Double, Triple Majors on the Rise Students Seek Competitive Edge in Tight Job Market

Author: Claire Bourne

Faced with the tightest job market in over a decade and increasingly competitive graduate school applicant pools, Middlebury College students are looking for new ways to enhance their rÈsumÈs. A strong grade point average, summer internships, jobs, extracurricular activities and volunteer work have traditionally provided a means to this end, however all these factors may no longer be enough to attract an employer or an admissions officer's attention.
For this reason, an increasing number of students are adding a second and, in some cases, a third major to their academic arsenals. As of last fall, 12 percent of students at the College who had declared majors were double majors. Include those pursuing a joint major, and the figure rises to just over 20 percent.
Between the 1991-1992 and 2001-2002 academic years, the student body grew by 8 percent, from 2,050 to 2,240, while the total number of majors declared by that student body shot up by 34 percent. These statistics, said Secretary of the College Eric Davis, are proof enough that a growing number of students are opting to officially specialize in more than one discipline. Fewer than half of the members of last year's graduating class left with a single major in one discipline. The rest sealed their Middlebury College careers with completion of a double, joint or interdisciplinary major.
For a small number of students like Heather Rankie '03, a double major is not enough. Rankie, slated to graduate this May after a standard four-year tenure at the College, is working towards a triple major in international studies, Spanish and film/video. She said she always intended to pursue international studies, but a first-year student seminar with Fletcher Professor of the Arts Ted Perry -- Surrealism and Film -- convinced her to declare a double major. A junior year in Chile provided her with nearly enough credits to fulfill requirements for the Spanish major, so upon her return to campus last fall, she declared one.
The upward trend in multiple majors at Middlebury is comparable to patterns at other institutions across the country. According to a Nov. 17, 2002 New York Times article, both Georgetown University and Washington University in St. Louis have witnessed notable increases in recent years.
Many double, joint and triple majors maintain that the flexibility to specialize in more than one subject is beneficial to their intellectual development. As multiple majors, they can explore the depths of two or more disciplines rather than acquire strong knowledge of one subject and only surface knowledge of several others. However, some Middlebury College educators disagree.
The Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) and the Student Educational Affairs Committee (SEAC) discussed last Thursday whether or not the College should limit students to one major. Dean of the Faculty Robert Schine, who sits on the EAC, said the dialogue was in its nascent stage. "The conversation regarding the role of the double, joint and multiple majors and minors at Middlebury is ongoing," said Meaghan McCormick '03, director of academic affairs for the Student Government Association. "Faculty and administration will continue to discuss this phenomenon amongst themselves and most importantly with students."
The reasons for this debate are numerous. Schine emphasized the importance of breadth in a liberal arts education. "There is the danger that students, by collecting a number of majors, will deprive themselves of free exploration," he said.
Fulton Professor of American Literature Stephen Donadio said he worried about a "reduction of intellectual inquiry" should students use the majority of the 36 credits required for graduation to fulfill prerequisites for two or more majors.
Rankie said that because her three majors encompassed a variety of disciplines she did not consider them to be limiting her studies at the College. "How could I complain about being fortunate enough to intensely pursue three of my academic passions?" she asked.
Both Schine and Donadio expressed concern that a lot of students declare multiple majors in an effort to boost their credentials. "I think it has a lot to do with making oneself more attractive as a candidate for the next stage," Donadio pointed out. "It reflects great anxiety about what jobs are available and what the future holds."
Schine said that working towards a double, joint or triple major to boost qualifications would be "a sad development."
The concern, said Davis, is that in worrying about their resumÈs, some multiple majors might "lose the opportunity to be exposed to areas that might be beneficial later in life."
The EAC will also be discussing the possibility of capping the number of Advanced Placement (AP) credits each student is allowed to use towards graduation from Middlebury. Such a move might reduce the number of multiple majors at the College, since many of those signing up to specialize in more than one field matriculate with myriad AP credits, many of which end up fulfilling distribution requirements. Instead of spending time satisfying such requirements, these AP-equipped students are able to use the spare class time towards completing a second major.