<p>Hi I am a freshman considering spring classes and wondering...does anyone here have advice on a biology and electrical engineering double major? I have a lot of AP credit and early soph standing, but I think the double major could still be really difficult, given I have very minimal comp/sci or EE experience.
And if this double major is not so unreasonable, which classes would be best to take in the spring semester? This semester I took 5.111, 18.02, 8.01, and a HASS class.
I am really confused...will appreciate any help/advice!!!
Thanks</p>
<p>The only thing you should really be sure you take spring of freshman year if you’re thinking about course 7 is 7.013 (or 7.014). Then you should take 7.02, 7.03, 5.12, and 7.05 sophomore year. Junior and senior year you can take your upper-level electives, 7.06, and Project Lab, and fit in 5.60 whenever you have a spare class slot.</p>
<p>One thing you should consider is doing 7A instead of the standard 7 degree – it’s the same, except that you’re not required to do Project Lab, which is helpful for a double-major.</p>
<p>Course 7 is a pretty flexible major, and I found it to work very well for a double.</p>
<p>Did you see this article?
[Course</a> 6/7 joint major proposed - The Tech](<a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N56/jointprogram.html]Course”>http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N56/jointprogram.html)</p>
<p>Not sure when the major will be ready, but for the next few semesters anyway you’ll only be taking introductory course 6 /7 classes. You could also contact any of the professors mentioned in the article for more information and possibly classes you can be taking.</p>
<p>I just want to point out that the requirements for the proposed 6/7 major correspond a lot more with 6-3 (CS) than 6-1 (EE). 6.01 and that project class seem to be the only classes that also satisfy 6-1 requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone but I’m still a little confused. If the new program is more directed to just CS, does this mean it’s just too difficult to double in such different courses as 7 and 6-1 EE? Are there any other thoughts on how to do this? I’ve seen that course 6 doesn’t even offer minors, so then if I wanted to get EE experience I would just end up taking some classes. Please help!!</p>
<p>The proposed 6/7 major is specifically in computational biology, IIRC - it doesn’t mean anything about the difficulty of doubling in the two fields, it just means that this particular overlap is where the departments decided to create a new major. In terms of actually getting a course 6 degree, what are you really trying to do? If you’re intending on getting a biology-heavy job that requires some EE knowledge, then you should major in 7 and just take interesting classes in 6. If you want an EE job that requires some bio knowledge, then you should major in 6 and take interesting classes in 7. Getting an actual double-major is very rarely “necessary” - I think even double-major Mollie has said this at points.</p>
<p>I will say it any time. I doubled because I was interested in both departments, and taking all of the classes I wanted to take gave me the double anyway. But I would still be in exactly the same place if I had taken all of the classes I took and forgotten to apply for the second degree. A double major in and of itself is not useful – taking a broad course selection in two departments is what’s useful.</p>
<p>Some of you know Jessie – a former blogger, class of '07, course 9 major – she majored in 9 and just “took a few classes” in 6, but nothing official. She’s now interviewing for jobs that are very 6-heavy. People don’t really care that it wasn’t her major, because she has the knowledge to do the job.</p>
<p>If you are into bioelectrical engineering, do 6-1 (or 6-2), and take a few bio classes. No need for a bio major.</p>
<p>If you want to go into systems biology, doing course 6 would be overkills
. Instead, take some algorithm classes and math classes (6.006, 6.046, randomized algorithm etc…). In fact, double 7 and 18 would make more sense (18 is more flexible)</p>
<p>The only reason I could imagine someone who would want to double major in 6 and 7 is because you would be interested in learning almost every courses in both for 6 and 7 requirements. That is extremely rare. Most freshmen come in not knowing what they want to learn, and that’s fine, but you will quickly notice a lot of ‘double-majorers’ realize what they should do is to major in one and minor in the other. </p>
<p>BTW, you also have to consider that being REALLY good at one subject is exponentially more useful/cool etc… than being average at two.</p>