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Anonymous

Double Major or Graduate on time?

I have a slight dilemma on my hands: on the one hand, I’m just a scant 2 semesters of hard work and dedication away from graduating with my undergraduate Bachelor of the Arts in Film and Video, with a History minor. On the other hand, it would only be ONE extra 15-hour semester to double major in Film AND History.

Now granted, that’s 15 hours that I would be paying for at about $3,000 for the semester (public state college helps). It would also put me graduating a semester off-schedule and putting me behind in getting into Graduate school (and it would piss my insurance company off a little because I have to be a full-time student to stay on the policy).

I’ve been wrestling with the decision for a few days and would love some second opinions from those who’ve either DONE a double major or who have contemplated the same move in their academic careers. I adore history, and I want to parlay that into a Law School career, but I love my film degree. Thoughts?

Top 3 Answers
bweaing

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Heh, you should have taken classes during the summer to fulfill the credit requirement. If you really want to go to Law School, then you should definitely finish the History major, since law school will like seeing that better than just a film major.

Most of my friends who double-majored didn’t really double-major (they dualled in like phsyics/math, or compsci/math, where 50% of the required classes overlap), and the one guy who did decide to double-major is taking classes summer before senior year to be on track.

Yea, you probably should have considered this a long time before your senior year came creeping up. I wanted to double-major in Engineering/Economics but ended up not doing it because I didn’t want to stay in school an extra year, so now I’m just minoring in economics. But I made that decision after Freshman year…

Good luck to you.

edit: Law Schools are not overly concerned with what you majored in as an undergrad. They care more about your GPA, and then they care more about your LSAT score than your GPA. For staters, physics majors had an 85% (!) of getting into at least one law school, compared to 60-70% for most liberal arts majors.

edit: if you’re going to law school you might as well grab the double major and graduate in 4.5 semesters, then you can work a bit between undergrad and law school to earn the much needed money for law school tuition. Plus, working for a year or two is looked upon favorably by all graduate schools–no matter what kind.

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Anonymous
I would take the double major. The first reason is there are so few people who graduate within 8 semesters anymore, that it won’t hold you back, and you will have gotten something extra for it. Don’t put your GPA in a position to be sacrificed because of burnout or fatigue just to be able to say you got out in 4.

Giving yourself an extra semester or two before graduate school wouldn’t be a horrible thing either. You can work, maybe do an internship or something, and tweak your applications. Many successful graduate students take time off, and they are better for it.

As for what you love, you don’t seem sure which one you love more, and so it only makes sense to be equipped with a background in both and WAIT until you decide which one you want to pursue. Law school is a big committment, and applying to any graduate school is going to take some time and attention, which you might not have during the next two semesters, especially if they are packed full of work.

Good luck.

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Anonymous
You might want to look into the law degree a bit more. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but someone once told me that you should major in English if you plan on going to law school.
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