Faculty Vote to End Triple Majors

The era of triple and quadruple majors is over.

Last December, the Amherst faculty voted to update their policy on majors, stating that students are no longer allowed to declare more than two. The policy will first be implemented with the class of 2029, meaning that no current students will be affected by the new policy.

This policy previously failed to be approved by the faculty over a decade ago. However, the increasing number of triple and quadruple majors led to the policy passing this time.

Martha Umphrey, provost and dean of the faculty, stated that the college had three main reasons for this new policy. First, while faculty members recognized the value of depth in a good education, they also believed the college should prioritize breadth in every student’s curriculum.

According to Umphrey, the faculty also wondered if students were only committing to numerous majors in order to earn credentials to look more desirable to employers and graduate schools, which contradicted the faculty’s argument that education should be good in itself.

Lastly, there was concern over the use of faculty time, particularly in STEM departments. If a student has three or four majors, that means that the student also has that many advisors.

However, current triple and quadruple majors argued for the importance of being allowed the freedom to choose depth over breadth. They chose to pursue depth by delving deep into areas of interest rather than breadth through experimenting with various courses. Several students were concerned over whether the policy change actually denied students the trust and freedom of the open curriculum.

Sarah Wu ’25, an English, computer science, and anthropology major, stated that the concern of the faculty was valid, but believed that the change in policy “implies almost a lack of trust in the student body.”

“It’s like the idea of the open curriculum, where you trust students with different things that they are interested in,” she said.

Wu made the argument that her unique experience of majoring in humanities, social science, and STEM subjects actually enhanced her Amherst education. To her, it encouraged the kind of interdisciplinary thinking that the college celebrates.

When asked about her perspective on the faculty’s fear that students declare three or four majors only to appear attractive to employers, Wu confessed, “There are some students who try to game the system, but I also find a lot of students who take on the third major because they really like the side thing that they think they’re not able to do without.” She argued that this interest was fostered through the open curriculum and that students who declared the extra major typically did so out of a desire to learn more about what they originally viewed only as a “side” interest.

Many current triple or quadruple majors at Amherst connected their academic choices with the fact that Amherst does not offer minors or concentrations.

Quadruple major Andrew Glassford ’26 said he realized at the beginning of his college years that he had three distinct interests: physics, economics, and classics, but without the ability to minor, that third interest became a major.

“I was going to be a classics minor at William and Mary and got pulled off the waitlist for Amherst. We don’t have minors here, so that became a major,” he said.

Glassford also stated that being a triple or quadruple major is not as taxing as one may think. While it certainly requires a significant amount of dedication and effort, Glassford stated that the overlapping requirements for majors made this possible. Regarding the college’s new policy, Glassford answered, “It definitely seems strange given how light the major requirements are.”

Claire Callon ’25 had a similar experience to Glassford. As a math and computer science major, Callon had already completed most of the requirements for the economics major. During her third year at Amherst, Callon realized that she would be able to complete a third major in economics before graduation. “It was something that I was starting to consider, that maybe I wanted to explore either the finance industry or something in grad school,” Callon said. “It kind of was something that I wanted recognition for.” It was not an intention of Callon’s to over-credential. However, having already completed most of the classwork, she said it only made sense for that work to be reflected on her resume.

However, Erin Sullivan ’28 was in support of the new policy, suggesting that the open curriculum may actually be taken advantage of more through it. “I feel like only allowing students to have two majors could be a good thing. It would encourage students to choose areas that interest them the most to focus on, while also leaving room to experiment with courses,” she said.

Callon disagreed with this perspective, saying, “It sacrifices the integrity of the open curriculum a little bit to take away triple majors … I get that you’re a liberal arts school. I get that you want people to explore, but then maybe you should just require a couple more classes.”

Wu said that it was typically the full use of the open curriculum that led students to declare an additional major, saying, “It’s not like someone walks in freshman year and says, ‘I’m going to triple major.’ [It’s] because they have their journey.”

Glassford said that restricting triple and quadruple majors might actually discourage students from exploring additional courses. While he conceded that he did not need a classics major for a career in physics, he still said he finds the major meaningful: “Post-college, when I’m looking back, I want to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I studied that’ … There is a level of recognition that you lose by not being able to say that.”