<p>My D is interested in double majoring in math and psychology. Anyone have any insights into doing this?</p>
<p>One of my majors is currently math, and I'm minoring in psychology, so perhaps I can try to give some advice / answer some questions.</p>
<p>The first thing to bring up is probably that the psychology department here, as far as I know, isn't particularly strong. The professors I've had so far were great (although one of them is quite a character), but, as RPI isn't focused on liberal arts, there's bound to be some weakness. That said, if your daughter is going to focus on math slightly more than psychology, then there should be more than enough high-quality courses to take to complete the major requirement.</p>
<p>As for math, I have enjoyed and have been challenged in almost all of my math classes so far (with the only exceptions being in my freshman year*). The major requirements are all considered to be good courses (when taught by the correct professor) and there are plenty of other interesting classes to take. One thing to note when looking over the course list here is that courses listed as MATP (Mathematical Programming, Probability, and Statistics) are also available and count towards the math electives in the major requirement.</p>
<p>As for general information: the psychology classes I've taken generally have an average of 2 hours of homework / test review per week (although I somehow managed to avoid the homework intensive ones). The amount of homework in math courses varies wildly: some classes give no homework, whereas another course can give as much as 12+ hours of homework per week (and I'm not a particularly slow worker). The latter course, by the way, is not a required course for mathematics majors, although it is highly recommended. The median amount of homework per week is probably 4-5 hours per class, but this varies from person to person.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask about anything I failed to mention above or want information about specific classes. If you want specific information about certain professors, please PM me instead.</p>
<p>*In my freshman year, I was challenged in but didn't enjoy one course, whereas I enjoyed but wasn't challenged enough in two others, although both of them were subjects which I had studied on my own prior to attending college.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Not clear from the RPI website how the psych. dept. integrates with the cognitive science dept. Are the majors significantly different? Also, what career options are you considering with this double major if you don't mind me asking.</p>
<p>As of now, there is no Cognitive Science major, but one is (according to my Intro to Cognitive Science professor) very close to being implemented. There is definitely room for research in Cognitive Science, though. I know someone who published an article on his research during his freshman year.</p>
<p>As for the actual departments, I believe the Cognitive Science department is composed mostly of an amalgamation of professors from the Psychology department and the Philosophy department. Beyond this, I don't know very much of their interconnections.</p>
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<p>My dual major is actually in Math and Computer Science, and, as of now, my plan is to attend a graduate school (most likely in Computer Science). Beyond this, I have not made many decisions, but I try to keep all paths open.</p>
<p>You should note that RPI's math department is composed mostly (if not only) of applied mathematicians, so while the undergraduate curriculum will be similar to that in most places, there isn't much your daughter can do here in graduate school for pure mathematics. If she wishes to continue her education in pure math beyond RPI, she'd be better off attending some other university for graduate school.</p>