How to Study Abroad With a Double Major and a Minor

This story is a part of the Student Life Blog, a blog written by Georgetown students about their experiences and life at Georgetown.

Sydney Carroll (C'27) is a Georgetown Storyteller and a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences from Nashville, Tennessee. When she's not working on Georgetown Stories, you can find her playing with the Georgetown club field hockey team or writing for The Voice.

Getting to 120 credits seems nearly impossible as a freshman - and sometimes, even more so as an upperclassman. When you want to take on two majors, a minor, and also get through your core classes, getting those 120 credits seems a lot easier, but figuring out how to do it all in four years becomes the stressful part.

Even more stressful? Trying to study abroad.

In Howth, Ireland

I'd always wanted to study abroad, and it was one of my goals for college. However, as an American studies (AMST) and women's and gender studies (WGST) double major with a journalism minor, finding a program with classes that matched my requirements and also fit my personal needs was a daunting task.

Considering that AMST is a three-year major and that the first word of the major is somewhat antithetical to studying abroad, I knew it was important to be intentional about studying abroad. Top of mind for me is graduating on time and not needing to take an increased course load when I return to the U.S.

If you're juggling multiple majors or minors, here's how I approached study abroad to stay on track while also having my eat, pray, love journey.

Planning Ahead

I have had a slight advantage in this process because I knew pretty early on what majors I'd pursue. I was always interested in AMST, though I didn't technically get accepted into the major until the end of my freshman year. While I wasn't sure if I wanted to major or minor in WGST, I knew I would choose one of the two, and it became clear after taking an intro class that I wanted to pursue a journalism minor

Because I knew what I was interested in early on, I aligned many of my core classes with my majors. I also got elective credits for my major while completing my core through classes like Women and the Hebrew Bible (theology and WGST) and U.S. Political Systems (social science + AMST). I also started taking classes for my majors/minor before I even declared, meaning that I had a decent amount of credits in each before the end of sophomore year. As a result, I felt confident in my ability to study abroad and take some electives that wouldn't count towards my majors or minor.

This isn't to say that you can't study abroad with a heavier course load if you don't enter Georgetown knowing what you want to study! In that case, though, consider leaving some core classes (like history, philosophy, or math) until your junior year so that you can take them abroad, where your host university will likely have core courses but not necessarily courses for your major/minor.

Choosing a Study Abroad Program

There are some majors where the world is pretty much your oyster - most universities abroad will have programs in economics, philosophy, English, math, etc. However, it is always important to check, because you truly never know. Because my two majors are less traditional, my study abroad choices were more complicated.

Some friends and I on a walk through the streets of Galway.

I knew from the get-go that I wanted to study in Ireland. My family is Irish-American, and I didn't want to take language classes to study abroad (mi español está decente en el mejor de los casos). However, I still had to find the right university.

I had originally thought I would enroll at a different university than I ended up at, but my study abroad advisor informed me that at that school, you have to apply directly to a major-and they didn't offer either of mine. I ended up choosing a university in the same city that allowed me to apply to a school rather than a specific major, which meant I could take English, film, political science and history that would count towards my majors.

My experience shows that, especially when managing multiple majors or minors, it's important to investigate every program. You might fall in love with an individual university, but if you can't take courses that you need, that university won't serve you well. I recommend starting with a place or region and finding an institution that fits your academic needs.

Choosing Classes While Abroad

Once you've gotten through the process of actually applying and getting accepted to study abroad, you need to understand how your classes abroad will affect your majors and minors at home.

A key part of studying abroad includes having your academic advisors sign off on your study abroad proposal. This might look different depending on your major/minor. For AMST, I had a meeting with our program coordinator to review potential classes abroad to ensure that I would meet Georgetown's credit requirements at the university I chose. For other programs, it can be as simple as sending your advisor the proposal via email to get it signed. If you have any questions, many people can help you figure out classes and course requirements.

One of the first things I did before choosing my classes abroad was map out the next two years of my life. This might seem complicated and unnecessary, but it helped me figure out how much freedom I could have with my study abroad classes. I used a spreadsheet where I laid out my majors, minor and core requirements and marked which ones have been completed. Through that, I was able to project what my junior spring and senior year would look like, and thus weigh whether I could take electives that effectively counted toward 'nothing' while I was abroad.

A small look into my organizational spreadsheet that guides my life and my coursework!

I ended up finding that I had two free elective slots - and so while abroad, I'm taking two Ireland-specific classes. One is Discovering Dublin, which is made up of field trips and explores the city's history, and the other is Northern Ireland: 1920 - 2010, a history class that explores partition, the civil rights movement and the Troubles in the area my family is from.

If you can map out your next two years of school and find that you have space for a few 'nothing' classes, I would highly encourage using those spaces to learn more about where you're studying. Study abroad should be cultural immersion, inside and outside of the classroom!

I also had to get creative with my other classes. At my host university, gender studies classes aren't open to study abroad students, there is no journalism program, and there were no AMST classes this semester that fit my plan. However, I knew that there were plenty of options in other majors that would count for my programs. These include 20th Century Television (a film class) to count toward AMST, and Women and the Novel in Romantic-Era Britain (an English class) and Women's Authorship in American Cinema (a film class) for WGST. Finding classes is possible even with multiple unique majors - you just may have to get a little bit out of the box!

If you want to study abroad, don't let having multiple majors or minors stop you! With careful planning, communication with your advisors and instructors and attention to detail, you can not only survive a semester abroad but also gain some valuable credits too.