Early Graduation vs. Staying Extra Quarter

thedoghause
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 04:46:30 +0000

Hello. I am going to be an incoming junior at Northwestern this fall and am debating whether or not I should plan on staying for fall quarter my senior year or simply graduate after 3 years.

I am working on a math and economics double major. For me to complete the double major I need to take 14 more credits. The standard at NU is to take 4 credits (classes) per quarter. Therefore, after junior year I would need only 2 more credits to graduate. I could complete these the fall of my senior year. However, I have 3 alternate options:

A. Take 5 classes per quarter for 2 of the 3 quarters my junior year. This way I have all of my credits for my double major completed by the time I graduate. Taking 5 classes at NU does not cost extra but it could get kind of stressful and be time consuming taking all of those at once.

B. Change my economics major to a minor. This way I could graduate after my junior year without having to overload my schedule.

C. Change my math major to a minor (same reasoning as B).

In terms of my future career I am planning on going into actuarial science. I have passed the first two actuarial exams and am planning on doing an actuarial internship the summer after my junior year.

The cost of staying at NU for 2 credits fall quarter senior year would be roughly $8.3k for tuition & fees, and $2.5k for housing. Because of my financial aid even though taking only 2 credits fall quarter makes me a part time student the cost is still the same as if I took the typical 4. I don’t need to take out any student loans so the extra money isn’t a big financial burden.

Here are what I see the pros and cons are:

STAY FALL QUARTER SENIOR YEAR

PROS

Complete double major without overloading classes (and allows me to potentially drop a class junior year if necessary)

Take classes after post-junior year internship so there is some buffer before entering the job market (I think some internships require you to be a student working on a degree)

Double major in math and economics may make me more attractive to potential employers

Only taking 2 classes will leave me plenty of free time to focus on recruiting/interviews/job applications

If I have a double major in math & economics I can potentially teach or go to graduate school in one of those subjects

CONS

A direct cost of slightly over $10k

Opportunity cost of one year that I could have been working

Not sure how much extra a double major would bring to the table in terms of job prospects

Have to do more work for classes

As most recruiting is for jobs beginning in the following fall I might kind of "waste" the months of December through August doing nothing with my time in terms of school/work.

Anyway, I am just wondering based on your opinion what I should do in my situation. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.