How's life with a double major?

halcyonheather
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 11:16:52 +0000

I’m hearing horror stories about double majors, all this talk about having to study like crazy, losing your social life entirely, not even having time to play games, etc.

These aren’t horror stories about double majors; they’re horror stories about having a lot of requirements to complete in a really small amount of time. Your workload depends on what you’re studying and how many classes you take each semester, which isn’t necessarily determined by the number of majors you have. If you have to work a lot of hours outside of class, that can also affect your stress levels.

IMO, a lot of people overstate the difficulties of double majoring because they want to discourage students like [this[/url] who might otherwise double major for bad reasons. I’m a double major, and I definitely understand the appeal. It’s fine to just take the classes that interest you, but it’s also fine to prefer a more structured curriculum. (Majors are designed to give you a coherent overview of a field. Educationally, it’s easy to see why someone would prefer a major over a few random classes.)

However, having two majors isn’t inherently better than having one, and you should consider whether there’s a good reason before you double major. You won’t have as much time to take advanced electives that could help you in your job search or graduate school applications.

But it seems like a surprisingly common thing in some parts, so I’m just wondering if there’s anyone here double majoring and still kicking.

I’m a math/CS double major, which I talk about in [url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18674155#Comment_18674155]this thread](Where can I multiple major? - #3 by halcyonheather - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums). (In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t actually declared the CS major yet, but it’s just a matter of filling out a form.) Here are some other thoughts:

1. My school encourages double majors more than a lot of places.

2. I came in with 58 transfer credit hours that go toward my math major requirements and general education requirements. This helps a lot.

3. I will be earning two separate B.S. degrees, but my double major (at least in my school) could also be done by earning a B.A. degree with two majors or one B.S. degree and one B.A. degree. These options would both have fewer requirements than what I'm planning. (This isn't universally true, because the difference between B.A. and B.S. depends on your school. Some schools only offer B.A. degrees or B.S. degrees in a particular subject, so they're essentially just labels. If both degrees are offered in the same subject, the B.S. degree probably has more requirements. At my school, the B.S. in CS is accredited by ABET, while the B.A. degree is not.)

4. A lot of people say it's easy to double major in math and computer science (or math and engineering) because "computer science majors complete most of the requirements for a math major anyway," but this is misleading. The two majors might look similar if you come in as a freshman with no college credit from high school, but the requirements don't ultimately overlap very much.

Math majors need to take two semesters of algebra, two semesters of analysis, complex analysis, scientific computing, and six upper-level math electives (statistics classes don’t even count toward them, let alone CS). On the other hand, they don’t have to take CS classes at all.

Mind sharing your routine or talking about your workload? I’m not a particularly bright student, my GPA hovers around 3.0, and I could be called lazy and a procrastinator, so I’m not really sure if it’s something an average student like me could just step into, considering how much emphasis I put into fooling around.

I talk about studying and grades in [this thread](Straight A's? - #8 by halcyonheather - College Life - College Confidential Forums). Overall, you probably don’t need to decide right away whether you’re going to double major or not. I would recommend starting with a minor in the second subject, and seeing how it goes.