So are double majors worth it?

guineagirl96
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 17:56:48 +0000

I understand two majors means twice as much work

This isn’t necessarily true. While you have more required classes, double majors don’t necessarily have twice the work. At a lot of colleges, depending on the majors, you may spend 30% of classes in your major, 30% on gen eds, and the remaining 40% are all electives. As a double major, you might spend 60% of classes in your majors (30% each), 30% on gen eds, and the remaining 10% on electives. Still the same number of classes, just distributed differently.

I’m a senior double major in Math and CS, with a double minor in Music and Dance, graduating in four years. I still only took 5 academic classes a semester (yes, I did overload credits, but those were to do music ensembles that were not required of me; I just wanted to). I came in with a decent amount of credits, so my breakdown when I graduate (not counting the overloaded music ensembles, just academic classes) will be approx 46% majors (23% each), 28% minors (a little more skewed towards dance), 15% gen eds, and then remaining 11% electives.

For me, being a double major was completely worth it. I loved both fields; my main areas of interest are cryptology and computer security. Crypto in particular really requires both to understand fully. I also have a job offer for when I graduate that involves doing both that I probably wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t have the depth in both.