College Students 'Cover Their Bases' With 2 Majors

As uncertainty about the job market grows, more US college students are hedging their bets by double-majoring. Nearly 1 in 3 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, now pursue two majors, a trend that has surged 25% over the past decade, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It's not limited to public universities, either—private colleges report similar upticks, per the Washington Post. The underlying reason: fear. "There's kind of a fear of graduating and going out into the job market," says one sophomore at Madison who's double majoring in international security and journalism. "Having more skills and more knowledge and more majors gives you a competitive edge."

The strategy may pay off. Research has found that graduates with double majors are 56% less likely to lose their jobs or experience pay cuts during economic downturns. The logic is straightforward: If demand drops for one set of skills, a second major offers a backup. This is especially evident in high-growth fields such as data science: Nearly 60% of computer science students at Madison add data science as a second major. The job market for new grads is currently challenging, with unemployment for recent bachelor's degree recipients at its highest level since 2014, excluding the pandemic years.

Earning two majors isn't easy—it typically means taking extra courses—but since most schools charge flat-rate tuition, it doesn't always cost more or extend graduation, unless extra semesters are needed. Double-majoring is also seen as a less risky way to adapt than switching majors entirely, which often means losing credits. "If you add a [second] major, you hedge your bets against a changing labor market without losing those credits and that coursework you've already earned" toward the first one, says Patrick Denice, a sociology professor at the University of Western Ontario.

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Students are also increasingly earning certificates in addition to degrees, a reminder that they're "trying to cover their bases" for a competitive labor market. Is double-majoring right for you? Trill has a checklist. Her Campus, meanwhile, has more on the pros and cons for an even more ambitious endeavor: going for not just a double major, but double degrees.