Practical to double major biology and mechanical engineering?

GShine_1989
Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:50:17 +0000

Double majors are useless. If there are specific biology courses that are relevant to your desired specialization, then take those. There is no way that EVERY course in the biology major requirements is useful. Double majors are usually jokers who think they’re impressing others (which may be true, but they’re only be impressing average people, not anyone worth impressing like employers and grad schools).

For example, I’m an EE specializing in solid state devices. I’ve taken senior level physics courses in quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, and even a grad level course on semiconductor theory. It would be trivial to finish the physics degree because what’s left are the easy lower level courses (because I already have those upper-level physics electives as well as the math/physics core, which overlaps between EE and physics). It’s doable within 4 years too. Am I going to do it? No, because those courses are in mechanics, relativity, E&M, circuits, etc. that are useless to me or already covered in EE. What’s the point? Graduate early, study abroad, take an internship, or take more useful courses. These alternatives will serve you better.

While knowledge in another field could be useful/necessary, there are NO cases in which ALL of another major’s graduation requirements will be useful to you, down to the last course. Majors are meant to be broad and intersections between them will always be small. Just take the ones that you desire and ignore the rest because, in the end, no one is going to care that you have two degrees.