The Chronicle of Higher Education
From the issue dated October 24, 2003
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."
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Section: Students
Volume 50, Issue 9, Page A41