quirky

Basically I'm talking about a quantitative major together with something in the humanities. Does anybody have experience with this sort of combo? After having done it, do you regret anything?

4321234

you mean like math and english? or bio and history? personally, i find it a bit strange. i don't know why someone would do that unless they are completely in love with both. but it seems like they're trying to give themselves some marketability and versatility (i know, because i was considering this too for those reasons). i mean, if you do something like business and communications, it makes a bit more sense, since business is pretty marketable, but you'd want to do something you like more too. but quan. subjects like math and pure sciences aren't particularly marketable, so other than passion, i don't know why else someone would do that.

tetrishead

To completely disagree with 4321234, it has never made any sense to me to double major in two subjects that are extremely similar--especially if they're in the same department. Unless it's specifically for some form of specialization, you're eventuallly going to run into issues of having to take electives you might not want to just to fulfill course prerequisites.

I pretty much constantly post about the benefits of doubling something pragmatic with something you enjoy, and my reasoning for this is that by the time you get to high-level coursework in both you've probably had to fulfill enough prerequisites to get near or even reach the requirements to major in the subject.

The chances of you ever being in a situation to learn from elite researchers in a multitude of subjects ever again in your life are extraordinarily low. Take advantage of learning a subject you want to learn, and if you're not from wealth take advantage of learning a skill (from a pragmatic discipline) you want to develop.

4321234

i had a feeling somebody would disagree. i've heard the "major in something practical and something you like" wayyy too often, that i don't think it works for everybody. if you're concerned about finding a job, you should do internships in the field you're interested in... not major in something you have no interest in for the sake of its practability and then try and do something in another field completely unrelated. by trying to have something to rely on with not much interest in it can leave you overwhelmed with too much going on if you can't focus too well on more than one things. i've tried the double major in practical and interest, and i just got so overwhelmed that neither worked out for me, until i just dropped the practical.

i'm not saying, double major in something similar... like journalism and communications, or whatever. but i don't find the advice of trying to split yourself in half very efficient.

tetrishead

Well, you're generally going to have 2 electives a semester no matter what you major in, and it's not too hard to turn that into another major if you want.

When I say major in something pragmatic, I don't mean something you hate, and I don't think anyone means that. It's very, very difficult to survive studying something you greatly dislike. But if it's just a topic you don't like as much as X and Y and Z, you ought to do something with it. While I agree that an X major who got an internship at GS has a better chance of getting hired in investment banking than a finance major who did nothing, it's pretty hard to get that internship if you're an X major in the first place.

ozonetragic

quirky, do you have any idea about what kind of job you would want to get? a lot of liberal arts majors end up getting jobs that have nothing to do with what they study, so i would say do the pragmatic major if that's a field that you would want to work in. if it's not, then i don't think you have to study that just to compensate for the unpractical major that you're passionate about. when i was trying to decide what to major it in i was thinking about econ (pragmatic) and psych (interesting), took a couple of econ classes and didn't like it, and i ended up majoring in psych (interesting) and phil (passionate). i wasn't looking to work in either field after college, i found internships in the area of work that i was interested in which i think ended up being the most helpful (especially if you want to work in something that colleges don't normally have majors for, eg PR or advertising)

kenf1234

It's actually very exciting to tie the two things together. You can be a math major and study the history of math, or philosophy of math, or a bio major and study the history of biology or naturalism in literature or whatever. There are lots of ways to combine disciplines.

quirky

ozonetragic, in what field did you end up working?

I like economics, but I can't picture myself as an analyst. I'd love, however, to write about economic issues in a magazine, or to work dealing with the social aspect of that subject... and that's where my passion for English/History comes in.