Should I Double Major or Triple Major? I've Got No Clue of What to Major In.

College Majors
1

OK, I’ll be honest with you guys, I have absolutely no clue of what exactly to major in; I mean, I’ve got some clue… I know I want to major in something Computational Science-related. In about the lapse of two weeks, I’ve switched back and forth between several career tracks (fortunately they all share similar foundation courses), I’ll go ahead and illustrate them below. Although, before I list the tracks I’ve taken in consideration, please don’t assume that these are just impulsive decisions, I’ve literally fallen asleep nearly every night at 2 A.M. (for the past month) thinking about all the options I have at my disposal and stressing out on my indecisiveness when it comes to my career path. Anyways, I’ll just go ahead and list the options that have crossed my mind and I’ve taken extremely seriously:

This one takes first place because is something I’ve wanted to get into since I was in my teenager years.
Information Security Analyst (later work my way up Cyber Security Engineer or Architect):
BS in Computer Science
& Minor in Cyber Security.
BS in Mathematics (or Applied Mathematics)

Second place for this one since, in my opinion it’s, “easy money.” A starting salary of at least for 60k for writing code? Sign me in!
Software Engineer:
BS in Computer Science
BS in Mathematics (or Applied Mathematics)

Third place goes to the Hardware aspect of computers since it’s probably what I would consider my ignorant side of computers, and I’d like to build an all-around efficient knowledge with computers.
Computer Hardware Engineer
BS in Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering Emphasis)
BS in Computer Science
BS in Mathematics (or Applied Mathematics)

This might be the only one that was somewhat of an impulsive decision, it’s just that I’ve recently developed a strange fascination for the concepts that illustrate Quantum Computing.
I’m currently unaware of any title that specializes in the research and development of Quantum Computing, so I’ll just refer to them as, “Operational or Scientific Researchers.”
Operational (or Scientific) Researchers
BS in Computer Science
BS in Mathematics
BS in Physics

Last place goes to the Engineering of vehicles that go into space (mostly rockets obviously) mainly because I’d like to work for SpaceX someday and help with one of the major projects that are undergoing in that company at the moment, like: The Mars Colonization or the City-to-City Travel by Rocket (yeah, yeah… I know… this is a long shot, which is why this one falls in last place).
Aerospace Engineer (Astronautical Specialization):
BS in Mechanical Engineering (the University I’ll transfer to doesn’t offer an Aerospace Undergrad degree)
BS in Physics (with an Applied Physics or an Astrophysics emphasis)
BS in Mathematics (or Applied Mathematics)

So, these are all the career tracks I’ve taken into real consideration. Sigh… if I could I would do them all at once, but unfortunately I’m simply a human being and not a godlike creature with an unimaginable level of intelligence. And for those about to comment if I’m sure that I can take 3 majors at a time, yes I’m sure, I mean, it’s Boise State University anyways, how hard can courses be there? Anyways if you guys could help me decide, I’d be eternally grateful… And I do know the difference between a Pure Math Degree and a Applied Math Degree, what I’m not completely sure about is which one would be more relevant to the specific career track (and yes, I do plan to go to Graduate School). By the way, I’m currently enrolled in my first semester at a CC taking foundation courses and plan to later transfer to BSU.

2

Don’t assume that just because a university isn’t very prestigious or selective that the classes will be easy and that you’ll be able to triple major without issue. Lots of public universities are very rigorous and challenging in ways that students often don’t expect.

The good news is that you don’t have to double or triple major in anything to do any of the things you want to do, and in your case it likely wouldn’t make sense. You double major (or triple) because you have a deep abiding interest in two or more fields that you want to explore in some depth. If you just want to prepare for careers, you can pick one major and then maybe a minor and take the requisite courses to prepare you for the other stuff.

For example, if you knew you wanted to be a software engineer…you don’t need to double-major in applied math or math. You can just major in CS, period. If you WANTED to minor in math or take a bunch of math that’s up to you, but it’s certainly not necessary.

In your case, the common denominator for everything that you’re interested in is computer science. So it seems like an easy choice that computer science should be your major. That is the price of entry to everything you’ve mentioned - a computer science major could enter information security/cybersecurity work, hardware, software development or research without any additional majors or minors. There’s some additional coursework you may want to take to supplement (like engineering for the hardware side, or math for some of the other ones) but you don’t NEED to.

Then the consideration is whether you WANT another major or minor. Math or applied math is probably the best and most applicable second major or minor in almost all of these cases, especially the last one (operations research is math-heavy, and most scientific research applications of CS will be math-heavy too). But you may not need to double major; you can minor, or take the courses you really need to take (including the physics courses for the last one)

Taking some engineering classes would be useful for the hardware side. If you were really really interested in doing hardware, I would say keep that on the table as your major (electrical engineering). You still could, since you can do any of these four things with an EE major, but it seems like CS is your real interest. That’s why I recommend that over anything else.

What would be way more useful than working overtime to triple major would be doing some internship, part-time or freelance projects that would get you experience in this area. In the time that you spend taking another class, you could build an app or freelance some white hat hacker projects or work with the Idaho government as CS cybersecurity intern (I’m making these up but you get the picture). That would go way farther towards getting you a job than another major.

3

Agree that you don’t need to double or triple major as you can take various electives along the way to satisfy some of your interests.

4

Some schools don’t even allow triple majors. Some do, but based on course overlap policies make it damn near impossible to graduate in four years. And as already mentioned, just because it is “x university” doesn’t mean upper level courses won’t be difficult.

5

You keep talking about a “career path” when describing these different majors. What you clearly don’t realize is that your actual career path – what you do when you graduate – will not be decided by these majors. People pursue all kinds of careers with a variety of majors. Because all of the majors you mention are quantitative in some way, they can all be the foundation for virtually the same set of possible careers. You can choose any of these majors, and then pursue summer internships that are more aimed at specific careers. Those internships will play a big role in what job you then are most likely to get after you graduate.

It is almost expected now that people will have several careers in their lifetime, so if you decide you don’t like what job/career you start out with, you can always adjust as you go. In other words, don’t feel like that by choosing a major, you are choosing the direction of the rest of your life and will be stuck on a certain path. That is not the case. So relax, and just pick a major. Remember that by the time you graduate, prospective employers will be looking at a lot more than your major – they will want to know what internships you had in the summers, what other work-related or research experience you had during the academic year, what leadership positions you held on campus, what skills you have acquired (which can be in classes or on your own), etc.