did your child get their first job after college” thread. The short answers are a mix of: internships, connections, and (some) college career fairs or online submitting.
In my opinion, that makes the whole question of double major vs minors in career search less relevant. I personally think that career options/hireability has a LOT to do with what the student does in college, not really the dept/minor on the resume, meaning: the mentorships, connections, experiences that he/she can express in an interview, etc.
Especially since your D has " a lot of interests" and doesn’t know what she wants to do, I don’t think future hireablilty should guide the choice of additional major/minors, it feels like splitting hairs to me. More important might be exploring what she might want to do and developing connections and experience along the way.
My other consideration would be logistical, my D was a double major/dual degree (the latter is harder, I think) and having two senior theses was really, really hard, she also had to take summer school all the way through. The latter might not be an issue for your D, and may have been complicated by my D also getting a minor in an intensive subject. And the theses problems I’m sure was exacerbated by covid/online.
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tsbna44,
Well, we certainly disagree.
There are certainly career paths that lend themselves to double, or dare I say triple, majors. IMHO, engineering isn’t one of them.
In a typical engineering program about 20 to 25% of the required classes for graduation are in the arts and humanities area. Enough classes to round one out and give some depth to one’s interests outside of engineering. Besides, one does is not required to have to take a class in something to have an interest in it. One can self-study or just go out and do it, learning as you go. I took a photography class, several economics classes (yes, they were considered humanities classes), several literature classes, etc., and have many more interests outside of engineering than that.
Freshman year in engineering school is basically math and science background classes and not considered part of your major. A double major only stands to dilute the knowledge that you will gain in your engineering major as the class requirements for the double major typically mean you are taking the minimum classes in engineering for the degree. Either that or going additional time (and money) in college to graduate. And how much of your other major do you think you will use in your professional career as an engineer? Maybe not any!! How much would one benefit from the classes in engineering beyond the minimum? Typically, a fair amount. So, as I said, I was always looking for the best prepared graduate I could find.
You can be rest assured that not everyone in engineering feels the same way I do. But I do know a fair number that have the same attitude that I do.
But this student is studying social sciences. Nothing pre professional.
But I still disagree 
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Economics is usually considered a social science, and engineering program general education requirements typically mean humanities and social sciences (and arts if listed separately from humanities).
I’m the OP. My D is not an engineering major and attends a LAC where she doesn’t have to take math or a lab science to graduate. 
Yes, I would not normally think of economics as an “arts and humanities” type course, hence the comment in quotes in my post. But it was on the list for the college I attended. I was interested in the subject, so I took advantage of it.
My high preference for no double majors was included in another person’s post in this thread. I didn’t mean to stir the pot so much. I just wanted to comment that my preference was for the field of engineering and not a universal comment. For many other fields a double major may in fact be preferable. The bottom line is to have a plan of what you intend to do in college and what skills you want to acquire to be successful.
Weren’t your past posts on the subject mostly focused on those in engineering who added second majors or minors in business specifically? (You probably would not like the current fad of colleges adding formalized engineering+business or CS+business programs.)
No, what I’m saying is that the requirements for completing a double major may necessitate fewer courses in each major versus a standalone major. Whether or not it does depends on how many courses are required to complete the major, the amount of elective space the degree allows for, as well as any mandatory breadth requirements.
In my experience here in Ontario, those tend to be 5 year degrees, not your traditional double major/120 credit/4 year degree. This is especially true for Engineering programs since they are accredited and need to meet the requisite number of instructional hours and course content. Since the programs are very structured, it’s often difficult to add in the additional business course requirements to the existing degree thus necessitating an additional year of study. It’s more like doing an undergraduate degree plus a post-graduate diploma more so than doing a double major.