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October 2007

Did you know…that taking a second major is increasingly popular for undergraduates at NC State and that a second major correlates with academic success?  Between Fall 1997 and Fall 2006, among all the degrees sought – including both first and second majors – the percentage of second majors has risen from 5.3% to 8.0%.  The percentage of second majors of all degrees sought is a different measure than percentage of students with a second major because a student with two majors is counted twice.  The share of the student body with a second major has also risen from 5.6% in Fall 1997 to 8.7% in Fall 2006. 

Chart 1

NC State, as an institution, has created more dual degree programs in recent years so an increase in multiple-major students is natural.  The most significant increases in second majors are for CHASS and Management degrees, which have both nearly doubled.  The Textiles second majors, often part of the Textile Engineering or Textile Design programs, have tripled between Fall 1997 and Fall 2006.  Most other colleges, with the exception of the Division of Undergraduate Academic Programs, have seen consistent participation in second majors without much fluctuation.

Table 1

Many in the university community have asked if second majors help a student’s academic career with the assumption being that it may increase the time to degree or lower the student’s GPA.  The data show that, in most cases, a student with a second major earns the first degree faster and has a higher GPA than single-major students.  It should be noted that the second major is not the cause of the higher GPA and faster time to degree, but it is, most likely, correlated with student success.

In the Fall 2006 semester, undergraduate students with multiple majors had a higher average GPA than single major students.  In Fall 2006, 1,827 students (or 11.8% of all students who have a GPA) had a second major.  Those students had an average GPA of 3.23, which compares very favorably to the 2.92 average GPA for single-major students.

The other area for concern – that a second major increases time to graduation – is not consistently true.  For the Fall 2000 cohort, a student with multiple majors graduated in an average of 8.8 semesters, or about 4 and a half years.  Only slightly quicker are the single major students whose average time to graduation is 8.7 semesters, as shown in Table II. 

Table ll

Note that the most prevalent entry cohorts for students with multiple majors are CALS and Engineering.  In both of these colleges, the students with multiple majors actually graduated faster than those in the cohort with one major.

One final statistic of interest is how many of the students with two majors graduate with both degrees within six years?

Chart ll

Chart II shows that the majority of students with multiple majors graduated with at least two degrees in six years or less.  Fifty seven percent of the students with multiple majors graduated with multiple degrees.  But the best story is that for the Fall 2000 cohort the six-year graduation rate for students with multiple major is over 99%!   

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