When you tell people that you are pushing a double major, they often have one of two polar opposite reactions: they either think of you as wishy-washy, or they talk about how much work it is going to be to complete both degrees.
These polarize even further if you are double majoring in two very different fields, or even splitting yourself between two colleges of your university. For this upcoming semester, I have decided to pursue my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, as well as my Bachelor of Arts in English. As I have been sharing this news, which I find very exciting, people have shared opinions all over the spectrum, including many questions:
"Are you sure you're prepared for having so much work and having it be reading, writing, AND math?"
"Why would you pick such completely different fields?"
"Are you still going to graduate in four years?"
Trust me, I have thought all of these questions through already; changing or adding a major is no spur of the moment decision. I knew after a few weeks of writing for the Odyssey that English was where I needed to be, so I started considering a minor.
At my advisory appointment, my advisor told me that I was nearly done with my core curriculum (the Stony Brook Curriculum, or SBCs) as a first-year freshman, and that I was a third of the way through my credit requirements, meaning I would probably graduate in three years, or possibly a little less. However, many of my computer science courses are prerequisites for each other and cannot be completed in under six semesters, meaning, credit or not, I would still be here through 2020, but without a full schedule.
The core curriculum is meant to fill in those gaps in your schedule, but since I am done with them, my best move would be to take on a minor. This is where English came into play. I looked for the advisor for the English department and met up with her that afternoon to discuss my options. She told me that the minor would be five more classes, but the major would be eleven more. I knew immediately that I should go for the major.
I know that a double major is going to be significantly more work than just pursuing a single degree, but people never seem to consider one thing: both make me happy.
There is a saying that "if you love your job, you never work a day in your life." I love computer science, but reading and writing are what was missing from my life. I was not happy in so many science and math classes because I genuinely missed having a balance.
From the time that I was very young, I was reading books and writing stories in school, but from high school on, I realized that I was actually pretty talented in math and science. It felt like I could only be so satisfied with just doing one, but doing both has already started to make me more fulfilled and very happy. It would be a waste of my potential to give up either one, and I really do get the best of both worlds.
I am looking forward to my schedule for next semester, especially because I will be able to satiate my need for arts in my life, while still going after one of the most rapidly developing fields in the world.
