<p>I'm entering CAS this fall and I'm absolutely sure that I want to major in Econ, but I'm slightly unsure about Govt. So here are two questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>By when should a student be decided on a double major? I know it requires a lot of planning, so I know I can't wait around till the end of my sophomore year.</p></li>
<li><p>How is the experience for an Econ-Govt double major? Is the work particularly difficult? Do you feel pursuing both majors has been worth the effort and that both programs at Cornell compliment eachother?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any information helps.
Thanks :D</p>
<p>I did the Econ/Govt double major. I think I decided on the double major at the end of my first semester sophomore year. Like you, I intended to be an Econ major and “felt out” the Government major. If you have AP Econ credit, you only need 8 classes for Econ anyway and Govt is only 10 classes so it’s not that hard of a double major to complete. Because of the double major, you miss out on the elective requirement to graduate so you don’t need to take any more courses to graduate (if you plan correctly). Fortunately with Govt, there aren’t any specifically required classes and Econ is pretty loose too, so you don’t have to worry about scheduling in terms of trying to fit in a specific class. Sure, some semesters you might not be able to fit the class you wanted into your schedule, but you can at least take something else to get your requirements completed.</p>
<p>The workload for Econ/Govt is not bad compared to other majors. Most Econ classes have 7-10 problem sets so you aren’t even doing one every week and quite frankly, most can be completed in a few hours. Econ has no meaningful outside reading (maybe some articles here and there) and you’ll probably only be stressed when you have to study for an exam 2-3 times a semester. Govt has a high reading load, but many students get away with not doing that 100%. I always did the reading mostly because I found it interesting. That said, if you do have a lot to do, learning how to skim read and pick up the important information is valuable. Most papers are in the 5-10 page range so the work on that depends. Some students spend many nights on them, but I would guess most procrastinate and do them in a single night.</p>
<p>Also, I think I only took 1 Econ and 1 Govt class my entire freshman year and I wasn’t rushed to finish either major.</p>