DD w/interest in 2 wildly different poss. majors - thinking Brown might be a good fit - what others?

[Anonymous]

Avoid large universities with different colleges, where she'd need to transfer between colleges and taking classes outside her college may be limited to the 100-level classes.

Then on her "why I want to go to this college" essay she writes about how this is the only place she can pursue all her interests. Colleges want to know you want them, because they're concerned about yield. It worked for DD.

[Anonymous]

You really need to say the majors involved. My DD is getting a dual degree and going five years to accomplish it because her school requires ALL requirements be met for each major. Still, if one of those majors involved performance or studio it would never happen due to scheduling that specifically prevents cross attendance in fields. I would support the other poster's warning about " in major" restrictions to class access. If you have to be in engineering to get that class then don't go in undeclared nor self-declared as the courses will prove impossible to get and there will be long lines ahead of you with overrides I hand.

[Anonymous]

Double majors are really common now (even occasionally triple) and at most places, someone will be able to figure out a way to double in whatever their choice might be, though obviously the fewer required courses, the easier it might be. I find the trend of colleges asking students what they want to major in just totally wrongheaded -- nobody should have to make that decision until they know more, as most kids have not been exposed to say half of the available majors.

I agree up to a point, but there are some majors that really have to be started freshman year unless you want to pay for 5 or 6 years of undergrad. For two majors in the liberal arts and sciences, declaring in sophomore year should be fine and I would think that most schools could accommodate two majors like chemistry and gender studies in four years. Music performance and engineering, maybe not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Double majors are really common now (even occasionally triple) and at most places, someone will be able to figure out a way to double in whatever their choice might be, though obviously the fewer required courses, the easier it might be. I find the trend of colleges asking students what they want to major in just totally wrongheaded -- nobody should have to make that decision until they know more, as most kids have not been exposed to say half of the available majors.

I agree up to a point, but there are some majors that really have to be started freshman year unless you want to pay for 5 or 6 years of undergrad. For two majors in the liberal arts and sciences, declaring in sophomore year should be fine and I would think that most schools could accommodate two majors like chemistry and gender studies in four years. Music performance and engineering, maybe not so much.

DC1 did engineering and english in 4 years
DC2 is doing chem/bio/history (triple major) in 4 years.

Can be done but pretty tough. Large public U.

[Anonymous]

Consider schools like northwestern that operate on a quarter system. Kids end up taking more classes/year so it is easier to satisfy requirements

[Anonymous]

Vassar. Few core requirements and if none of their established majors fit the bill, they have a process to declare an independent major.

[Anonymous]

DH couldn't decide what he wanted to major in at Duke and during his first 2 years took courses as varied as Organic Chem, Computer Programming, Vector Calculus, Psychology, Art and Cultural Anthropology. He still graduated in only 4 years with a single major and a regular course load though admittedly it was Cultural Anthropology since after 4 semesters he'd taken so many varied classes that that was the simplest major to go with that allowed him to not have to take a summer session or overload on classes. He ended up starting his own software company, so at this point the Cultural Anthropology major is an interesting conversation topic but basically immaterial. He studied courses that interested him.

I also went to Duke, but for engineering and the only double majors that people were working on were EE/CS or ME/BME, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you looking for an open curriculum - schools that are looser on requirements Brown, Univ of Rochester and Wesleyan. But it does depend on what she wants to major in.

More colleges with an open curriculum - Amherst, Smith, Hamilton, Grinnell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Double majors are really common now (even occasionally triple) and at most places, someone will be able to figure out a way to double in whatever their choice might be, though obviously the fewer required courses, the easier it might be. I find the trend of colleges asking students what they want to major in just totally wrongheaded -- nobody should have to make that decision until they know more, as most kids have not been exposed to say half of the available majors.

I agree up to a point, but there are some majors that really have to be started freshman year unless you want to pay for 5 or 6 years of undergrad. For two majors in the liberal arts and sciences, declaring in sophomore year should be fine and I would think that most schools could accommodate two majors like chemistry and gender studies in four years. Music performance and engineering, maybe not so much.

DC1 did engineering and english in 4 years
DC2 is doing chem/bio/history (triple major) in 4 years.

Can be done but pretty tough. Large public U.

How many AP credits did they get going in? Both of mine received 30-34 credits which put them on sophomore status and eliminated most of their first year requirements. It would be possible for them to double and triple major in 4 years. I doubt it would be possible for someone coming in with significantly fewer credits.

[Anonymous]

If I were you, OP, I would NOT say what majors DD is interested in. The thread seems to be thriving with great insight about experiences.

Naming the majors only fuels trolls who feed on what your DD should or not do. We see it all the time in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Naming the majors only fuels trolls who feed on what your DD should or not do. We see it all the time in this forum.

+1

Don't major in computer science or engineering or [insert other STeM field here] because the H1B visa people are going to take all the jobs away.

Don't major in business or communications or [insert other non-STEM field here] because your kid will end up at Starbucks if lucky.

Don't major in music or education or [insert any other major not already listed here] because they'll end up waiting tables.

Don't become a lawyer as there are too many of them.

Don't become a doctor because the medical and health insurance industrial complex is crumbling down.

Better off to become a plumber or electrician or [insert any other Mike Rowe-favorited job here] instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naming the majors only fuels trolls who feed on what your DD should or not do. We see it all the time in this forum.

+1

Don't major in computer science or engineering or [insert other STeM field here] because the H1B visa people are going to take all the jobs away.

Don't major in business or communications or [insert other non-STEM field here] because your kid will end up at Starbucks if lucky.

Don't major in music or education or [insert any other major not already listed here] because they'll end up waiting tables.

Don't become a lawyer as there are too many of them.

Don't become a doctor because the medical and health insurance industrial complex is crumbling down.

Better off to become a plumber or electrician or [insert any other Mike Rowe-favorited job here] instead.

Someone is paying attention. Thank God!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naming the majors only fuels trolls who feed on what your DD should or not do. We see it all the time in this forum.

+1

Don't major in computer science or engineering or [insert other STeM field here] because the H1B visa people are going to take all the jobs away.

Don't major in business or communications or [insert other non-STEM field here] because your kid will end up at Starbucks if lucky.

Don't major in music or education or [insert any other major not already listed here] because they'll end up waiting tables.

Don't become a lawyer as there are too many of them.

Don't become a doctor because the medical and health insurance industrial complex is crumbling down.

Better off to become a plumber or electrician or [insert any other Mike Rowe-favorited job here] instead.

So you've derailed the thread to talk about what you think posters you don't like would say? It's always helpful when looking for advice to be more specific. If you think a response is off topic or detracts from the conversation, use the report button.

Back on topic, Rice is another school with very few distribution requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naming the majors only fuels trolls who feed on what your DD should or not do. We see it all the time in this forum.

+1

Don't major in computer science or engineering or [insert other STeM field here] because the H1B visa people are going to take all the jobs away.

Don't major in business or communications or [insert other non-STEM field here] because your kid will end up at Starbucks if lucky.

Don't major in music or education or [insert any other major not already listed here] because they'll end up waiting tables.

Don't become a lawyer as there are too many of them.

Don't become a doctor because the medical and health insurance industrial complex is crumbling down.

Better off to become a plumber or electrician or [insert any other Mike Rowe-favorited job here] instead.

So you've derailed the thread to talk about what you think posters you don't like would say? It's always helpful when looking for advice to be more specific. If you think a response is off topic or detracts from the conversation, use the report button.

Back on topic, Rice is another school with very few distribution requirements.

No, I agreed with the PP that the OP need not feel pressured to offer up the specific "wildly different" possible majors because it would be troll-bait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Double majors are really common now (even occasionally triple) and at most places, someone will be able to figure out a way to double in whatever their choice might be, though obviously the fewer required courses, the easier it might be. I find the trend of colleges asking students what they want to major in just totally wrongheaded -- nobody should have to make that decision until they know more, as most kids have not been exposed to say half of the available majors.

I agree up to a point, but there are some majors that really have to be started freshman year unless you want to pay for 5 or 6 years of undergrad. For two majors in the liberal arts and sciences, declaring in sophomore year should be fine and I would think that most schools could accommodate two majors like chemistry and gender studies in four years. Music performance and engineering, maybe not so much.

DC1 did engineering and english in 4 years
DC2 is doing chem/bio/history (triple major) in 4 years.

Can be done but pretty tough. Large public U.

How many AP credits did they get going in? Both of mine received 30-34 credits which put them on sophomore status and eliminated most of their first year requirements. It would be possible for them to double and triple major in 4 years. I doubt it would be possible for someone coming in with significantly fewer credits.

DC1 w/ 50+ credits
DC2 w/60+ credits

Both kids skipped many intro courses but not all of the credits counted against graduation requirements.