<p>I'm double majoring in anthropology(cultural) and political science(international).</p>
<p>I want to get a PhD/Master in either philosophy or comparative literature.
I'm a native speaker and perfectly fluent in Chinese, and I'm also learning French for my love of continental philosophy, but due to my schedule issues, I won't be able to take a lot of philosophy classes and comparative literature classes, so, will it be detrimental to my graduate school admission if my area of focus in undergraduate level is different (but somehow related) to my future graduate studies?
Thank you! :)</p>
<p>this is probably in the top 5 most-asked questions. please consult the archives.</p>
<p>in short: no. it is not necessarily detrimental.</p>
<p>As astrina said, it's not usually a problem, especially when it's two fields of study in the same college such as the arts and sciences.</p>
<p>Have you considered minoring in either anthropology or political science instead of double majoring so that you could take more philosophy and/or literature courses?</p>
<p>BA - Classical Archaeology
MS - Soil Science</p>
<p>I did it by reading the graduate school catalogue at the target graduate program to find out just exactly what the course prerequisites were for the courses I wanted to take in grad school, and then spending a year and a half in undergrad courses at my cheap home state ag & tech. university to pick up just exactly the credits I needed.</p>
<p>Philosophy Phd programs judge candidates largely by a long writing sample. It's going to be much more difficult for you to produce a competitive one if you're not focusing on the subject.</p>
<p>In philosophy, a solid background in the subject is actually essential for graduate admissions.</p>
<p>I cannot speak to the comp lit situation.</p>
<p>your academic record (ie transcript) needs to indicate that you have taken at least some classes in your future field of interest. This does not mean your transcript must be exclusively composed of these classes. However, the graduate program will want evidence that you have a strong and substantial interest in your indicated subfield and that your interest is serious and not out of left field. If you are concerned about this issue, you can use your admissions essay as a forum to explain your love and passion re: the subfield and explain why you were unable to delve more fully into this interest as an undergrad, etc.</p>