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Is One Major Enough? The Growth of Multiple Majors

Conference Paper · November 2003

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 IS ONE MAJOR ENOUGH? THE GROWTH OF MULTIPLE MAJORS

Hershey H. Friedman Linda Weiser Friedman Taiwo Amoo

Professor of Business Professor of CIS Assistant Professor of QM and Business
Director, Business Program Baruch College Zicklin School of Bus Deputy Chair
Brooklyn College / CUNY and the Graduate Center / CUNY Brooklyn College / CUNY
x.friedman@att.net Linda_Friedman@baruch.cuny.edu TAmoo@optonline.net

Baruch College Box B11-220, 17 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10010. (646) 312-3361.

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the trend towards pursuing multiple majors is a good approach for students
in an uncertain job market. The convergence of disciplines may actually make the
unidisciplinary major obsolete. Universities should encourage interdisciplinary or dual majors
that result in a synergy and thereby produce graduates with open, creative minds.

KEYWORDS: Double major; Interdisciplinary; Innovative Education.

INTRODUCTION

The economy has slowed down considerably and it has become much more difficult for students
to find a job. Moreover, students have not failed to notice that fields of study that resulted in
sure jobs with numerous offers when they were freshman have suddenly become dead ends when
they are seniors. For instance, CIS majors were doing very well in the job market during until
last year. Now, it is very difficult for a CIS major to land a good job in IT [14]. This is
happening in other disciplines as well. Accounting was extremely strong two decades ago. In
1990 4% of all students declared majors in accounting; but in 2001, barely 1% of high school
students express an interest in majoring in accounting [2]. The number of economics majors has
dropped from 3.4% of college degrees awarded in 1950 to 1.4% in 1997-1998 [5]. The number
of humanities majors has been halved in the past thirty years [21]; the number of business majors
has grown so that it now accounts for about 19% of all awarded undergraduate bachelor’s
degrees [17].

How do students view their major(s)? Students see their major as their ticket to a good job. It is
no secret that the overwhelming majority of students go to college to enhance their career
prospects and to increase their future earnings. One study of 150,000 college graduates examined
salaries by major and found the following: Even after holding other factors such as previous
work experience and demographics constant, graduates with bachelor’s degrees in professional
fields such as computer science, engineering, and business earned between 30% and 60% more
than students graduating with degrees in the social sciences and humanities. These salary
differentials did not disappear over time since salaries for both groups grew from year to year
[10]. It appears that the major one chooses can affect one’s earnings potential.

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Problems with Traditional Unidisciplinary Majors

Scholars have noted that the traditional unidisciplinary major has serious problems. Friedman et
al. [11] feel that “sometimes majoring in one area can produce too rigid and inflexible a
foundation and little can be built on it.” Friedman et al. [13] believe that interdisciplinary majors
are much more likely to enhance the ability of students to think critically and analytically than
unidisciplinary majors. Friedman et al. [12] propose that colleges should create business and
liberal arts major combinations to strengthen both areas. Kolodny [16, pp. 40-41] asserts that
interdisciplinary programs are crucial for students educated in the twenty-first century, and that
the antiquated way of organizing colleges — by departments — will have to “evolve into
collaborative and flexible units.” Students with narrowly defined majors will have great
difficulty comprehending a world in which the knowledge required of them is complex,
interconnected, and, by its very nature, draws from many areas.

Hollander [15] remarks that, in some cases, disciplines were not created in order to enhance
learning, but purely for organizational purposes. Departmental structures that have been created
for ease of administration, and not for intellectual reasons, may not produce the ideal programs of
study for students. Perkins [19] feels that academic subjects are “artificial partitions with
historic roots of limited contemporary significance.” Duderstadt [8]suggests that the university
of the future will be very different from today’s institution. One major change will be that the
future university will be divisionless, i.e., there will be many more interdisciplinary programs.
There will also be “a far more intimate relationship between basic academic disciplines and the
professions.” Duderstadt [9] asks us to consider “whether the concept of the disciplinary
specialist is relevant to a future in which the most interesting and significant problems will
require ‘big think’ rather than ‘small think.’

The Ad Hoc Curriculum Review Committee [1] at Rice University noted that criticism of
undergraduate education has been increasing. Some of the major criticisms include: “Increased
specialization and proliferation of programs and courses has led to fragmentation of the learning
experience,” “curricula fail to stimulate intellectual development,” and “students are unprepared
for lifelong learning and participation in a globalized community.” A study conducted by the
Association of American Colleges [3, p. 6] regarding traditional majors avers the following:
“The problem [with the traditional major] is that it often delivers too much knowledge with too
little attention to how that knowledge is being created, what methods and modes of inquiry are
employed in its creation, what presuppositions inform it, and what entailments flow from its
particular ways of knowing, and between what students have learned and their lives beyond the
academy.”

Should Students Have Dual Majors?

It has become very difficult to advise students as to selection of a major. Students seem to have
come up with their own solution: majoring in one, two, three, four, or even five fields. Lewin
[18] notes that the number of multiple majors is increasing at most universities. He cites the
following interesting statistics: At Georgetown University, the number of double majors grew
from 14% of the class in 1996 to 23% in 2002; At Washington University, the number of double

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majors rose from 28% in 1997 to 42% in 2002. According to Lewin, some students are majoring
in three, four, or even five areas. Weber [20] states that about 25% to 35% of students at major
graduate schools of business are now pursuing double majors (e.g., JD/MBA, MD/MBA,
MPP/MPA, ME/MBA, MSW/MBA, to name a few). The purpose is to make oneself more
marketable in a difficult job market.

The authors believe that this trend towards multiple majors makes a great deal of sense for
students who are very sensitive to the vagaries of the job market. Many colleges, because of turf
issues, have been slow in developing interdisciplinary majors. This forces students to major in
several disciplines and thereby create a de facto “multidisciplinary” major. Some schools, on the
other hand, encourage double majors. For instance, the University of Wollongong in Australia
encourages double majors. Some dual majors available there to students include: Health Science
and Psychology, Health Science and Biology, Health Science and Geography, Exercise Science
and Nutrition, Nutrition and Chemistry, Psychology and Exercise Science, Psychology and
Nutrition, Psychology and Biology, Psychology and Management, Health Science and
Economics, Health Science and Sociology, Health Science and Science & Technology Studies,
Health Science and Languages, Health Science and Legal Studies, Health Science and Politics,
and Health Science and Psychology.

Do double majors work? A study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh [22] does shed some
light on the value of a double major for liberal arts majors. Three groups of students were
compared: graduates with a single liberal arts major (LA1), graduates with a double liberal arts
major (LA2), and graduates with a dual major in liberal arts in business (LA/Bus). The study
indicated that although there were no statistically significant differences in starting salaries for
the three groups, there were significant differences in earnings five years after graduation. After
five years of working, the LA/Bus group earned $10,000 more than the LA1 group and $7,500
more than the LA2 group. The LA2 group earned $2500 more than the LA1 group. In addition,
the LA/Bus group found their jobs more rapidly than the other two groups. It should be noted
that the above study is not conclusive since the groups are self-selected and not the result of
random assignment. Additional research will be necessary before any firm conclusions can be
made.

Some Double Majors

What double or triple majors make sense for students interested in getting jobs? The following is
just a small sample of double majors that the authors feel are reasonable for students seeking to
enhance their abilities. Of course, in many cases, an interdisciplinary major might even be more
sensible than a double major. Every college should strive to ensure that dual major programs are
as easy to do as single majors. The following list is meant to be suggestive but by no means
exhaustive of double major possibilities.

Anthropology Plus: At the University of South Dakota website, the Anthropology Department
notes that over half of the college’s anthropology majors are double majors. The following
double majors are recommended: anthropology with history, math, biology, social work, earth
sciences, or computer science. Biology and Chemistry: If a university does not offer

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biochemistry, it is more practical to major in the two areas rather than in either one individually.
The same could be said for biology and physics. Biology and Psychology: The battle between
the psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological approaches to dealing with mental illness is to
a large degree due to the fact that the fields of psychology and psychiatry are separate. Psychiatry
mainly prefers using biological models to explain mental illness and therefore relies
predominantly on psychotropic medication. Psychology, on the other hand, focuses on the
patient’s behaviors, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; “talk therapy” is used to enable the client
to gain insights into his feelings or actions. The current wisdom is that combining the two
approaches works better for more patients than using either one by itself [7]. Biology and
Statistics: If a university does not offer biostatistics, it is more practical to major in the two
areas rather than in either one individually. Biology and CIS: The discipline of biology is
becoming more mathematical and computer intensive. In fact, a relatively new field has
emerged, computational biology, that utilizes knowledge of computing and informatics in
understanding biology. Bentley [6] demonstrates how biologists and computer scientists can
learn from each other’s models and approaches. For instance, he explains how computer
scientists used a model developed in the field of immunology to develop a program to destroy
computer viruses. Nutrition and Chemistry: An understanding of food chemistry can be very
useful to a nutritionist.

Business and Modern Language: This major was created by two of the authors at Brooklyn
College. Students can enhance their career prospects in business by speaking a popular modern
language such as Spanish, Russian, or Chinese. Business and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies:
This major was also created by two of the authors at Brooklyn College. There is a huge Hispanic
market in the United States and in Latin America. Students who understand the Latino culture
will be of great value to business. Business and CIS: Many CIS majors do not know anything
about business. This is a serious problem if they are being considered for a technical job in a
financial services company. Business and English: This is a good combination for students
interested in corporate communications and/or business journalism. Management and Health
Sciences: There is a great need for individuals who can manage health facilities such as
hospitals and nursing homes. Business and Accounting: We have been noticing a significant
number of students opting for this double major. It is quite practical since knowledge of
accounting can only enhance one’s business abilities, and vice versa.

Economics and Psychology: Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics this
year, is a psychologist who never took an economics course. He was a double major as an
undergraduate, majoring in psychology and mathematics. Kahneman’s research, based on
insights from psychology, has demonstrated that the decision making of individuals does not
necessarily follow the traditional economic theory models that assume “homo economicus”
(Economic Man). Economic Man is motivated by totally rational decision making and total self-
interest and possesses perfect information. Economics and Sociology: Gary S. Becker, Nobel
Laureate in Economics, had a great deal of difficulty being accepted when he started applying
economic theory to solving social problems, writing on subjects such as the effects of racism on
the earnings and occupations of minorities. Becker [4] asserts: “Most economists did not think
that racial discrimination was economics, and sociologists and psychologists generally did not
believe that I was contributing to their fields.” The reality is that the two fields work well

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together. Health Sciences and Economics: There is an entire field developing in the area of
health economics. The optimal allocation of donated organs requires expertise in the two
disciplines.

Mathematics and Computer Science: This is a natural combination for those interested in
artificial intelligence. Mathematics and Economics: John Forbes Nash was trained in
mathematics but won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his pioneering work on game theory.
Mathematics and Finance: This double major works for actuary students. In fact, many Wall
Street investment firms hire students with backgrounds in mathematics and even physics because
of their abilities to develop models. Mathematics and Physics: According to the North
Carolina State University website, 30% of their mathematics majors have double majors, the two
most popular being mathematics / mathematics education and mathematics / physics. The
Mathematics Department notes: “it often makes sense for math majors to have a strong
interdisciplinary component to their education, either through a double major or a strong minor.”
Mathematics and Philosophy: Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, was trained in
mathematics and logic/philosophy. He worked in such diverse areas as artificial limbs, chess-
playing computers learning machines, filtering mechanisms for reduction of "noise", heart
fibrillations, neurophysiology, and psychopathology.

Philosophy and Business: One of the authors was instrumental in creating a joint program in
this area at Brooklyn College. The program is quite successful. The philosophy courses sharpen
the analytic abilities of the business students and the business courses make the philosophy
students more marketable. Philosophy and English: This is a great combination for students
interested in law.

CONCLUSION

There is no reason to insist that students major in only one area. Dual majors may produce a
synergy that results in a more rounded graduate with the ability to discover interfaces between
two disciplines that will help both areas. The University of Pittsburgh study does provide some
evidence that a good dual major, e.g., combining business and liberal arts, can result in a
significantly higher salary in the future. The authors believe that combining the right two fields
can actually help individuals approach problems from different perspectives and make them more
creative and useful to organizations that employ them.

One reason that many universities do not allow dual majors is the fear that this will mean that
students will not graduate in four years. This argument is not convincing if dual majors produce
innovative thinkers with solid careers while unidisciplinary majors result in unemployable
students. There is a need for universities to recognize that disciplines are converging and that
interdisciplinary and dual programs of study may often be more beneficial and intellectually
stimulating than unidisciplinary majors. While the traditional unidisciplinary major is far from
dead, the need for individuals trained in two majors will continue to grow as the amount of
knowledge increases.

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 REFERENCES

[1] Ad Hoc Curriculum Review Committee (1997). “The Ad Hoc Curriculum Review Committee: A
Preliminary Report.” <http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~currev/Esv3.html>.
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CPA Journal 71, 16-23.
[3] Association of American Colleges (1991). Liberal Learning and the Arts and Sciences Major.
Vol. 1: The Challenge of Connecting Learning, Washington D.C.: Association of American
Colleges.
[4] Becker Gary S. (1992). Autobiography. <http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1992/becker-
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