Majoring across schools?

Hi Vanderbilt forum!

I’m a rising senior interested in Vanderbilt, and I’d like to major in Computer Science and Psychology. Usually, Universities will house their CS departments in both the Engineering and Arts and Sciences school, but at Vandy it’s only offered in Engineering.

So my questions are:

  1. I know that double majoring across schools is an option, but is it doable? How difficult is it to maintain good grades in two unrelated, but equally demanding, majors?

  2. How structured is the engineering curriculum? I know there’s a liberal arts requirement, but is there enough time schedule-wise to pursue two majors with little overlap (course-wise)?

If any current or former students have any insight, that’d be much appreciated!

hopefully, actual students will chime in. I will note that a psych major is very lab based and taught a lot a lot like a hard science. My comment is not to discourage you though. I know a young lady who graduated with a research PhD in psych degree and zero in computer science and she works for Microsoft now. I am pretty sure they were impressed with her lab work and research skills.

Vandy explicitly discourages double majoring in something with Blair, but apart from that, you should be fine if you plan your course schedule well!

@Faline2 and @johnjaluvr: In terms of courses in psyche I feel as if that depends on which concentrations or courses the student takes in it (in terms of whether they will be lab based). A student could dodge the more “STEM” intensive classes if they would like (at VU there even seems to be a difference between the psyche courses in AS and Peabody). VU is much like other elite schools in that the intro. course makes students contribute to departmental research, but the course appeared basically the same level of difficulty as AP or a little lower. Some of the upper division courses appear to be a different story though. I would argue that my school was stranger in that many more of the upper division courses mirrored behavioral neuroscience and even biological neuroscience courses and you would only receive a BA in the end. It also had a two course intro. sequence (the one that was not the one you could get AP credit for was unusually intense and apparently still is because they recruited a new instructor almost as tough as the older. The course had to be more intensive than at least two of the neuroscience core courses and I would feel bad for some freshmen expecting it to be the “dummy” psyche class people hear of when coming to college) .

Psyche is generally also one of the more diverse subjects with diverse research happening especially at schools like VU with large medical centers. It may not be necessary to major in CS if one joins a research group that requires members to use computational methods and this is becoming very common as analyzing certain types of data requires it (say you need to do principle component analysis or something). One can pretty much dabble in the CS course work and use it to help them with their research project (also, I find a lot of CS can be learned on your own and a couple of project based courses in CS can perhaps put what you learned to the test).

In fact, I would actually argue that overall, if you are interested in psyche or CS, your research or internship profile is most likely to determine what you can do than the actual courses you take and this can be said for most majors.

the young lady (number in my “study” =1 person) with a PhD in psych that was very lab-based…has now fielded offers from Facebook, Google and Microsoft in one week flat. Agree that people who step up to mastering statistics and research in a variety of fields will gain respect in job interviews. As a little aside --as a mother whose Vandy student double majored (not in STEM), you will sacrifice a little of the intimacy you might expect your final year or so if you devote yourself to one major and its professors. I don’t think my son wanted to be close to the professors in either major in a big way. Fulfilling major requirements in two majors means you won’t be taking a ton of courses in your major and will likely just hit the highlights and requirements. many roads to Nirvanna. It is also perfectly legit to really dig into your major in your last semesters and to take lots of specialized upper level courses in one department.

I can only speak to your first question:

D is a current senior at Vandy and is double majoring across schools (Peabody and A&S). The process to double major is very easy. I believe in your second semester of Freshman year (but might be first semester of Sophomore–you can ask your advisor once you get in), you just fill out a form with at the second school. It will be approved by the department and then you will be able to work towards that second major (you will also have a second advisor for that major).

D has one fairly rigorous major (she is pre-med) and one fairly easy major. She hasn’t struggled much to keep a good GPA. The course load has never been too heavy. In fact, this year she had to find “fun” classes to fill her hours. The two majors are completely different and only 1 or 2 classes “overlapped”.

Also, keep in mind that you will only have to do the "core classes’ for your primary (first school). So if the engineering school is the one to which you are admitted, you will have to fulfill their core requirements. If A&S is your first school, you will have to do theirs, etc. You won’t have to do both.

It looks like a lot of people in AS do that HOD (I think that is what it is) major which is in Peabody. Seems people there kind of just “tack it on” as it is the second or most subscribed to major at VU.