Will a dual major help me get into a good school for masters?

[chrisscoff]

Dear Reader,

I am currently majoring in Law and Society, and Women's Studies at Purdue with a 3.2 Overall GPA and a 3.4 Major GPA. What are my chances of getting into a decent grad school with these credentials? Does having two majors make a difference?

[tt503]

One of my professors (at top school) advised a student on this very subject....I'll paraphrase his words:

Don't double-major. It's not that impressive, and nobody cares if you did, unless you do vastly different things like chemical engineering and art history.* Why would you limit your educational opportunities like this? You spend most of your time filling the (mostly boring) requirements of two majors and you don't have time to actually expand your academic horizons with classes that truly interest you and or potentially give you the opportunity to learn about other things that you might become passionate about, but just don't know it yet.

----

*though I suppose they wouldn't be vastly different if you plan on going into art preservation.

From my own personal experience, I double majored in undergrad. It really hasn't given me any sort of benefit or leg up on the competition. Ultimately, it is what you do during your undergraduate career that matters, including your GPA and your research experience.

[chrisscoff]

Thanks for answering!!

Where are you currently going to school? I noticed that you have Purdue under your list of sociology schools..

One of my professors at Purdue told me that if you are going to use it wisely it will be beneficial in the grad school process. I want to do stratification, mail women and race. Does that make a difference?

Also, I have internships at the YWCA Domestic Violence shelter, I am doing the hotline for the Domestic Violence shelter, I am president of a club, I am doing research for one of my professors. Will that help?

[surefire]

Does having two majors make a difference?

Hi chrisscoff!

I did a double-major in undergrad (English Lit and Sociology). It was advantageous insofar as I was able to make sense of my interests in a sound personal statement/research proposal for grad school.

In my case, there was no doubt that Sociology was the field from which I was proceeding, considering the questions that I was posing. As well, I employed socio-linguistics and critical discourse analysis for method/theory considerations, passions that I honed in English Lit. By holding these in tandem, I gave my academic trajectory a narrative - to show where I'd been, where I was and where I was headed. If you can make sense of it, in a genuine fashion, then I'd imagine that you will be fine. Law and Society and Women's Studies can totally make sense!

good luck!

Edited April 1, 2012 by surefire

[chrisscoff]

Hi chrisscoff!

I did a double-major in undergrad (English Lit and Sociology). It was advantageous insofar as I was able to make sense of my interests in a sound personal statement/research proposal for grad school.

In my case, there was no doubt that Sociology was the field from which I was proceeding, considering the questions that I was posing. As well, I employed socio-linguistics and critical discourse analysis for method/theory considerations, passions that I honed in English Lit. By holding these in tandem, I gave my academic trajectory a narrative - to show where I'd been, where I was and where I was headed. If you can make sense of it, in a genuine fashion, then I'd imagine that you will be fine. Law and Society and Women's Studies can totally make sense!

good luck!

Dear Surefire,

Thanks for answering!

My main concern is whether or not the extra year would help me stand out in the application process, you know to compensate for my lower GPA.

[tt503]

Dear Surefire,

Thanks for answering!

My main concern is whether or not the extra year would help me stand out in the application process, you know to compensate for my lower GPA.

The answer is that it will be unlikely to help you stand out, if you are just taking classes. If your GPA shows an upward trend and you have fantastic GRE scores/other great things (did you present at conferences? are your research interests well defined? do you have amazing recs and writing samples?), these things (like the research for the professors you mention) would help you far more than an extra year of just taking classes. If adding another year adds both a higher GPA and more research experience AND gives you more time to develop your application AND you don't mind doing it, i don't see the harm in it. You might want to discuss this with a professor you have worked with, and get their take on what you should do. It's nice to have allies in this process, and they can likely discuss your options.

Edited April 1, 2012 by tt503

[That Guy]

If you can talk specifically about how it pertains to your research interests and how it gives you insight into a method, group of theories, or a relevant body of literature then you might be able to make it work for you. It will just take some effort on polishing how you speak about it.

[ohhello]

Consensus seems to say: the dual major will help if it relates to what you want to study and if you can make this connection in your SOP; it will not help if you do not make this connection. Consensus also says it is hard to predict what an admission committee wants in an applicant.

As someone with dual degrees in Soc. and a natural science, the double major dragged down my overall GPA. In retrospect, I could have used the copious amount of time I spent in science classes doing something productive for my "career" in sociology. While I disagree with the opinion that you cannot be truly interested in your non-Soc. major - and that your non-Soc. major cannot expand your academic horizon - earning a double degree is time consuming and may or may not produce anything to show for your efforts.

[tt503]

While I disagree with the opinion that you cannot be truly interested in your non-Soc. major - and that your non-Soc. major cannot expand your academic horizon - earning a double degree is time consuming and may or may not produce anything to show for your efforts.

I never said that you cannot be truly interested in your non-soc major or that it can't expand your academic horizons, rather the time put into meeting all the "required" classes for a double major can be used more wisely.

[chrisscoff]

Hi chrisscoff!

I did a double-major in undergrad (English Lit and Sociology). It was advantageous insofar as I was able to make sense of my interests in a sound personal statement/research proposal for grad school.

In my case, there was no doubt that Sociology was the field from which I was proceeding, considering the questions that I was posing. As well, I employed socio-linguistics and critical discourse analysis for method/theory considerations, passions that I honed in English Lit. By holding these in tandem, I gave my academic trajectory a narrative - to show where I'd been, where I was and where I was headed. If you can make sense of it, in a genuine fashion, then I'd imagine that you will be fine. Law and Society and Women's Studies can totally make sense!

good luck!

Hey, that makes sense.. I just wanted to know if the extra year would pay off eventually since it's kinda expensive to pay out of state tuition. But your response does make a lot of sense. I guess I should have included the fact that I want to study women in crime, or how gender and race affects the outcome of an individual.

[princesspi]

I did a double major in math and sociology and it was very, very time-consuming. I always knew I wanted to go to graduate school in sociology, so while proving statements in abstract algebra and real analysis I kept wondering what I was doing. Still, it was worth it. I honestly believe some of the best sociological work is done by individuals with expertise outside the field. Math gives me a different way of thinking about things (set theory, conditional statements, etc...). (BTW I am not a big fan of mathematical sociological.)

Anyway, one way to be creative is to use methods, ideas, theories, etc... from another field and the double major helps with that.

Law and gender studies is a great combo. I am a huge fan of public sociology and I can totally see you going down that route.The grad school process is really, really weird. You just don't know what is going to happen. People with better GPAs and GREs were rejected from places I got into and others were accepted to places I wasn't. Just apply to as many schools as you can. Believe me, it is worth the investment.

Edited April 2, 2012 by princesspi

[sociologo]

Personally, I think it can be really beneficial, as long as it is not too time-consuming or expensive. Figure out a way that your majors can complement each other.

I didn't double, but I did have two minors: economics and Spanish. Spanish was an easy choice for me because I focus a lot on Latin America; being able to speak and read the language is important. While many of my economics professors didn't really like me in their classes (liberal sociologist that I was..), it gave me a different perspective of how the systems were designed to work, as well as the basic underlying principles of economic systems.

[chrisscoff]

Thanks for all the responses.

Unfortunately I only speak one language so majoring in Spanish or some other language would not work for me.

I really enjoy both majors so even if it doesn't give me advantage, I am still glad I had the opportunity to do them - I just wanted to know if grad admissions would be impressed with it.