Not surprising that science and math avoidance is common. At many colleges which do have science and math general education requirements, the standards are not that high. For example, the math requirement may only require precalculus or non-calculus-based statistics, and science courses of the “physics for poets” type may be offered for those who do not want to take the “hard” versions. Even for those who need such courses for their majors, there may be courses like “calculus for business majors” and “physics for biology majors and pre-meds” that are less rigorous than the courses for those majoring in those subjects.
At some colleges, only the “hard” versions of math and science courses are offered and must be taken to fulfill general education requirements. But these colleges often have relatively few humanities and social studies majors (e.g. fewer than 20% of MIT students are in humanities, social studies, or business).
@ucbalumnus That is also a good point. Not many schools have distribution requirements that require extremely challenging classes outside of one’s area of interest. The cores at UChicago and Columbia are very unusual in that regard.
As far as I know, Williams doesn’t relax their distribution requirements for double-majors (except to the extent that major classes can fulfill the requirements in two divisions, rather than only one).
I suspect that the reason for the particularly high numbers of double-majors at both Williams and Amherst may be that neither school (unlike most LACs) offers traditional “minors”. So if a student wants to graduate with demonstrated knowledge of two fields, the double-major is the way to go. Conversely, the other schools listed would probably have higher numbers if you counted students graduating with a major + minor(s), instead of just double-majors.
Some schools (like Reed or Princeton) have mandatory thesis requirements that basically make double-majoring impossible. It isn’t really practical to research and write two theses during your senior year.
Bates has a thesis requirement for each major, traditional distribution requirements, and minors and approximately 20% of students double major, so it can be done.
I think the major difference that influences how any kids double major is in how many courses are needed for the major. As a quick exercise I checked out how many courses aside from general distribution requirements are required for the history major at various schools. IOW, this is the number of history courses a student must take to earn a history major.
It definitely depends on the major too. Some majors essentially have built in distribution requirements.
For example, for an Amherst neuroscience degree, there are 14 required courses, including calculus, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry, etc. You can’t just take the neuro classes, and 8 (or maybe more) of the required courses will have labs, which means an average of 2 lab classes every single semester. Plus most neuro students finish with a thesis seminar.
Bates has some options that make the thesis requirement more reasonable for double majors. At many schools, senior theses are two-semester projects. At Bates, a thesis can take two semesters, but there is a one-semester thesis option as well. So a double-major could write a pair of one-semester theses.
Alternatively, Bates allows double-majors to write a single two-semester thesis, as long as it is interdisciplinary between the two major fields.
My guess would be that most Bates double-majors take one of these two routes, rather than preparing two traditional two-semester senior theses.
As the first responder on this thread, I chose to address this as if it was a serious concern, even while suspecting that the result would be as @happy1 has identified. The OP gave me the opportunity to say something I really believe, and maybe it will help someone else sometime. I’m delighted to be part of a community that responds positively and with helpful advice to all requests, and I hope that as we model this behavior, we can shape internet discourse toward the authentic and communal for the next generation.