A minor indicates you took a given number of classes in a concentrated area of study. Is it useful? Perhaps, but not all people look at minors as their intention.

I studied electrical engineering. Unless we took at least 4 extra courses, we could not qualify to get a minor since we only had something like 6 electives during our program, and the requirement for a minor was 10 courses. But let’s say I did seek to get a minor right from day one. What would I get?

Well, a lot of people get complementary minors - things that add to the breadth of their knowledge in their intended field. A lot of engineers take management courses as a minor. Some take another branch of engineering or some other science because it would benefit them. Like a chemical engineer with an interest in the environment, taking classes in biology or biochemistry.

But some people just take a minor to get something out of their interest in another subject. Like music. Aside from engineers who work with acoustics, there’s little from music that would benefit them. But if you like music, and you study it seriously, why wouldn’t you try and get a minor in that area?

For me it’s all moot, because I had to take additional courses just to get an option (6 courses) in Management Science, and even that is only about 1/3 of the content of an MBA. Double majors are hard to arrange even at the best of times, and minors are, well, a lot easier. People try to demonstrate their uniqueness by being having that breadth of study, but I still think that if I pursued a minor, I would have failed to maintain the A-average I needed to keep my renewable scholarship. Quality, in that case, was more important than quantity.

“What are the benefits of getting a double major instead of two (or more) minors?”

IMHO, there is rarely a good reason for a double major. Even getting a minor should be considered carefully.

It is great to be ambitious and enthusiastic about your education, but it is also important to be realistic. Unfortunately it happens all too often that people end up not completing their education for one reason or another. Sometimes they run into money problems; sometimes there is a family crisis that they need to take care of; sometimes they simply find their classes are simply more difficult than they expected. Every year that you delay your education makes it more likely that something will happen that ends up derailing your plans.

The point is that even just a plain old bachelor’s degree with a single major takes 4–5 years. That is long enough. Don’t do something to delay that further. If you can get a minor with just one additional semester of study, perhaps that is reasonable. But anything that’s going to add another year or two is probably not wise. If you decide you want to study something more, then go after a master’s degree. If something derails your master’s degree, you still have your bachelor’s degree.

P.S. Be careful about being foolish in your choice of bachelor’s degree. For example, many students intending to go to medical school simply pursue a very generic, relatively useless major for their bachelor’s degree. Then for one reason or another they do not end up finishing their medical education. So after years of study, they still end up waiting tables. Whatever your long-term plans, make sure what you are studying for your bachelor’s program is something that is in high demand by employers. Doing otherwise is unwise.

Different schools define things differently, but there are basically two different types of degrees that fall into Dual Major, Double Major, or Double Degree.

A four year degree with two majors.

This is usually referred to as a Dual Major, and it is a single bachelor’s degree, 180 quarter credits or 120 semester credits, that, as the name implies, has two majors. It will look like this,

Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology

Generally, these will need significant overlap in prerequisites, and they will include all core courses for each major, though they may not require the total credits of in-major electives.

This does resemble a minor to some extent, but generally there are higher core requirements and more total classes in-major for both subjects.

A five year option resulting in two degrees.

This is often referred to as a Double Degree. It is 225 quarter credits or 150 semester credits, and you will be awarded two degrees at the end of it, something like this,

Bachelor of Science in Mathematics
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Unlike the above, these are looked at as completely discrete degrees, and as such, all requirements for both degrees must be completed. That is, all in-major core classes and all in-major electives, along with total number of in-major credits for both majors. This is a lot, and that’s why it adds another year.

Essentially, the school is going, okay look, a BS in Math requires all this other stuff in a bachelor’s degree - English, Social Studies, Arts, Foreign Language, STEM, etc. and a BS in EE also requires all that same stuff, so it really make no sense to take all those classes twice. Let’s use all of the overlap, but still require all major-specific work, and we’ll call that two degrees.

Both can be Double Major.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a hard required standard by accreditation boards as to what the hell each is called exactly, or what “double major” even means.

That being said, most schools will explain which is which for them clearly on their website, and worst case scenario, admissions/advising departments are a quick email away.

There are pluses and minuses. A double major or complimentary major or minor will strengthen your credentials in a given field. My major was Zoology with a Botany minor, the basic qualifications for wildlife management. On the other hand, people often go to work in careers that are unrelated to their academic background.

The brings up the option of two unrelated majors, which is sometimes not a bad idea. I knew a facility manager who had doubled in Music Education and Engineering. Music was still his love but engineering was his livelihood.

The most important goal is to get a degree. Most of what you will do will be learned on the job. Employers look for people who can commit to a task and get it completed.

If you are only serious about a career related to one major, but you have a personal interest in two other subjects, doing one major with two minors isn’t a bad route. You’ll get a nice introduction to new ideas, learn about topics that interest you (and what else you can learn on your own time), and enjoy the journey.

However, if you are interested in 2 or more subjects equally, and/or want to get the biggest bang for your buck, doing two majors is much smarter:

• Employers don’t care what you minored in, only your major(s) and what you can do/produce
• You get to learn upper-level material that you would not get to see with a minor
• Two degrees, especially disparate ones, open more doors to different career opportunities

Both options are viable, and choosing breadth over depth is definitely okay if you plan to specialize in grad school and want to try different subjects. However, I would argue that two majors is a better road.

Why not 2 majors and one minor?

After 40 years of teaching and advising at UC Berkeley, my advice to you is not to do a double major. Why? Nobody in the real world, not graduate schools, not employers, not the government, cares how many majors you have. Why students believe that double majors are a good thing is an ongoing mystery. You have only 120 semester units to do a full degree. At competitive schools, you will be held to the equivalent of 8 semesters, 120 units because room must be made for incomng students. If you insist on doing a doule major, make the two programs from different intellectual realms: molecular biology and art history, comparative literature and mechanical engineeering. If you take two allied majors (French and comp lit, or math and statistics, which are the most popular kinds of DMs) you are using up between 80 and 100 of your 120 units in the same intellectual place, and usually one in which the material in lower division courses is highly repetitive intellectually. What matters IRL is: how strong are your grades? Have you taken advantage of what your college offers? Are you intellectually curious and daring? (closely allied double majors make you look like an intellectual coward, afraid of trying new experiences.) What does matter (and a minor can help here) is showing competence in crucial areas outside your major field. If you are an English major, take some data science or coding courses; if you are a math major, take some history or literature courses to learn the basic tools of those disciplines (yes, there are some). As someone who works in language and literature, I first learned to code (in Basic and C) in the 1980s because digitizing linguistic and literary materials was clearly going to be beneficial to my work; I recenlty took a course in Python because so many scholars were using it in text analysis. If you are at a big university, take advantage of the incredile breadth of offerings (Berkeley has, I think, 140 or so majors), if you are at a small college, take advantage of closer relationships with faculty members outside your main field. Ask people in business and graduate school admissions offices or faculty members whether they value multiple majors. Good luck.

Double Majors -

A double major is a program of study that meets the requirements of two distinct majors in a single Bachelors degree.

1] Will make you expert in the same field.

2] Double major program leads to a single Bachelors degree only, each of the two majors must be associated with the same degree type (Example: Both majors are registered as either Bachelor of Law or Bachelor of science or Bachelor of Arts)

3] This is not a Post graduate degree. Just double majors.

4] Chances of being placed in R&D dept is high.

5] You will be ditched if there is no more market for your profession

Double Degree :

1] Will be a major boost for job applicant. Double degrees are most advantageous for freshers.

2] Will leave a great impression towards your employer. Will show your potentiality of handling 2 bases.

2] Can shift to other field when there is no market for one field. Having double degree will save you in crisis. [Example: BCOM+LLB] You have a good choice to choose most appropriate profession at that particular time and also shift to other profession whenever you wish.

3] Major let down here is Numerous semesters and additional course work. Lot of assignments and projects.

4] Finally , you will be awarded with 2 diplomas. You are saving a good time .

You don’t actually get two degrees when you double-major. You get just one degree, unless you earn both a B.A. and a B.S. (Note that some schools award only a B.A. even if your major is a math/science subject.)

One advantage is that you may be able to study one subject just because you love it and the other with a future career in mind. I’ve known people who double-majored for that reason. On the other hand, meeting the requirements of both majors can be tricky; you may have classes that conflict with each other, and you may have to take longer to earn the degree.

I attended a university that required a senior thesis. I could have declared a double major because I’d taken enough classes in two subjects to do so, but finding a thesis topic that satisfied both majors would have been difficult. However, sometimes that can be done. I know of someone who majored in Art History and Economics and who wrote a thesis analyzing the rise in demand and prices for Abstract Expressionist paintings beginning in the 1960s. I don’t know how good it was, but both departments accepted it.

It is somewhat counter-intuitive, but double degrees and double majors DECREASE your value for most jobs. If you have a double major or degree with computer science and African-American studies, what do you think an employer’s impression will be? Will you be able to just work on a computer science project, or will you be resentful about not being able to utilize your other area of expertise? Will you only be working half as many hours as the other software engineers as you spend the rest of your time theorizing about how to address inequality in the software engineering field?

Most any hiring manager will prefer to hire someone who is 100% dedicated to computer science, and will be working full time on CS-related tasks as assigned.

Like Alex says, it really depends on you as an individual and the majors in question. I wouldn't recommend double majoring simply because you think it would look better on your CV, unless the field you're pursuing is closely related to both majors. (For example, it might be a good idea for someone that's interested in African literature to major in both Literature, which should provide them with the basic skills for literary criticism and writing, and African studies, which should cover the history and significance of many of the themes and issues addressed in African literature.)

On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend not double majoring simply because you think it'll be a waste of time and you don't want to take more freshman classes. You may be missing out on a great opportunity. I added anthropology as a second major a year ago, and have learned as much about critical thinking in one of my freshman-level required courses as I have in my upper-level political theory courses. If you're interested in something, take a couple of classes, talk to an adviser, ask other students about it, and get a feel for whether or not you might want to major in it. Don't push yourself. If you're interested but not too interested, consider a minor. Or look into related fields.

So there are are good and bad reasons to double major. I do think that doubling comes with it's benefits, especially in shaping the way you think about the world. But having just one solid major (rather than two) isn't going to ruin your future career chances.

Bad reasons to double major:

• You aren't really interested in one of the subjects, and are just majoring in it either for the hell of it, or because you feel empty if you can't be an overachiever
• You think that more majors will show that you are more intelligent, and expect this fact alone to get you a better job or into professional school
• You want to make the most for your money while you're in school--yes school is expensive, and you may want to leave with multiple degrees because it makes you feel better about the expense, but you'll be unhappy with all the additional work and reduced flexibility

Good reasons to double major:

• You're genuinely and passionately interested in both subjects (enough that you would be willing to spend an extra year in school, if it hypothetically came to that)
• You plan on pursuing an interdisciplinary field in graduate school, or want to pursue a career that requires expertise in both skill sets (as Ravi says above)
• Your second major is a second language that actually will make you more marketable, especially if your primary major is International Relations or related to international studies

I would say that there are, however, a lot of benefits to double majoring that have gone unmentioned in the other answers. If your second major isn't closely related to your primary major, you get to spend a significant amount of time with people that are passionate about an area that you're also passionate about, but wouldn't get to discuss or learn about as much otherwise. You'll have an extra adviser to help steer you towards career opportunities, and is more likely to recognize your interdisciplinary interests. Most importantly, college is one of the few chances you'll have to explore different fields and really learn about yourself. Twenty years down the road, you may look back and wish you'd done that theater major--even if your parents objected to it--simply because you really love theater, and now that door is (mostly) closed to you. Your second major is an ideal opportunity to pursue a deep interest that's not necessarily your career objective.

Edit: I would also add that choosing a major isn't a permanent decision. The average student changes his/her major at least once, and if you find a major no longer interests you, don't think of yourself as failure if you decide to drop it.

One good reason to double major is because you really like two subjects, and you are reasonably certain you can pull it off.

Another good reason is that you really like the intersection of two subjects, but there isn't really any one major that will teach you enough about that intersection. If you are deeply passionate about computational chemistry, maybe CS and chemistry would be a great background, for instance.

But even in those cases, it is not clear that you should be pushing yourself to do every last requirement of both majors. Why not take one subject for your diploma's sake, including the annoying extraneous course requirements that you don't learn much from, and another subject on the self-directed plan, taking the courses you are most interested in?

Definitely a bad idea, at any rate, is double majoring in order to impress future employers, grad schools, professional schools, and the like. The reason for that is simple: beyond showing that you are smart and know your stuff, you will want to show them you are likely to succeed at what you're signing up for. And once you already have a college degree, the most additional convincingness in that dimension is not going to come out of another college degree. Diversify!

The best way to convince somebody that you can do X is not (just) to show them a college degree vaguely related to X. It is to show them you have already successfully done X. Want to go to grad school in biology? Get a job in a biology lab! Want to be a software engineer? Get an internship at a software firm! Want to go into sales? Get a summer job selling stuff!

The additional advantage of that tactic is that you get to know the activity that you think you would like to spend your time doing after college, and if it turns out you don't like it after all, you can pull out without too much trouble. (I have seen a number of people do research internships only to come out knowing with great certainty they did not want to go to graduate school. Much better to figure that out as a sophomore than after you've already done 3 years of grad school, isn't it?)

I have two sons — one got a biomedical engineering degree, but then three minors. The other one got a degree in computer science and a second degree in humanities. Both chose something that fit their personalities — the first one was into broad technical learning (BME, biochemistry, microbiology, etc) and the other one was into technical things, but still wanted the flexibility of studying sociology and philosophy. I don’t think of either one of them as having a benefit over the other — they were just following their interests.

Side note — the first one (BME) went straight to industry, and the second went straight to grad school, following yet another interest.

My college really pushed students to study abroad for a trimester (or take a series of classes about a different culture (African-American Studies, Women Studies, etc.). My friends and I chose to go to Vienna, Austria for a term. It was a language centric term abroad and required students to take Basic German 1 and 2 to qualify. In Vienna, we took 3 German classes for the trimester leaving us just one class short of a minor in German. Being an engineer with a loaded schedule I didn’t have a free elective left to take another German class, especially one that had to be of a higher level (all work to be completed in German). I still needed a civilization survey course as part of my general education requirements so I petitioned the Dean to allow me to take the higher level of the history of Berlin through cinema as a Civilization survey class and he agreed allowing me to fill out my minor in German and my general education requirements with one class.

Now I’m not sure if a modern language requirement is the best thing for an engineer but I will say this, you don’t encounter many engineers with a minor in the humanities. My college is a Liberal Arts college and certainly preaches studying a wide array of subjects so I’m certainly a product of my college’s mission.

Lastly, I’ll never regret the term abroad. It’s an experience I think everyone should seriously consider. There was another civil engineer in Vienna with me and that Spring term there were four civil engineers and a few mechanical engineers at the school’s Florence, Italy term abroad. A large section of both groups started the term by going to Rome for Spring Break which was a fabulous time.

A2A.

Here is a list of strong double major or minor for people depending on their interests:

Electrical Engineering - Hard and possibly challenging to complete in four years. You’ll be able to understand hardware and software together.

Mathematics - There’s plenty of overlap between both subjects and you’ll find that many concepts in upper-level Mathematics are applicable in the study of Computers.

Economics - For those interested in algorithms and economics.

Business - For those having an entrepreneurial mindset in technology.

English - For those interested in Linguistics and Natural Language Processing.

Foreign Language - Same as above. You’ll be practicing language acquisition.

Biology - Bioinformatics.

Physics - Computational Physics has a lot of modeling.

Chemistry - Computational Chemistry.

Statistics - Machine Learning, Statistics, and Data Mining.

Regardless of your choice, you’ll face many obstacles and challenges along the way.

Best.

Key Question: What skill do I get out of this? Which skills do I value more?

If two minors and one major gives you as much depth and breath as a double major go for that. If the skills you gain from two minors is wider and more interesting than the double major, go for that.

If you intend to study take multiple logic classes in philosophy in order to take your quantitative and analytic skills to new heights and you can squeeze a minor out of it - then go for it.

But what if you want to understand language really well and that means taking some courses in Philosophy (like philosophy of language), some courses in linguistics, some courses in writing, and perhaps some courses in Latin. That does not lend it self to a minor very easily. But, when you get out, you will know the science and art of language like a freaking beast. And you are perfectly capable of marketing that yourself on your resume. So no worries if you end with a skill, but no minor or major.

Another Key Question is: Will this minor or major will get me attention from the people I want attention from? If you think Neuroscience is super hot and you need a minor in it to get that accounting job in a start up that is focused on neuroscience technologies - then by all means jump on. If you are applying for graduate school in economics, then doubling in mathematics is probably going to capture the attention of the right people.

But don’t do the double major or double minor out of insecurity. Don’t do it to be that person that impresses someone at the party because you can show off your double degree. Have the filters on and you’ll be much happier and you’ll know that you walked away with a long-term skill or short term opportunity.

Having Two Majors

This opens up options of employment, and if you wish, this makes you a really strong candidate to move to another country. One Bachelor’s degree is nice, two is considered better than a masters (depending on the nation, but more often than not this is the case).

Having One Minor

There is no real-life benefit to having a minor. Anyone who tells you different is trying to bilk you for money.
Unless you have a contract with an employer to get a minor in exchange for a promotion or raise (I have never heard of this as an option), a minor will never help you except to satisfy your own curiosity in a subject.

Minors don’t lend you academic authority, they don’t get you employed anywhere. Unless you’re getting your feet wet in a hard science for a later double-major, don’t do it.

None, really, except that you are personally interested in a certain subject, or think that a minor will look good to employers or grad schools.

I knew people who majored in science and minored in humanities, because they wanted to look like something more than a mere science nerd — a Renaissance man or woman. And that does work in some venues. These days, for example, med schools tend to like applicants who seem more well-rounded and sophisticated than the standard Biology or Chemistry major.

And then there’s the possibility that a certain combination will impress people: an engineering degree coupled with a minor in business. Or a business degree coupled with a minor in art history. That last combination got an undergraduate friend of mine a very good job with a major auction house.

A2A. A major is also a minor, so when you are talking about making your minor into a second major, you are talking about managing your free electives. Like any resources that you manage, opportunity cost and cost-benefits principles apply.

To do an economic analysis, I would need to know your goals. For example, if you major in computer science and took a few MIS courses that most likely would be enough to secure an entry level job in IT. However, if you wanted to do management, an economic minor may be a better choice.

I see no need to have a second major unless you needed a bachelor’s degree in that major to achieve the next step. If you are talking about managing free electives, a combined BS/MS in computer science would be a better use of free electives than a second major in MIS. I also see an MBA with an emphasis in MIS a better option than a second major in MIS.

To really answer this question, you need to look beyond your undergraduate years. The options that I pointed out—economics minor, combined BS/MS in computer science, and MBA with emphasis in MIS—would be the foundation of a five year plan that included post graduation options.

A2A. What are the benefits of double majoring or getting a minor and an MBA?

There really isn’t any benefit of a double major if you can get a job with your first major.

An MBA is a graduate degree, which means its assessment is different and has very little to do with choosing a double major or a minor.

If you are interested in an MBA in the future, you should major in a marketable field so you can get a job when you graduate and minor in economics. Two very potent marketable combinations are computer science/economics or data science/economics.

A double major is using your free electives to make your minor a second major. However, in some cases, you can use your free electives to take graduate courses for a combined bachelor’s/master’s degrees. For example, a BSCS/MSCS is a more marketable combination that a double major in CS and economics.

While that depends on your interests and the majors, it can be good idea. For example, engineering, physics and computer science all have substantial overlap with mathematics.

I just graduated with a BA in Mathematics, but in reality, my degree was half mathematics and half computer science. While I did have a minor in computer science, I didn’t both with a major since I am a retired software developer.

I consider mathematics and computer science to be two halves of the same coin. My honors project in mathematics depended as much on my writing custom software as it did on mathematics.

Physics is extremely heavy in mathematics — but also computer science. Likewise, engineering. And physics and engineering complement one another quite well.

So, if you have the talent and resources to double major, it can be a very profitable approach to education. Many advances are made today with an interdisciplinary approach.

As with most situations, “It depends.”

Nowadays many large companies don’t have CV’s and resumes reviewed by a person, they have computer programs scan for specific words. If a CV or resume doesn’t contain those words it is never seen by a person.

So if you know it is an accounting position, being able to list BS in Accounting could be the difference between having it seen or not.

Also, some managers are concerned about “overkill”. Or “because this guy double-majored in Accounting and Spanish [or whatever], he’s going to think he’ll have better chances for promotions, etc. That’s not going to happen, and he could wind up a disgruntled employee.”

So with two degrees you would just list the one specifically relevant to the job.

Yeah, you can definitely do that. I have a friend who’s doing a double major in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics with a minor in robotics. He managed to make a course plan that allows him to finish in 4 years, which is pretty impressive. Every semester is a lot of credits for him though, so the workload is no joke. I wouldn’t advise everyone to take this path. Personally, I’m doing a major in Electrical Engineering with a double minor in math and robotics, which is similar to what he’s doing, but a lot less work because the math major is double the work of the math minor. I plan on graduating in 3 1/2 years (only possible with careful planning, lots of overlap, and AP credits from high school).

My friend and I got lucky because Hopkins doesn’t have very strict degree requirements, but at some schools, they will be much less flexible, and you’ll most likely have to stay for 5 or even 6 years if you want to finish in time. I honestly don’t recommend doing both a double major and a minor, because you’ll be stuck in school for longer than you need to be, but that’s your decision.