As the semester comes to an end and the spring deadline for sophomores to declare a concentration approaches, many students are considering double concentrating.
The proportion of undergraduates who have double concentrated has remained steady at around 20 percent over the past 10 years, according to statistics published by the Office of Institutional Research.
Undergraduates can double concentrate if they can complete all the requirements in eight standard semesters with no more than two courses counting toward both concentrations, according two the University’s website.
One way to think about concentrations is that “they’re a map for the curriculum,” giving structure and guidance within the open curriculum, said Dean of the College Maud Mandel.
Ian Sherman ’18, who is concentrating in psychology and public policy, wrote in an email to The Herald that he believed that with the open curriculum, “double concentrating would help give me structure to my schedule without sacrificing the (breadth) of taking classes in different disciplines.”
Brown, unlike some of its peer schools and other American colleges, does not offer minors. This choice was purposeful with the development of the open curriculum in 1968, Mandel said.
“Built in with the philosophy of the open curriculum was the idea that it wanted to encourage students to explore the curriculum,” Mandel said. The University decided not to allow minors because they could potentially hinder one’s ability to take a variety of classes by adding more requirements on top of one’s concentration, she added.
“It’s great to double concentrate if you have two things you’re really passionate about learning,” Mandel said. “In my opinion, that’s the only good reason to do it” she said, rather than double concentrating for credentialing purposes.
Ron Foreman, a career counselor at CareerLAB, echoed Mandel’s point. He added that despite certain perceptions, there is no evidence that double concentrating for its own sake would benefit one in the job market.
Anne Bocage ’18, who is double concentrating in biology and ethnic studies, came to Brown knowing that she wanted to pursue a concentration in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “I just found myself really drawn to both areas of study, and I’m (kind of) indecisive. So (I) just chose to do both!” Bocage wrote in an email to The Herald. Both areas of study support her interest in health disparities with a focus on minority health.
On the other hand, Minoshka Narayan ’18, an English and economics double concentrator, knew from her high school experience studying both subjects through the International Baccalaureate curriculum that she wanted to double concentrate at Brown. She finds economics to be a more practical field of study given her interest in finance, but has found the critical thinking skills she has developed through the humanities to be useful as well, she added.
