Why Triple Major?

[Anonymous]

Someone on the Northwestern thread said it was easy to triple major there.

My question is why? Do employers now want/w pect this? Or are students driving this for done reason.

To me, triple majoring seems so limiting to me. Doesn’t all that focused effort remove the opportunity to try/explore new areas or to learn just for the sake of learning?

FWIW, loved my major in college. And it served me well after I graduated. But I can say the same about most of the electives I took - across many different areas. They helped expose me to the wide world of ideas, and engaged my mind and curiosity, too. I still refer to many of those classes now, 25 years later, though I ne er officially used them “professionally.”

[Anonymous]

There's really no benefit. Many schools don't let you triple major even if its possible, because why not just take classes you're interested in than try to take up classes for a major.

[Anonymous]

Many kids have a jump start on their undergrad degree with AP classes coming in. They can pursue a third major out of interest or because the majors do relate to one another. It does make a person stand out as a true academic as this wasn’t necessary, but they accomplished it anyway. A smart kid would do this to really get the value out of their education!

[Anonymous]

It's kind of a cool flex.

[Anonymous]

It's not 3 separate degrees. It's usually closely related fields, and the additional majors are only about 7 courses each, and courses can be double counted for 2 majors. (3 NU quarter courses equals 2 semesters elsewhere.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's kind of a cool flex.

It really is.

[Anonymous]

Some people just have a lot of interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not 3 separate degrees. It's usually closely related fields, and the additional majors are only about 7 courses each, and courses can be double counted for 2 majors. (3 NU quarter courses equals 2 semesters elsewhere.)

+1. I have a kid who is an IR and Russian double major. But her college has a limit on cross-counting in getting double majors (max of 2 classes) and both majors have a lot of pre-recs, so just two is a heavy lift. Allow all cross counts and add about two extra classes and she could easily add history or politics. Heck— add in a more liberal AP policy (very little AP credit given at her school and none for core credits or majors, just elective credit for APs) and if she sat down and looked at cross counts and how her sibling’s college counts APs, I bet the triple major is there. Add a summer study abroad and she could probably IR, Russian, politics, and history quad major. And on one hand— sure cool flex. On the other, a bunch on AP credit and cross counts don’t add anything to the double major.

I was all over the place in college and had the credits to double major with three minors. But only got to declare the majors. Doesn’t really matter. I use the classes that were useful, whether I declared that third minor or not.

Point is, either you spend five or six years in college or your triple major counts credits in such a manner that you aren’t doing more work than a double major. You probably are superspecializing to get the overlap, especially if all departments have a senior capstone requirement. And that has pluses and minuses. Great for a kid with a tailored interest who knows early on exactly where they are going and has a plan freshman year to make it work. Bad because breadth has value. And if the third minor is available, some kids will feel pressure to go for it and super specialize when they aren’t sure or ready to commit.

Now, you find me an English, Biology and Music triple major (or any three majors in very different fields with no overlap) at a well regarded school who hasn’t transferred half their classes in as APs or summer community college credits andhasnt spent 6 years finding themselves and I’m impressed.

[Anonymous]

Why not? There’s no one way to do college.

Some people like the structure of a major. Sometimes being a major is necessary to get preference for upper-level classes. Sometimes a major is relatively easy to achieve for someone who is interested in the area and already taking a decent number of classes.

[Anonymous]

Multiple majors should be in separate fields with little overlap. Trying to double or triple major, when there is a lot of class overlap, can look foolish.

For example, if someone double majors and there are only a handful of classes needed for the second major, due to mostly overlapping requirements, it looks foolish because anyone who understands would say that is nonsense.

[Anonymous]

A very unimpressive student at my college was a triple major. The three majors were nearly identical in requirements. The idea that he triple majored made him into a walking joke.

[Anonymous]

My kid took many APs in HS and got a lot of college credits in college. He has been able to pursue a double major and chose a Humanities and a STEM major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some people just have a lot of interests.

This.

Typically, one of the majors is in a foreign language that will be an asset in the student's career field.

[Anonymous]

Love of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just have a lot of interests.

This.

Typically, one of the majors is in a foreign language that will be an asset in the student's career field.

I wouldn't say "typically"...I know very few people who major in a foreign language in college. According to recent statistics, only 1.2MM college students are enrolled in a FL course (30% drop since 2009), which is only 10% of all college students. Again, that includes all the freshmen that may have to take a FL to satisfy a requirement...this isn't the number majoring in a FL.

The %age of college students majoring in a FL has to be close to 1%.