Ask some Plan II students what their major is, and what you will often hear is that they are double majoring in Plan II and Biology, Plan II and Business, or Plan II and something else.

Why are second majors so frequent among Plan II students?

It is not because Plan II provides inadequate specialization. This is a common misconception about Plan II, but in fact students have freedom and flexibility through their electives to design and shape their own curriculum. This flexibility allows them to explore academic areas of interest and to gain formal knowledge in potential thesis topics. Then, the senior thesis project asks them to condense what they’ve learned in their undergraduate experience into a central point.

The flexibility in taking electives that count towards the Plan II degree requirement, as well as overlap with prerequisite classes, are the two main reasons why Plan II students find it easy to take on a second, or even third, major.

Classes from other disciplines and schools count toward the Plan II elective hours requirement. Unlike other majors in the College of Liberal Arts, the Plan II major has no requirement to have a minor. Students can easily pursue a second major due to the overlap in elective hours.

Overall, Liberal Arts and Business are the two most popular colleges for Plan II students to pursue their second majors in. However, the single most popular major is Biology, which is under the Natural Sciences college. This broad spread of interests across the humanities, science, and business clearly demonstrates that the skills and knowledge acquired through the Plan II core curriculum are exceptional and will prepare students for a number of vocations.

Although Plan II is housed in the College of Liberal Arts, the major avoids being easily categorized within a single college because its core curriculum emphasizes not only the humanities, with unique classes in World Literature for freshmen and Philosophy for sophomores, but also the sciences, with Plan II classes in Math, Biology, and Physics. However, there are no core requirements directly related to a business vocation.

The charts included with this article show that the most popular double majors among current Plan II students are Biology, Business Honors, Finance, Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering. Popular dual majors include Journalism, English, Psychology, Government, and History. What distinguishes a double major from a dual degree is that a double major is within the same college as Plan II, the College of Liberal Arts, while a dual degree is from a different college.

These graphs should be viewed with caution, as they may not fully represent the  reality of second majors of Plan II students. The breakdown into majors does not reflect that some students may be pursuing concentrations in the Bridging Disciplines Program, Pre-Med, or Pre-Law. Some students, particularly freshmen, may be considering themselves as double majoring, but have not officially declared their second major through the university website. Finally, the graph is only a snapshot of the current students and does not reflect historical trends or predict what majors will be popular in the future.

Nonetheless, these statistics prove the intellectual diversity of Plan II students.

Thanks to Plan II advisor Melissa Ossian for assisting in research for this article.