While some Dartmouth students struggle to find one topic upon which to focus their academic careers, a growing number of their peers are embarking on double or even triple majors.
The double major is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of the College. Over the past 2004-2005 academic year, 1,109 students graduated with a total of 1,313 majors, according to Polly Griffin, College Registrar. Of these students, 195 -- about 18 percent, were double majors. Fifteen percent of graduates during the 2003-2004 academic year were double majors, a four percent increase from 1999-2000.
"It is certainly safe to say that there is a growing interest in [double majors]," Griffin said.
Critics of double majors believe these programs compromise the liberal arts education and that students miss out on courses in other fields of study when highly focused on two areas. Jessica Zepeda '07 declared a double major but recently decided against it.
"I realized that my whole schedule for the next couple years would be history and economics, and there were just too many other classes I wanted to take, so I decided it wasn't worth it," she said.
Students such as Nancy Zhao '07, an economics and Spanish modified with linguistics double major, cite distributive requirements as ways to fulfill potential academic curiosity in areas outside their majors.
"Having this double major hasn't compromised the liberal arts aspect at all because I was still able to take distributives in departments that were completely unrelated to my majors," Zhao said. "I took courses in engineering sciences, women and gender studies, earth sciences, psychology and English."
Other students claim that double majoring provides a unique kind of academic balance. For example, some choose to add liberal arts majors to those that require more quantitative skills, such as economics.
"I'm an [economics] and art history double major, and as much as I like [economics], I didn't want to graduate only being able to calculate cost curves. Art history basically gives me a broader picture," Dan Iosifescu '07 said.
Employment objectives provide another compelling reason to double major. The rise in double majors over the past few years may be attributed to an increasingly competitive job market and students' desire to stand out in the eyes of employers. Career Services, however, questioned this logic.
"Our experience is that employers, by and large, are looking for 'good fits,'" Emanual Sturman of Career Services said. "Certainly a major can provide evidence of relevant skills but so can previous work experiences, extracurricular activities and volunteer commitments."
Others declare a double major simply because there are two departments in which they want to invest a majority of their time.
"While there are many classes offered each term that appeal to me, I always find myself most excited about ones in history and French, so it was not a burden to take classes within those subjects to contribute to the major," Nadia Khamis '07 said. "I have had the best experiences with teachers in these two departments and wanted to work closely with them throughout my time at Dartmouth."
When asked about the influence of the Dartmouth Plan on their courses of study, students have mixed reactions, but many claim the D-Plan offers unique opportunities for internships and study-abroad programs that are sometimes not feasible at other institutions.
"I think it is great in that we can pursue internships and other experiences when other schools are taking classes. I suppose it makes double majoring a bit difficult because it is hard to get in all the classes while maneuvering for an internship and a study abroad, but I don't really think it's something that needs to be changed. It's definitely manageable," Iosifescu said.
The D-Plan allowed Zhao to attend three study-abroad programs all within her areas at Dartmouth: Spanish in Uruguay, economics in Italy and linguistics in New Zealand.
