Picking a major is a big decision for all students. Currently, I met with my academic advisor and I will be declaring a triple major in Economics, Political Science and Philosophy next semester. It sounds fancy, but in reality doing a triple major is much simpler than most students think. After speaking with multiple professors about declaring a major in their department, they told me a fact that not many students know about. Students may get double credit for two classes towards their majors.
In Hope College to get a B.A. degree from Philosophy students need only 24 credits, which is six four-credit classes. But not many students know they can get double credit for some classes. For example, Philosophy of Law is a four-credit class. This class is categorized under the Political Science department, but if student, like myself, is aiming for degree from Political Science and Philosophy, this class can count towards both majors. This means, that if I take Philosophy of Law, I can count four credits towards my Philosophy degree and four credits towards my Political Science degree at the same time. It is a clever advice, which based of talking with some students, not many students know about.
Unfortunately, double crediting has a limitation as well. Students are allowed to use the “double credits” only in eight credits. In the other words, students can count only two four-credit classes or four two-credit classes towards their degree. In either way, double crediting as a great way get a triple major in four years.
Even that double crediting is limited for eight credits, it is a huge help, which shows the strong academic curriculum of Hope College. In life many jobs overlaps with the skill required as well as the skill required overlaps in different departments. It illustrates huge benefit from liberal arts school education because real life is colorful, not only black and white.