Hello everyone. I am going to my college orientation tomorrow and signing up for my first college courses. My major is bio and a friend of mine tells me to not take a course called Math 131 (which is calculus II specific for bio majors and is easier than math 141, which is the normal calculus II). And he told me to take Math 141 instead in case I wanted to double major. Would it be a good idea to double major? I plan to work on campus and so far I have 3 credits from my AP courses (I am waiting for 4 more scores to come in July which I thought I did not too bad on). Should I double major? What are the pros and cons? Would I be able to manage it?
Double majoring?
- Thread starter Ahmac
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What would you double major in? You should not decide to double major before you're fully set on what your majors would be, and only double major if there are two majors that you'd like to do. Even though you're a bio major now, that might change, so give yourself enough time to explore various other majors, because plenty of people change. It won't help you get into medical school, nor will it keep you out. The pros are that you get a pretty deep understanding of two different disciplines, which can be beneficial depending on what you want to do in the future. The cons are that you're taking more courses, and you need to plan out your schedule very diligently if you want to graduate in four years. When you get to upper-level classes, your schedule can become quite heavy, especially if you're still working on pre-reqs.
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If you're trying to impress an adcom, then no, don't double major; they don't care. If you think you'd regret leaving college not having pursued your second major and you feel you can handle the challenge, then by all means, double major. That's all there is to it.
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If it will risk your GPA, best bet is not to do it. And adcoms will not give you any more credit for double majoring as opposed to a regular bachelor. If you are really organized, can keep a high GPA, then go for it. But if you want to do it to impress anyone, don't. Your call!
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We don't care.
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Adcoms won't care about a single vs double major. If your goal is med school, pick a major that won't murder your GPA and think of your 'other' major as volunteering/research/MCAT study.
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Very well said. I might put " If your goal is med school, pick a major that won't murder your GPA and think of your 'other' major as volunteering/research/MCAT study." in my signature if that is fine?
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I surrender all rights to it!
If you really like Math and think you will be able to do well, double major. I ended up doubling in English, and it was something that I think really improved both my resume and my college experience. If you're interested, go for it.
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The only reason I double majored was because I was stupid and left my gen eds for the end, even though I had pretty much everything else done for my major by the end of my junior year. There was another major that had pretty much all the same pre-reqs (actually less intensive), so I took those class to up my credit load (so my scholarship would kick in.) So yeah I double majored. (Probably, could've gotten three if I didn't get two minors as well.) I still finished in fours years.
However, if you want to double major in two completely different things that take some planning. And by some I mean a lot. If you plan to double major you should have a four year plan already set up. Every class you want to take and which semester as well.
If you do this now, this does at least two things. You know what all the pre-reqs are for upper level courses and you also know which classes are bottlenecks. (Those that have the most pre-reqs; only offered in the spring or only in the fall, etc.)
And it helps to figure out if there are any 'weird' classes. i.e classes that are always MThF or MWThF, etc.
Nonetheless you should plan ahead.
However, if you want to double major in two completely different things that take some planning. And by some I mean a lot. If you plan to double major you should have a four year plan already set up. Every class you want to take and which semester as well.
If you do this now, this does at least two things. You know what all the pre-reqs are for upper level courses and you also know which classes are bottlenecks. (Those that have the most pre-reqs; only offered in the spring or only in the fall, etc.)
And it helps to figure out if there are any 'weird' classes. i.e classes that are always MThF or MWThF, etc.
Nonetheless you should plan ahead.
