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Difference between joint major and double major?

edited January 2012 in General
I was just wondering what the difference is between a Political Science and Economics joint major and Political Science and Economics double major. Or if there is a difference at all. If anyone has any input of which one would be better for the job market that would be helpful too. Would a better plan be to do a Econ or PS major while doing an extended minor in the other?

Additional info: I struggle with Math but it's doable for me if I try decently hard. My cgpa right now is 3.3

Thanks

Comments

  • I am essentially wondering the exact same things that you are! The only thing I can contribute is that I know that for an extended minor in economics, you have to take MATH 157, but for the minor you are not required to. I am also wondering how much math is required to be successful in higher level economics courses... I see that many (but not all) of the upper division courses require MATH 157 or ECON 301 (which requires MATH 157 anyways). I feel the same way about math as you do.
  • Note: I can't seem to post anything on this forum using Internet Explorer 9 - the required 3 digit code keeps refreshing itself before I can click the "Post Comment" button. On Firefox it works fine.
  • Yeah i'm going to take Math 157 by itself this summer and based off of how I can handle that and econ 103/5 I'm going to make my decision. It seems like Economics majors fare better in finding a job so maybe it's worth the extra work.
  • Have you taken any economics courses yet? If yes, which ones and how were they?

    I'm still interested to see if anyone has any comments on getting a major in political science or economics, and a minor in the other (instead of a joint major). How would this affect competing on the job market?
  • Another thing to keep in mind is that the political science course requirements for the joint major program are different from those of merely the political science major program. E.g. you have to take 3 courses in the joint program that you don't in the political science major option: Canadian Politics, Canadian Government & Canadian Public Administration. In the political science major program, you can take international/comparative politics & US politics etc. There are other differences as well.

    What if one intended to do 1 program, but later decided to do the other so now has to take even more courses. Like if you were planning for a political science major and took a bunch of international/comparative courses instead of the Canadian government/politics ones which you need for the joint major... Why do these differences exist?

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