by Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
November 5, 2025
After he graduates from the College of Wisconsin-Madison, Drew Wesson hopes to start a profession in strategic communication, a discipline with higher-than-average job development and earnings.
One 12 months into his time on the college, Wesson turned extra strategic about this purpose. Like almost 1 in 3 of his classmates, he declared a second main to higher stand out in an unpredictable labor market.
It’s a part of a pattern that’s spreading nationwide, in keeping with a Hechinger Report evaluation of federal knowledge, as college students fret about getting jobs in an financial system that some worry is shifting quicker than a conventional school schooling can sustain.
“There’s form of a worry of graduating and going out into the job market,” mentioned Wesson, a sophomore from Minneapolis who’s double-majoring in worldwide safety and journalism. “And having extra abilities and extra information and extra majors provides you a aggressive edge.”
The variety of college students at UW-Madison who double-major has grown by 25 p.c during the last decade, the info present. However double-majoring can also be on the rise at non-public, nonprofit faculties throughout the nation, and at different public establishments, together with the College of California, San Diego, and the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Practically 5.4 million credentials — levels or certificates — have been earned by the 4.8 million school and college graduates in 2023-24, the latest 12 months for which the determine is offered. Meaning about 12 p.c left faculty with a couple of, in comparison with 6 p.c ten years earlier. Educational minors don’t rely as a credential and aren’t tracked..
Associated: Considering improvements in larger schooling? Subscribe to our free biweekly larger schooling e-newsletter.
“College students are feeling a form of spiraling lack of management in a really dynamic labor market,” mentioned Rachel Slama, affiliate director of Cornell College’s Way forward for Studying Lab, which research how know-how and different improvements are altering schooling. “They’re most likely clinging to the one factor that’s of their management, which is the majors they select. They usually suppose that extra is extra.”
They could be proper, in keeping with one of many few research of this subject, by students at St. Lawrence College and Vanderbilt Regulation Faculty. College students who’ve one main in enterprise and a second in science, know-how, engineering or math, it discovered, earn extra than in the event that they majored in solely a kind of disciplines, the 2016 examine discovered.
Graduates who double-major are additionally 56 p.c much less probably to be laid off, have their pay lower or undergo different damaging results in financial downturns, in keeping with one other examine, launched final 12 months by researchers at Ohio State and 4 different universities. These outcomes present “the significance of various ability units,” the researchers concluded. If there’s a drop in demand for the abilities related to one main, “a double main can pursue a job associated to the unaffected main.”
At Wisconsin, almost 6 in 10 college students in pc science who decide a second main select the profitable self-discipline of knowledge science; the variety of jobs in knowledge science is projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to extend 34 p.c over concerning the subsequent 10 years, at salaries which can be almost twice the nationwide common.
The unemployment fee amongst new bachelor’s diploma recipients is now larger than for employees general, and at its highest degree since 2014, not together with the pandemic years, in keeping with the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis. That’s partly as a result of synthetic intelligence and different elements are remodeling what employers want.
Practically half of latest graduates really feel underqualified to use for even entry-level jobs, a survey by the schooling know-how firm Cengage Group finds. Solely 30 p.c say they’ve full-time jobs associated to the fields that they studied.
In the meantime, faculties and universities — historically gradual to rework what and the way they train — are encouraging college students to mix majors as a quicker technique to sustain with adjustments within the labor market, mentioned Taylor Odle, an assistant professor at UW-Madison who research the economics of schooling and the worth of credentials within the workforce.
“Establishments are considering strategically about easy methods to align their diploma applications with trade, and it could be by pairing two issues they have already got,” Odle mentioned.
There are different causes for the rising recognition of double majors. At UW-Madison, for instance, one issue propelling the expansion is that there are not any minors, famous Taylor Odle, an assistant professor there who research the economics of schooling and the worth of credentials within the workforce..
Double-majoring isn’t straightforward. It sometimes means incomes greater than the standard minimal variety of credit required to graduate, on high of extracurricular and different obligations. Wesson, at UW-Madison, as an example, is an officer of scholar authorities, a reporter and photographer for the campus newspaper and an honors scholar.
Some separate majors have overlapping necessities. Even when they don’t, most universities and faculties cost the identical tuition per semester irrespective of what number of programs undergraduates take. So except a second main extends the variety of semesters a scholar wants to finish required programs, or forces her or him to take further lessons within the summers, double-majoring doesn’t sometimes price extra or take longer.
In the meantime, extra college students are arriving at school having already knocked off credit by taking dual-enrollment and Superior Placement lessons in highschool.
About 2.5 million highschool college students take part in twin enrollment, in keeping with an evaluation of federal knowledge by the Neighborhood Faculty Analysis Middle at Lecturers Faculty, Columbia College. (The Hechinger Report, which produced this story, is an impartial unit of Lecturers Faculty.)
This implies they’ve room of their schedules in school for second majors, mentioned Kelle Parsons, who focuses on larger schooling as a principal researcher on the American Institutes for Analysis.
Associated: After years of quietly falling, school tuition is on the rise once more
For some college students, double-majoring makes extra sense than altering majors altogether. About 30 p.c of scholars change their majors a minimum of as soon as, and 10 p.c two or extra occasions, in keeping with the U.S. Division of Training. Including a second main is much less drastic than dropping a primary one and beginning once more from scratch, mentioned Patrick Denice, an affiliate professor of sociology on the College of Western Ontario.
“For those who add a [second] main, you hedge your bets in opposition to a altering labor market with out dropping these credit and that coursework you’ve already earned” towards the primary one, mentioned Denice, who has studied why college students at U.S. universities decide and alter their majors.
There’s but one more reason college students are more and more double-majoring. Whilst they crowd into specialties related to profession alternatives, reminiscent of enterprise and health-related disciplines — which collectively now account for almost 1 in 3 undergraduate fields of examine — some are including second majors for which they merely have a ardour.
Associated: College students can’t get into primary school programs, dragging out their time in class
“They’re making an attempt to fulfill their dad and mom, who need them to be employed,” mentioned J. Wesley Null, vice provost for undergraduate schooling and tutorial affairs at Baylor College, the place there have been greater than twice as many double majors final 12 months than there have been in 2014. “However they’re additionally excited about loads of interdisciplinary sorts of issues. They’ll mix biology with Sanskrit or Chinese language. These actually vibrant college students have loads of various pursuits.”
On the College of Chicago, the place the variety of double majors has additionally greater than doubled, “I see college students committing to at least one profession however desirous to have extra breadth,” mentioned Melina Hale, dean of the faculty. “They’re going and exploring all of those different majors and discovering one they love.”
Double-majoring can also be “an effective way for college students to show that they know easy methods to suppose in numerous methods,” mentioned Hale, herself a biologist who has collaborated with engineers. “For those who’re going right into a job in finance and have a deep background in historical past, you’re bringing other ways of approaching issues.”
Associated: To fill seats, extra faculties provide credit score for all times expertise
This mind-set is pushing nonetheless one other pattern: Extra college students nationwide are incomes certificates, which they’ll get in a matter of months and alongside their levels, in topics reminiscent of enterprise administration. Seventeen p.c of bachelor’s diploma recipients additionally completed school with a minimum of one certificates in 2023-24, the Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse Analysis Middle reviews.
Often called “stackable credentials,” these sorts of certificates “have been talked about for a very long time,” mentioned Ryan Lufkin, vice chairman of worldwide tutorial technique on the academic know-how firm Instructure. “And now there’s actually demand for them.”
That’s as a result of — like double-majoring and minoring — they make candidates stand out to employers, mentioned Odle, at UW-Madison.
College students, he mentioned, “try to emphasise their attractiveness within the labor market. They’re making an attempt to cowl their bases.”
Contact author Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556, jmarcus@hechingerreport.org or jpm.82 on Sign.
This story about double majors was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, impartial information group centered on inequality and innovation in schooling.
Knowledge evaluation by Marina Villeneuve.
Join for our larger schooling e-newsletter. Take heed to our larger schooling podcast.
This <a goal=”_blank” href=”https://hechingerreport.org/students-worried-about-getting-jobs-extra-majors/”>article</a> first appeared on <a goal=”_blank” href=”https://hechingerreport.org”>The Hechinger Report</a> and is republished right here underneath a <a goal=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/”>Inventive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Worldwide License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cropped-favicon.jpg?match=150percent2C150&ssl=1″ type=”width:1em;top:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://hechingerreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&put up=113148&ga4=G-03KPHXDF3H” type=”width:1px;top:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: operate() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://hechingerreport.org/students-worried-about-getting-jobs-extra-majors/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hechingerreport.org/p.js”></script>
