Pros and Cons of Double Majoring

baktrax
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 19:16:35 +0000

Might I add there are a lot of cardiothoracic surgeons (ok maybe not a lot because they are getting older and retiring) so I don’t think my dreams are that far fetched.



I didn’t say that being a cardiothoracic surgeon was far-fetched. I said that I thought that becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon (MD) with two PhDs that helped people with “neural problems like cancer, trauma, etc” seemed a little far-fetched.

I didn’t say it was impossible, and I never said that you shouldn’t have goals. I just didn’t think your goals sounded like they were particularly related to what you wanted to do (as you described it), nor did I think that having two PhDs (one in neuroscience and one in biology, apparently) supported your particular goals. I would never say that you shouldn’t have dreams or goals, but that you should think of them realistically and get degrees that support your future career goals, not just degrees for the sake of getting degrees. Maybe I misinterpreted your intended career goal, but all I had to go on was what you put in your original post. I wasn’t trashing your dreams; I was saying that you should consider whether this particular path supports your specific career goal. In my opinion, it doesn’t. But perhaps there are things about your goal that did not come across in your post.

I’m sorry you took my comments so personally. I didn’t intend for that to be an attack on you or your goals. I was just giving some advice based on what you said in your original post. If you don’t want to take it that’s absolutely fine. I don’t really care.

Also, I spent over half of my post addressing your initial question about whether or not you should double major in those particular majors. Some of it was just my opinion that those two particular majors might not benefit you tremendously. Some of it was practical things that you should look into when you are deciding what what school you would like to go to (would they even allow you to major in two majors that are so similar?). I wasn’t aware that you would be so aggressively opposed to my sharing my opinion on whether or not I thought your education goals aligned with your career goals. I was only suggesting that you look into it further, and if you’ve decided that that is the path for you, then by all means, go for it. You are welcome to ignore anything you’d like in my post. I thought I was welcome to share my opinion, but clearly I wasn’t.

And by specialization in biology, I meant that people tend to student specific topics to write their dissertation on. So you could have a PhD that says biology, but your dissertation might have been on something specific to neuroscience. I didn’t understand what you were interested in researching that would require you to get two PhDs in neuroscience AND biology, but of course, I’m only a graduate student in biology. What do I know? =D