Agreed - if she would consider an LAC it could be a lot easier to swing.
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Mostly agree but even in the same college is tricky. If there are capped or competitive majors it can become a non-starter.
S is in the Communications school at FSU. The second major he was considering was in the same school but competitive access so not eligible for double major. I get it. Hard to justify when there are kids competing for just one major.
LAC might be better suited for double majors but I’m not sure I would make this a priority.
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Case Western has a “whole college” philosophy - students can major or double major in anything.
Worth checking out.
Links to check out
https://mathstats.case.edu/why/
https://arthistory.case.edu/undergraduate/art-studio/
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This is where being in the Honors College at a less selective university has benefits.
Many of those students are encouraged to add a major/degree. My daughter’s advisor was the first to propose a second degree to her.
My son who attended a different university (also not uber-selective) was required to get a minor as a business student.
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Maybe, but son at FSU is in the Honors program. They’re pretty good with advising and supporting double majors but not much they can do. Department and school policies.
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That was my point — FSU is a more selective school, admitting fewer than 40% of applicants, and majors are capacity-constrained. At a LESS selective school, where there is less competition for majors, the experience can be different.
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I think OP simply needs to ask each school of interest - as every school will be different.
They have a list of schools the like and can reach out one by one.
I am not sure why the counselor would have come off that way. I have no doubt the OP will find multiple larger schools - if that’s what they seek - where the student can achieve their goals.
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I agree with others - will depend upon the school and the majors if you want to double major.
Also, if it is possible, consider if you want to have two majors or two degrees. At the schools my eldest and middle attended (one private, one public), there was a requirement to complete 150 credit hours if you wanted two degrees (not two majors, and then choose which one is the degree).
My eldest realized this requirement a bit late in the game, and ended up taking four French courses in the last semester (and received a minor in French). At both schools, it did not matter if you met all of the required courses for both majors with the typical 120 credit hours - you still needed 150 hours, no matter what those courses were.
In both cases, they came in with a lot of AP credits, which helped. Eldest took a bunch of French courses to get to 150 (as she was already fluent, so the courses weren’t real challenging), and middle took a variety of courses, including PE courses, to get to 150 (and added a Creative Writing minor).
Both eldest and middle graduated in four years. Youngest is also going for two degrees, and is aware of the credit hour requirement.
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Definitely worth enquiring about directly to the Honors college: how do they support double majors?
Data science at College of Charleston is comceived as a “+x” major (like CS+x) with 14 specializations
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When my daughter was applying last year, being able to double major in marketing/public relations and theatre was a top priority for her. During the process, discovered that there are some undergrad business schools that won’t permit students to double major in business and a second major if in a different school. (Fordham’s business school had this limitation.)
Discovered that she could easily double major in business and theatre at both Pitt and UMD. (She applied directly to the business schools since they are more difficult to transfer into, particularly UMD.) Tulane was another school where merit/double major was a possibility, but came off the list for other reasons. Your daughter may want to check out Loyola Marymount in LA. They have a gorgeous campus in LA with a solid business program, though imo, not as strong compared to UMD/Pitt. I think they have a studio arts major but don’t know anything about their program. My daughter had similar stats (4.0/34) and received about 32,000 in merit, with the cost coming in at @ 45-48k a year.
In our research, we found that some of the smaller LACs that offered merit, were much more stingy in accepting AP credit compared to public schools and it would be more challenging to double major and graduate in 4 years.
The honors programs could also be a mixed bag, depending on the school. She loved the perk of early registration at the honors program at Pitt. This is a huge advantage for kids that want to double major. However, some honors programs, like LMU, required additional honors classes that made double majoring more of a challenge.
She will be attending USC in January where the plan is still to major PR, but now there is now talk that maybe the second major will be music instead of theatre. They change so much in just one year…)
Wishing your daughter all the best in her college list, applications and decision!
Edit: Sorry MYOS1634, meant to reply to the thread and not to you!
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So much great info in all of the responses, you guys are awesome. Can you explain why she’s starting in January and if your D was able to get any merit from USC? This is one that is on her list due to their business and arts programs. although I know getting merit would be competitive.
She starts in January because was admitted as a spring admit and didn’t have the option to start in LA in the fall. (She is doing her fall semester in London at a college USC has an agreement with and there are @ 40 other USC spring admits there.)
She did not receive any significant merit money from USC in the traditional sense. She applied EA, was deferred and then accepted as a spring admit with the pretty standard $4000 “award.” She had also applied for their tuition exchange, which is a reciprocal scholarship program between certain select colleges. (She was eligible based on my husband’s employment at a university.) She was very lucky to receive tuition exchange there which is the only way it was affordable.
USC did get some push back in the way they handled their EA process last year. (It was the first time they offered EA. ) If I am remembering correctly, received over 40,000 EA applications and deferred @ 38,000 (No rejections.) Only @ 2,000 were accepted in the EA round and eligible for their more competitive merit awards. Math is not my strong point, but I think this is @ 5% EA acceptance rate. Unsure how many of these EA students went on to get significant merit as I haven’t seen those stats. It is crazy competitive, but you just never know!
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Interesting! I did not realize that their EA was new last year and the EA admit rate was so low . Thanks for sharing that.
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