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Will too many majors hurt my admissions chances?


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I know this probably isn't quite a usual post, but since a couple peers have suggested that the answer to the given rhetorical question might be "yes", I figure I should run it by the experts:

I'm applying this upcoming year, and I anticipate graduating with 4 majors -- pretty much, I was double-majoring in Econ and Psych, and then added Math and Stat later on.  Will admissions committees see my CV/transcript and think that, say, I have a hard time being decisive, or won't be committed to statistics long-term?  Should I at least spend a portion of my personal statement explaining (in more words than above) how I came to have 4 majors, so as to help explain my situation and prevent any presumptions of waffling?

While I'm at it, is there any chance admissions committees would think this is a positive?  Most people here appear to be double-majors at least, so I'm assuming not, but if schools really look at GRE scores in any detail like this post (https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/99147-what-im-looking-at-when-i-review-applications/) would suggest, then maybe they would look at strange numbers of majors too?

Well, have fun skewering me, hopefully at least I've made y'all's weekends more enjoyable by laughing at this topic.  

 

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Agreed. They don't scrutinize things like that. All 4 of those majors complement one another, so if anything comes the varied courses you took may be seen as a plus. It's a good idea to explain how it came to be in your SOP if the explanation really brings it all together in the context of your career goals. Describe it as applied math/stats in econ/psych and all these fields allowing you to "bring in varied perspectives" to problems you expect to encounter in your chosen career. 

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If anything, it might (slightly) help you stand out from other applications, since a quadruple major is pretty uncommon. Good performance across a range of disciplines is a promising indicator of future productivity, particularly in a collaborative discipline like biostatistics.

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