Though fall pre-registration is more than a month away, many of us are still thinking about what classes we'd like to take and how they will fit into our potential concentrations.
Maybe it's because we're Brown students, or maybe it's because we're just relentless overachievers, but many of us have considered double concentrating at one point or another. We all have wide variety of skills and abilities. Won't limiting ourselves to one concentration hinder our marketability? In a still-turbulent job market, if one concentration opens up a certain number of jobs, won't two open up twice as many?
Not exactly.
If a first choice does not work out, some think that an extra concentration will provide that needed "fallback plan." But there are very few jobs that ask that only certain majors apply. Yes, certain careers may prefer a specific background of study, but there always seem to be ways to work around those requirements. While we may think two concentrations make one more versatile, doubling up can actually limit the diversity of an education.
Think of it this way. Pretend you love economics first and foremost, but also enjoy writing. You consider double concentrating in English and economics. This is a poor idea.
You don't need a degree in English to become a writer. You can take some classes in the department without having to make a full commitment to it. But if you double concentrate just because you like writing, you now have ten extra concentration requirements to fulfill. That means you have ten less classes you could have explored in other departments. The majority of your educational background will be in either economics or English.
That doesn't sound very versatile to me.
Because you were so busy writing essay after essay in your English classes, your grades in economics — the area of study you plan to pursue after Brown — will take a hit. You might even have to delay graduation just to complete the requirements for both concentrations.
Yes, this example may be extreme. Don't be mistaken — there are definitely instances where a double concentration is appropriate, if not beneficial, to someone's education. But for most instances there exists a sad paradox: By doing more, we are weakening our resumes.
The problem is that many employers might not see double concentrators as hardworking and disciplined. They see them as scattered and lacking focus — perhaps lacking the maturity to make a critical decision.
Maybe success is not about what you do. Maybe it's about what you don't do. In today's world, having multiple skills is not unique — it's expected. The truth is we are all motivated and have many interests. We are all racing wildly toward some coveted internship or job at the end of the tunnel. The winner won't be the one who has the fullest resume.
Extreme versatility is not the skill employers are seeking. They are looking for specialization. The specialist is always more valuable than the odd-job guy.
For those of us who do a lot of things, we often do them poorly. There just aren't enough hours in the day. It's simply impossible to build hundreds of networks on LinkedIn with the click of a mouse. You can't lead seven different clubs and show up to all the meetings. You shouldn't always take the most difficult classes if you really want to enjoy any of them.
The sad thing is, just blindly working hard will lead to nothing. There is no extra credit for taking five classes when you could have taken four. There are no bonus points for not sleeping, for not having a social life, for leaving a voicemail when an email would have worked just as well. None of this will pay off in the end — it will only lead to burnout. One hundred and ten percent is not the answer.
Luckily, there is an answer to all of this. It's deciding what does not interest you and winnowing it away. It's trying to do less — it's doing what you do well. It's putting all your passion into something, even if it means failure and more failure and possibly having nothing to "fall back on."
Some of us have lived our entire lives buried underneath our schedules, and we don't know anything else. We have stretched ourselves so thin that the deferment of happiness has become an addiction. We shouldn't hide behind double concentrations just because we don't know what makes us happy.
Cara Dorris '15 still plans on concentrating in Applied Math and Modern Culture and Media. She can be reached at cara_dorris@brown.edu.
