<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I was just wondering…</p>
<p>At Brown, would I be able to major in applied math-economics concentration AND another major (say, engineering, computer science, or international relations)? If so, how difficult would it be?</p>
<p>Thank you everyone</p>
<p>There are no institutional roadblocks that pertains to multiple concentrations. You can have as many concentrations as you want as long as you can fulfill the requirements for each of them. Though the merits of having multiple concentrations is another discussion altogether.</p>
<p>Some of the Concentrations have been increasing their number of required courses, and having more proscribed courses, so with those Concentrations it is difficult, if not impossible to double Concentrate unless the other concentration has significant overlap. Eg: any engineering concentration, IR. You can take a lot of courses in another discipline, but to Concentrate (with a capital C to indicate fulfilling the department requirements) in one of these with another unrelated Concentration is likely to mean that you take NO other classes, IF you can do it. Very un-Brown, limiting your exploration.</p>
<p>Many students are just “settling” for doing a bunch of interesting courses in the second field that interests you. It might be a “minor” in another college, but at Brown it will only reflect as those courses will show up on your transcript, reflecting interest in that second area. One advantage to this is that, except as where required as a prerec for another course you might want, you can avoid taking some of the required courses for that area (a second non-concentration emphasis you do on your own) and just take the ones that really interest you. (and THAT is very Brown!!)</p>
<p>You’ll take 32 courses at Brown, most likely. Given the nature of the courses you’ll be taking, you should NOT assume you’ll be taking more. It may work out that you do, but it’s foolish to plan as if you will. APMA-Econ’s AB is 12 or 14 courses (depending on track), while APMA-Econ’s ScB is 17. This pretty much excludes an Engineering Sc.B. already, and a CS Sc.B. would likely be too much as well, just by number of courses.</p>
<p>I speak as a double concentrator in Math-CS (17 courses) and Classics (12 courses, plus prereqs) that it’s not a good idea to assume you’ll do a double concentration of that nature, but I’m evidence that it is possible. Of course, I do nothing but work and had nearly no electives (I’ve made time for electives by taking 5 courses in 6 of my 8 terms here, but as a result, I do very little but work. That’s most likely not what you want to do in college). Doing two ABs is much more tractable, but you’d have to weigh the pros and cons of committing yourself to so many courses when the second degree is likely to be of relatively little value. Brown doesn’t make you choose a concentration until 4th semester for a reason. By then, you’ll have a much better sense of how feasible this is (and if you even want to do it). I’d advise you to be cautious in coming in and assuming that you’ll be doing that, but it is possible.</p>
<p>Take BrownAlumParent’s comments into very serious consideration - I find it to be good advice. It wouldn’t be applicable in every situation, but I know many students are doing that and it has obvious merit.</p>
<p>I don’t think any Brown student would recommend you double major in any of those subjects unless you want to take a 5th year and then the question of “is it worth it” comes up. Getting an A.B. in apma instead of Sc.B. seems pretty silly. For a science concentrator, it’s usually better to just focus in that area. You’ll learn a lot more when you become a student seeing as most students change their concentration every other day freshman year.</p>