The Chronicle of Higher Education



The Chronicle of Higher Education

From the issue dated October 24, 2003

Major Help or Major Harm?

As more and more students concentrate on multiple fields in college, advisers and career experts debate the benefits of a narrow focus

By ALICE GOMSTYN

Dana E. La Curan has a long answer to the often-asked question "What's your major?" Ms. La Curan, a senior at Pacific Lutheran University, is majoring in Spanish. And in economics. And she is minoring in mathematics. And she plans to earn a second minor, in statistics.

That extensive academic résumé will come at a hefty price, however. She is spending an extra year at the Tacoma, Wash., university to complete an array of requirements and has taken out $50,000 in student loans. And, she admits, the courseload doesn't do wonders for her social life For more and more college students, one major just isn't enough. Colleges across the country are reporting increases in the number of undergraduates pursuing two or more. At the University of California at Davis, for instance, the number of students with at least two majors has jumped by about 50 percent in the past five years. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the number has doubled since 1993.

For more and more college students, one major just isn't enough. Colleges across the country are reporting increases in the number of undergraduates pursuing two or more. At the University of California at Davis, for instance, the number of students with at least two majors has jumped by about 50 percent in the past five years. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the number has doubled since 1993.

Many students, along with some professors, say completing more than one major provides an edge in an uncertain job market and also makes for an enriching academic experience.

But career experts warn that multiple majors don't necessarily improve employment prospects. Meanwhile, some professors and college administrators worry that students with multiple majors are overextending themselves and neglecting extracurricular interests and elective classes that are essential to a well-rounded education.

Growing concern over multiple majors has prompted some institutions to take corrective actions. MIT has banned triple majors since 2000. At nearby Tufts University, where one in four students graduated last spring with more than one major, a similar ban is under consideration. At the Johns Hopkins University, administrators make it a point to discourage students from loading up on majors, says John B. Bader, an assistant dean for academic advising there.

"Double majors sound sexy," Mr. Bader says. "That's why we talk about them so much. But we generally tell students it's a bad idea."

Career Boost?

Academic advisers at Davis cite worries about finding employment in the flagging economy as a prime factor leading students to pursue multiple majors. JoAnn Cannon, chair of the university's French and Italian department, calls double majors "a valuable tool in today's job market." She notes that students interested in wine production, for instance, often choose to major in both oenology (the study of winemaking) and French, a combination that might make them more attractive to wine-industry employers.

Students taking on multiple majors are "savvy consumers of education," says Tamara R. Williams, a professor of Spanish at Pacific Lutheran who is one of Ms. La Curan's advisers. "I think they're realizing that if they plan things right, they can actually achieve a degree that is much more marketable and flexible."

Sometimes parents inadvertently drive their children to have two or three majors. Students will often major in one subject that satisfies their own interests and another subject that meets mom and dad's approval, says Mr. Bader, of Johns Hopkins. "If you're under a lot of pressure from your parents to major in the natural sciences," he says, "then they probably won't mind if you major in biology and writing seminars." Parents often hope that if a student's first major fails to impress prospective employers, a second, more-practical major will win them over.

But Penelope Trunk, a syndicated career columnist and business consultant, says that the students, parents, and professors are wrong to view multiple majors as a sure path to gainful employment. Ms. Trunk says that while running her own business several years ago, she simplified her hiring decisions by refusing to consider applicants who listed three majors on their résumés. "I found myself thinking, 'What's the point?'" she says. "Somebody who is so focused on details and schoolwork and collecting majors is not going to be a big-picture thinker."

Students may become so focused on completing multiple majors that they ignore valuable skills and information taught outside of their majors, she explains. Triple majors, in particular, she says, "don't have time to pick their heads up and see the world."

Double majors may help students in some cases, Ms. Trunk says, but only when the knowledge and skills they gain are directly related to their chosen professions, such as foreign-language and political-science double majors who plan careers in international diplomacy. She says there is a consensus among hiring managers that the number of majors on a student's transcript doesn't matter because most of what employees need to know to do their jobs is learned on the job itself.

Students applying to graduate schools won't benefit from having multiple majors either, according to some college administrators. "It doesn't matter what the subject is," says Mr. Bader. "You need to prove to graduate schools that you're capable of digging down. You don't need to do this several times to prove the same point. It's redundant."

Better Education?

Others say that multiple majors yield a benefit that should be valued above all else: a better education. "The double majors are the ones I enjoy most in class," says Norris Peterson, a professor of economics who is Ms. La Curan's other major adviser. "They bring another perspective to the classroom."

Mr. Peterson begins the first class of every semester with an enthusiastic explanation of how the relatively few requirements for the university's economics major -- a total of only 11 classes -- leave room for comprehensive study in other subject areas. "We want our students to see the applications of economics in other majors," he says. "A double major is a way for them to get that breadth."

Ms. La Curan, for instance, says that mathematical concepts taught as part of her economics major are further explained through her math and statistics minors. She says her Spanish major, which includes studies of Hispanic cultures, will prove useful should she decide to pursue economics work in Spanish-speaking countries.

"It makes for busy times," she says, "but it works."

Still, some professors argue that loading up on majors often deprives students of the breadth of knowledge essential to a liberal-arts curriculum. Despite the distribution and core-curriculum requirements of many liberal-arts colleges, multiple majors may lead to an overly narrow education, warns Todd Quinto, a professor of mathematics at Tufts and the head of an education-policy committee that reviews the university's graduation and major requirements.

"We see that students who have two majors which are closely related often don't have breadth in other fields," he says. More than one major may also mean that each major gets short shrift with respect to a student's attention, Mr. Quinto adds. "The problem is that they might not go into as much depth with each of their majors as they would if they weren't double majoring." Focusing too little on any one major, he says, can also lead to dropping grades.

Striking a Balance

Robert T. Redwine, MIT's dean of undergraduate education, says that the time spent pursuing more than one major also comes at the expense of worthwhile extracurricular activities that help define the university's educational experience. MIT's current ban on triple majors, Mr. Redwine says, has given students "a more balanced student life and a better education."

But some students are quick to contest the idea that more majors means less balance, academic or otherwise. Thu H. Nguyen, a triple major at Pacific Lutheran, maintains a high grade-point average and finds time to volunteer at a local juvenile-detention center and to participate in her school's Asian-Pacific Islander club. "I work really hard," says Ms. Nguyen, whose majors are in political science, global studies, and mathematics, "but it's possible for me because I like what I do."

Education experts say that recent increases in college-level work by high-school students are helping put the students on the road to multiple majoring long before they matriculate. Growing numbers of students are earning college credits earlier through advanced-placement exams and various enrichment programs, and many use those credits to fulfill requirements and smooth the way toward multiple majors.

"I basically got out of all my general-education requirements," says Ms. Nguyen, who, while in high school, earned 30 college credits through the international baccalaureate program. Ms. Nguyen says that by her second semester at Pacific Lutheran, she was well on her way to completing the first of her three majors.

For students who arrive on a campus with few or no credits, however, spending a fifth year in college is an increasingly popular way to spread their multiple-major courseloads over a more-manageable time period. That occurs even though, financial-aid officers say, it puts students like Ms. La Curan tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

If an extra year proves too costly, students at some universities can load up on courses during the semester without paying extra tuition. Take Joseph Bingold, a 2001 MIT graduate who studied three majors before the university's ban took effect. Mr. Bingold says that, thanks to a university policy that charges standard tuition no matter how large the courseload, he was able to take 10 classes in one semester to fulfill several requirements for his majors. He now looks back at his experience as stressful but worthwhile. "I was busy," he says, "but I didn't die."

As more and more students pack their schedules with courses to pick up extra credentials, some professors harbor what they admit is a romanticized desire for their students to focus less on their transcripts and more on what they are learning.

Scott Brophy, a professor of philosophy at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, serves as a pre-law adviser and, more often than he would like, finds himself counseling students who want to pursue double majors purely to impress law-school admissions boards.

He asks them to step back and ponder exactly what academic pursuits they find most intellectually rewarding. What they choose, according to Mr. Brophy, will affect more than their earning potential and graduate school prospects. "One of the purposes of a liberal-arts education," he says, "is to make the inside of your head a more interesting place to live for the rest of your life."



Section: Students

Volume 50, Issue 9, Page A41

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