I would LOVE to receive a Bachelors in both Chemical Engineering & Sociology because their both very broad Majors and I feel like I would learn about a little bit of everything.
My question is, would it be too ludicrous to expect to finish within 6 years?
Would there be some sort of barrier between me and my goals?
Some questions to consider:
I really don’t see a benefit when ChemE is typically such a heavy workload as it is and Sociology doesn’t directly relate to it - so I don’t see the benefit of taking an extra year or two to get a BA in Sociology when you’re already working towards a degree in ChemE.
You haven’t stated what your goals are. From the little you’ve written here it would seem ludicrous to me to spend 2 extra years in school for what I see as no benefit. What are your goals that a ChemE major and taking classes from the sociology department is inadequate?
Why the six years, though? What college are you thinking of attending for dual majoring?
Many schools will allow you to finish in less than 6 years: I know my school has a CS and Psychology combined major that graduates in 4. If you start right away it’s possibly to do in much less time. If you can afford extra school and are okay with maybe a year extra, I don’t see why not. I don’t see any big advantage beyond personal learning goals though unless something isn’t being mentioned.
There is nothing wrong with majoring in 2 subjects that are not closely related, as long as you are sure you will enjoy studying them.
At most universities it shouldn’t take you 6 years to finish a double major, unless you take a very light course load each semester.
Double-majoring is a bad idea for the vast majority of people.
(This is all assuming you can graduate on time, which I wouldn’t assume with an ABET accredited ChemE program. What kind of schools are you looking at? What math level will you be starting at? Give us an idea and we can suss out how possible it would be. I’m very good at rule-lawyering course requirements).
For one thing, it cramps your flexibility. Ooh, look - that shiny new anthro course you want to take. Guess what? ChemE + soc double major can’t fit it in. The ChemE who just takes sociology courses as fancy takes him/her can.
For another thing, it cramps your ability to set course rigor at your own pace. For example, junior year tends to be the most rigorous for most majors. As a double major, you may find your hardest classes for ChemE are taken alongisde your hardest classes for soc. GPA in the trash can. As a ChemE who takes soc classes as the fancy takes him/her, you can take easy freshmen-level courses to balance them out.
It also cramps your ability to liberally educate yourself. Instead of being a specialist that has some additional breadth, you end up being a specialist who has an additional narrow specialization.
The final argument is that everyone wants to double major as a freshmen. Most of them end up not doing it. So you can stand out by not wanting to have done it in the first place, and save yourself the headache.