<p>I am a freshman at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. I have always wanted to be a chemistry major, and last year in high school I decided I also wanted a math major. I have started taking Russian, and I’m having a lot of fun so I’m thinking about that also. I believe that I should be able to finish the three majors in four years if I do a couple of summer semesters. I am getting As in all my courses.
After college I am hoping to go to grad school for probably math or chemistry, aiming for a PhD. I have heard that Russian can be useful for both math and chem. Is a triple major helpful or just stupid?</p>
<p>Russian as a minor perhaps but unless you intend to work in the Urals I would highly suggest putting that interest on the backburner. Both chemistry and mathemagics are possible but difficult.</p>
<p>I don’t know about chemistry, but if you want to go to grad school in math, triple majoring won’t give you anytime for advanced courses, nor it will it send a good signal to ad coms. Russian can definitely help you in graduate level math, but most russian mathematica texts have already been translated into English, so French or German might suit you better.
(fluency is not required, just a reading knowledge)</p>
<p>My suggestion is to limit yourself to two majors at most. I wouldn’t recommend double majoring in chemistry and math however. There’s little overlap and the most advanced math you’ll need for chem is ordinary differential equations.</p>