Vandy vs. Northwestern vs. USC

Supruwoman
Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:10:46 +0000

My understanding is that HOD majors are encouraged to double major in some content area and the workload is designed to accommodate that. He declared his econ double major late in his sophomore year (I don’t know what the requirement is).

The things that you’d want to be aware of:


HOD majors do an internship for a semester, so that cuts out a semester of classes. My son had to take 3 econ classes this current semester to get it all in (but he didn’t decide on the econ major until late. If he would have known his freshman year, it would have been fine).
Vandy’s econ department is known for grade deflation, and is known as one of the toughest majors at Vandy. They norm their tests, class grades etc. on an average of 2.8, so you have to work really hard to get a good GPA. It’s worth it though – grad schools and employers in that field understand the rigor of Vandy’s econ program.
It might be tough to do a semester abroad with the double major and the HOD internship, though it could be done with the right planning . . .especially if you took your econ classes abroad where they would be easier My son did a study abroad in the summer.


I’m not going to sugar coat it – it was very, very rigorous and stressful – as you would expect from Vanderbilt (though he was able to maximize his college experience and be involved on campus as well – it just took organization and planning). But he’s very happy that he did it because it’s opening doors for him now as a graduating senior.

I can’t say enough good about the HOD program. Graduates have knowledge and experience on how people tick, how to work with them and motivate them so they are very successful in whatever field they end up in, and just in life in general. It sets them apart from graduates of other universities that are simply knowledgeable in their content areas but don’t have the dimension of being able to work with people. I continue to be amazed at my son and his skills and abilities.