Double Majoring at Pomona

lockn
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:20:40 +0000

Double majoring involves a significant increase in the number of requirements. However, if you plan it carefully from your freshman year, it’s likely that you’ll never need to take more than four courses in a semester (standard load). In other words, you will be able to get a double major without reaching the total number of courses required to graduate (32 or as low as 30 with AP credit). You might have slightly less free time than the average Pomona student, but only because a lot of Pomona students are taking easier courses.

If you then go and get a minor in an additional subject, start over with the language requirement, take some other random courses, study abroad, or some combination of those, the 4/semester limit may be impossible to maintain. At this point, your free time will become limited by your ability to work quickly. I know someone who partied more than twice a week with six courses, but I’d have trouble getting the day’s work done in 24 hours.

I wasn’t planning on one of my majors when I came to Pomona, and as a result have needed to catch up a bit, but all this required was taking five serious courses in one semester.

Here are the major requirement pages for the three subjects. Don’t assume that all the classes you need will be offered every semester, but you will have some flexibility in what order you take them in. General math is easiest for someone who is double-majoring (with Applied coming in a close second).
[Pomona College - Computer Science](http://www.cs.pomona.edu/program.html#Major)
http://www.math.pomona.edu/majorinfo.html
[Linguistics & Cognitive Science Home Page](http://www.linguistics.pomona.edu/req/index.html)

You can make a 8x4 grid and figure out what will fit in it, keeping prerequisites in mind. Leave room for three breadth of study courses, zero to three language courses as appropriate, and a freshman writing course.