<p>I'm hoping to go to UCLA. Let's say I get in. I am going to major in AE, is it wise to double major with that? Also, I want to possibly take some minors with it, and I was thinking possibly 1 related minor and 1 fun minor, like Geophysics and Scandinavian (cuz I'm Scandinavian). Is this wise? Or would it make much more sense to do 2 related minors?</p>
<p>Double majoring won’t help you 99% of the time and neither will minors.</p>
<p>So you’re saying that it is a complete waste of time and should never be attempted?</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Double majoring in sciences or engineering is almost never worthwhile for anything but satisfying your own desire for education. Neither jobs nor grad schools really expect double majors, and most of what they DO desire can be accomplished simply by taking the right courses. Double majors and minors expand the breadth of your education, not the depth - and all grad programs and almost all jobs focus on depth.</p>
<p>Look at it this way - as an aerospace engineering graduate, what additional major or minor is going to help to get or do your job? An additional major qualifies you for a DIFFERENT job, and may even invite questions to your dedication - “Niklas, I notice you double majored in Aerospace and Electrical Engineering - do you want to be an aerospace engineer or an electrical engineer? If I hire you as an aerospace engineer are you going to skip over to electrical if you get bored?”</p>
<p>Perhaps the only exception I would offer is mathematics - in my experience the best engineers possess a greater understanding of math than the average, and in some cases getting that additional proficiency plays out as minor or major.</p>
<p>Ok, that’s much more clear. Thanks. So what about something like general engineering? Would that have the same effect as your electrical engineering example? And also about minors: it wouldn’t help to take some sort of physics minor or something?</p>
<p>I cannot speak for “general engineering.” I’ve never seen such a major, and I am not sure what it entails. Still, I think it would suffer the same problem as any other double major - the extra breadth is completely unnecessary in 99% of modern engineering jobs and not very necessary in the other 1%.</p>
<p>As to minors, the cost in time and money is much less than a second major, but then so is the payoff. Ultimately, it depends on what you would want to do (specifically) in aerospace engineering - most such engineers would see no benefit from a physics minor, but no doubt a few would. It is hard to say without knowing the program and its flexibility - if you can take one or two extra classes and get the minor, it might be worthwhile (might), any more than that and I would say to categorically skip it.</p>
<p>Personally, I would still recommend math over anything else - I started out as an aerospace major before I switched to electrical. Aerospace is very math intensive, and the physics involved are not well touched on at the undergraduate level, and even then only in upper-level classes not generally found in a minor program.</p>
<p>Do you think CS fits into this exception category as well? I know with EE/CPE and math a CS minor or major is often beneficial, but I don’t know if that applies to AE and other fields as well.</p>
<p>I think CS is a decent minor with EE, probably not with other fields, and even then most EE’s don’t do that much programming. You could probably just study some programming on your own to get that extra degree of skill, but if you like the classroom setting you can take the courses, and as long as it doesn’t prolong your studies a minor would not hurt you.</p>