Students who declare their majors earlier will likely have more success than those who plan late. Students pursue double majors for various reasons. Many students want to prepare themselves well for the workforce or graduate school by combining their skill sets. For example, a student interested in both business and computer science could strengthen their chances at jobs that require coding and business sense by majoring in both.
Majors also do not need to relate to each other. Students interested in seemingly opposite paths, like art and science, can still acquire majors in both fields to better reflect their interests and career aspirations. Students who double major can declare both majors simultaneously or at separate times. Additionally, students with a major and a minor could eventually turn their minor into a second major.
Different schools maintain varying declaration deadlines. As a good rule of thumb, students should consider declaring a major by the end of their second year.
Many schools, however, allow learners to declare a second major later, allowing students to try out classes in the major before deciding. Some schools require students to get department approval before enrolling in both majors. Students must speak with their academic advisors to ensure they can major in both of their desired concentrations. They may also need to provide an additional statement of purpose or roadmap to declare their second major.
Like students who declare one major, double majors usually need to complete credit hours to earn a bachelor's degree. Students do not need more time to finish a second major if they plan accordingly. However, double majors generally must complete a longer list of required courses than single-major students. Each school holds different requirements for its majors.
Students should speak with their advisors about the specific requirements and what classes fulfill obligations for both majors. For example, a political science major and a sociology major might both require the same statistics course. A student would only need to take the course once to meet each major's requirement. Double majors graduate with one degree in two disciplines. Students who earn dual degrees graduate with two degrees in two different fields. Undergraduate programs usually offer double majors, while graduate schools typically offer dual degrees.
Some undergraduate schools also feature dual-degree programs, but these often take more time than a double major. For example, a student could earn two degrees, such as a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of science, and need more credit hours to do so.
Typically, students earning two bachelor's degrees take five years to graduate. Some schools offer dual-degree programs that combine undergraduate and graduate degrees. At some colleges and universities, undergraduate degree students need to have a minor. Some schools let their students take multiple minors, while others limit their students to one minor only. Taking a minor is possible only when taking a major, which is why graduate degree programs have no minors.
If you are enrolled at one of them, you have no choice but to declare and complete a minor, whether you have one major or two. However, when applying to colleges and universities via the Common App or Coalition App, you will be asked about the minor you are going to take. Academic advisors know for a fact that students who have just stepped foot on a college campus can change their minds at any given time. Going back to having a minor, students can opt for as many as three minors, depending on whether or not it is allowed at the schools they attend.
Related Post: 15 Good College Minors. Students can have two minors. As a matter of fact, students can have more than two minors. However, it will depend on the colleges or universities they are attending. At most schools, for instance, students are limited to having two minors. Others limit their students to a single minor only. This is to keep their students from having confusion over their studies and priorities and not graduating on time.
Instead of having two majors, some students opt for having two minors and one major. This allows them to have a more remarkable transcript without potentially ending up knee-deep in college debt and experiencing burnout. In some cases, having multiple minors can make a college graduate look bad. Refrain from assuming that the more minors you have, the more employers will be impressed with you.
If you fail to plan carefully, your transcript and your resume may not look their best. Having a lot of minors can make you appear flaky rather than smart, which can considerably decrease your chances of landing the job of your wildest dreams.
As a matter of fact, on Quora , a former mid-level engineering manager who hired people confessed that he saw applicants with multiple minors as indecisive and having no idea of what they want. One of them is going for one that allows you to follow your hobbies or interests. If you feel that taking multiple minors can make your life in college and beyond better, make sure that you are ready to defend your decision during a job interview. The schools taking a look at your credentials might wonder why you took several different minors rather than have a more focused field of study.
A double major and a dual degree are two different things. On the other hand, a dual degree consists of two separate degrees. Some students have a hard time telling apart a double major and a dual degree, also sometimes called a double degree. Better think again if you believe that having a double major is a good idea because it allows you to earn two degrees without going to college from start to finish twice. In fact, even if you have three majors , which can be very difficult but doable, you will still end up with one degree.
On the other hand, a dual degree is harder to complete than a double major. More often than not, it will require the student to stay in school for one to two more years. Are you not sure what major requirements look like? Take a minute and glance through what it takes to major in chemistry at Northwestern , MIT , and Duke. At this point, double majoring--especially in four years--might sound impossible. One of the biggest tricks to getting it done is putting your elective course requirements toward your second major.
But first, a little about electives. Your electives are a series of classes usually somewhere between five and 10 , that are included in your core curriculum. With a little planning, you can knock out some maybe all! Double-dipping is for more than just ice cream!
Most universities--but not all, so double check! By double dipping, you can maximize the efficiency of your course load! So what courses can be counted twice? So it boils down to this: while most universities allow for some amount of double-dipping, how this works varies from school to school.
The political science offers a junior-level class on international economics, which the economics department has listed as accepted elective. If Christen takes that class, she can double dip by counting it toward both her political science and her economic major! That makes double dipping like a two-for-one deal, and it can help reduce both the time and financial burden of double-majoring. The fourth step to double majoring is planning how long it will take to complete your double major.
Many of the top universities, like Yale, require students to get approval before double majoring to make sure they can complete their studies in a reasonable amount of time. Other schools, like Brown University , only allow double majors that can be completed in four years. Knowing how much time it will take you to finish your degree is important for your education and your budget! While a lot of the general guidelines for double majoring are the same across universities, the specifics--like which classes count for credit and if one class can count toward two majors--differs not only by university, but by program.
A bird's-eye view of Vanderbilt University. News and World Report. Vanderbilt gives students a lot of leeway in which courses they can take to fulfill the core requirements as long as it falls in the six general categories specified, which is good news for double majors! Luckily, the College of Arts and Sciences gives students a clear outline on their website about what it takes to double major. First, we know that Vanderbilt does allow double majoring, which is great news!
Second, they require a certain number of courses be specific to each major. In other words, a student will have to take somewhere between six and eight courses that only count toward each major. Lastly, the outline points out that 24 hours is a minimum requirement. That means most departments will require more than 24 hours of coursework to complete a major. But trust us That means that a double major can use those five classes to fulfill part of the requirements for their second major.
Vanderbilt does allow for some double dipping, meaning some of your classes can count toward both majors. As long as each major has a minimum 24 hours of dedicated credit, students can double dip with their remaining classes. Again, the minimums are different from program to program, so this number might go up depending on your majors. An English degree requires 12 hours of these courses, and a Creative Writing degree requires 6 hours of these courses. So instead of taking 18 hours, Marco can take the requisite 12 hours and fulfill the basic requirements for both degree tracks.
In fact, double majors are usually declared when a student is either a sophomore or a junior. When you decide that a double major is right for you, the first step is to print off a Declaration of Major form. This is to make sure that your plan is feasible and reasonable. If everything looks good, the advisors will sign off on the form.
The beautiful Stanford Commons at Stanford University. At Stanford, things work a little differently. Unlike Vanderbilt, you can only declare a double major within the same bachelor degree program. In order to graduate from Stanford , students must complete units of University work. Like Vanderbilt, Stanford gives students a lot of flexibility in fulfilling their core curriculum. Stanford accepts AP and IB credit, so this number might be less depending on what classes you took in high school.
The College of Engineering separates the major coursework into two categories: the engineering core courses and the Depth of Major courses. Every engineering student, regardless of major, has to take a series of core courses that are unique to the school. These would include:. That means you only have to take the core courses once while earning your Bachelor of Applied Science degree. The Depth of Major courses are the classes that are specific to each engineering major and must be fulfilled separately in order to graduate.
Also like Vanderbilt, Stanford does not include a set number of elective courses as part of their core curriculum. Additionally, the major requirements for each program vary quite a bit!
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