Triple Major or Triple Trouble?
The Question
“What’s your major?” The question I struggle answering.
“I’m a triple major,” I’ll usually reply, as humbly as possible, understanding how crazy it comes off but also making sure that I don’t come off as a snob because I’m really not like that. Plus, nobody likes those types of people.
“No way! What majors? How is that possible? You’re insane and so smart,” is what the usual response is like.
Yup. I’m insane. But I’m no Einstein. All it really takes is motivation, critical thinking, and a passion for what you’re interested in.
Their Thoughts vs. My Thoughts
I had actually had the idea to be a triple major from the get-go as a senior in high school. It seemed common for people to be a double major, but I never heard of anyone being a triple major. I thought that being a triple major would definitely help someone stand out when it came to finding a job. I did some research online about if being a triple major was worth it and most people had such a negative feeling about it. The general consensus pretty much was that it’s a waste of money, it seems like triple major-ers have no idea what they want to do, and that it comes off as pretentious.
Despite all the negative comments, I didn’t feel that way about it at all. I truly still felt in my heart for myself that it would show dedication and well-roundedness. I was never the type of person that tried to brag or come off as pretentious either — those types of people always annoyed me. I just wanted to push myself because I saw the potential growth it could have for my future for being such a unique thing that could stand out. I was fortunate enough too that money wasn’t an issue because my parents wanted to pay for my college in full.
Planning
I’ve always been interested in psychology and human behavior ever since I was young. I always said that if I could have any superpower, I would want to read minds. Being able to understand the human mind and human emotions could allow anyone to achieve anything they want. My dad always told me growing up that a person’s IQ doesn’t matter…what really matters is their EQ/emotional intelligence. Boy, was he right.
Coming from an Asian Indian household where there is usually pressure for high ambition and goals, I thought that I could go to medical school and go into the field of psychiatry because of my interest in psychology. I had already knew where I was going for college so I thought it was best to do some research based on my interest in pre-med, psychology, and wanting to pursue a triple major.
The first subjects that came to my head were neuroscience and psychology. Luckily, Rutgers University offered both “Psychology” and “Cell Biology and Neuroscience” as majors in their School of Arts and Sciences. Doing some further research, I discovered a new major offered within the school called “Cognitive Science.” Reading beyond the descriptions of what the major entails, I started diving into the actual courses on the university major websites and seeing if there were courses that could count for all 3 majors.
What I discovered next amazed me. I found out that there were multiple classes that overlapped between the majors because they were all so similar to each other or went along with the subject. It felt like I figured out a life hack. I thought, is this what everyone figures out in high school? So me being me, I decided to make a Venn Diagram to coordinate all the classes together so I don’t take extra unnecessary classes and that I can make sure to finish the 3 majors within the 4 fours of college. I had thoughts about graduating early but I wanted to live the college experience of 4 years (jokes on me now because COVID ruined my junior and senior years but that’s besides the point). But here is a photo of my triple major Venn Diagram of Psychology, Cell Biology & Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science:
I had a lot of versions of my Venn Diagram, don’t get me wrong. I also incorporated different majors and minors in case I changed my mind (I had about 15 different options). I made different versions with majors/minors in Health Administration, Public Health, and even Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. I even thought of not completing a Cell Biology & Neuroscience major, but instead just complete the pre-medical requirements so that I have room in my course schedule to take other subjects. While I did love human behavior, I felt like understanding it could come from almost any field too. I was so excited to try and learn new subjects because I wanted to know the field from different perspectives.
Midlife College Crisis
Believe it or not though, even with all this Venn Diagram planning, I didn’t end up studying what I had planned in high school. By the end of my freshman year in college, I realized I didn’t want to do such an intensive major like Cell Biology & Neuroscience so I ended up switching it to Public Health. At this time, I was doubting myself and whether I should even go to medical school. My freshmen year friends kept encouraging me to not give up so I told myself that I can try one more semester. In the beginning of my sophomore year in college though, I truly realized I wasn’t cut out to go to medical school…like seriously…I failed General Chemistry I. I was always a realistic person, despite my crazy planning. If I couldn’t even get through the basics, how could I realistically get through the intensity of medical school?
So here I was in my first semester of sophomore year, realizing that all the hours of planning I put into my college major plans my senior year of high school were falling apart. I knew I wasn’t the type of person to go to medical school at this point, but I felt so lost because I loved psychology so much. I wanted a career that I was proud of and that was also respected. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I wasn’t in any clubs or organizations either because I focused on my freshman year friend group that I didn’t even talk to anymore. I needed a plan because I always had one, but I was so lost. What can a girl with a triple major in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Public Health do if she’s not going to medical school?
A Nomad with Direction But Not a Plan
I started looking into Psychology PhD programs and psychology research. I thought that could gear my academic interests in that direction if I wasn’t planning to go to medical school for psychiatry. I didn’t really know exactly what field I wanted to study with a psychology PhD though. But I thought maybe I don’t need a plan for that since my first, detailed didn’t even work. I knew I was lacking extracurriculars though, so I decided that I would build myself up from there and hopefully along the way, I can find out what my exact interests in human behavior are.
In my spring semester of sophomore year, I rushed a sorority. I also started attending meetings at the Cognitive Science Club which was a student organization on campus. I got really involved in the Cognitive Science Club that towards the end of my sophomore year, I became Director of Marketing. Luckily for me, I also became involved in two psychology research labs to become a Research Assistant. It finally felt like I was building my extracurricular resume — even though I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in psychology. But even with that feeling in mind, I still pushed myself to do as much as I could because I knew the more paths I took, the more doors it could open for me.
Discovering User Experience
The Cognitive Science Club at Rutgers University held an event every week. Some events were guest speakers from various companies and others were community-based for the club itself, such as Trivia Night. In the beginning of the first semester of my junior year, we held a UI/UX Workshop with speakers from Airbnb and Colgate-Palmolive. It was the first time I truly heard what user experience was…and I fell in love.
User experience was such a well-rounded field, combining aspects of psychology, business, and technology for an end-goal.
I ended up reaching out to the UX speakers for the following months after the event. Just to give you an idea of how much of a beginner I was, I started from the basics and asked questions like “what is a portfolio?” and “what types of projects should I do?” to these speakers. While getting their advice, I did my own research on portfolio and project examples. I created my first official portfolio in December through Adobe Portfolio and started applying for jobs.
I worked on this portfolio for hours every single day during winter break of my junior year — I was becoming obsessed with it. I would play around with the site and change the colors and layout of it. I also kept changing my resume template. I was so conflicted on how to set everything up to make it look and feel good. Even though I was a beginner only knowing what UX was for 3 months, I wanted to stand out and get into the market.
Stepping into User Experience
I applied to countless internships during my spring semester of junior year. Many of those internships were way out of my league at the time. Surprisingly, a few companies got back to me that I never expected with my experience (or lack thereof at the time) like Google and Colgate-Palmolive.
At the time I was applying to internships, I also did some research into Rutgers University’s graduate programs and I found that they offered a 4+1 program for undergraduate students to obtain a Master of Business and Science (MBS) in Computer and Information Sciences with a concentration in User Experience Design. Although I was new to UX, I decided to apply because the program application at the time was free and they waived the GRE requirement. I went to meet the advisors in the MBS program too just to get a feel for it.
About one month later, I was accepted into the 4+1 Master of Business and Science in Computer and Information Sciences with a concentration in User Experience Design! How crazy do I sound now as a triple major in Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Public Health (with a certificate in Health Disparities) and part of the 4+1 MBS program studying User Experience Design? Such a mouthful.
Part of me felt like I was going extremely overboard. I was glad that I got into the 4+1 MBS program, but I also wondered if all three of my majors were even worth it. I was having doubts in whether or not I should give up my Public Health major, and just be a double major in Cognitive Science and Psychology. But I was already too deep into my Public Health degree — at that point, I already did more classes needed for even just a minor in Public Health. I didn’t want to quit either because I had already told people that I was a triple major so I decided to stick to my guns and complete the Public Health major even though I didn’t feel like I truly needed it anymore.
Health and User Experience
By the middle of my junior year (around the time of COVID-19 locking the world down…no big deal), I was accepted into an internship program for a startup called UNAR Labs as an Accessibility UX Researcher. It was honestly a miracle that I got accepted because I was on the verge of giving up with applications. I barely had any experience with UX, let alone accessibility, and UNAR Labs took a leap of faith in me and wanted me to be a part of their team full-time in the summer as their intern. What was amazing was that UNAR Labs was looking for graduate student interns and I applied to the internship as a graduate student because technically I was since I was in the 4+1 program. From my understanding today, if I was not accepted into the 4+1 program, I highly doubt I would have gotten the internship at UNAR Labs (even though I had not even taken a graduate course at the time).
In my UNAR Labs interview process, I had a design exercise to create an accessible mobile iOS application for presenting coronavirus data. During the time, I was following the coronavirus data very extensively and would view counts every day. I think that my background in Public Health also made me more aware about coronavirus. During this design exercise, it hit me that I could actually incorporate my background in Public Health and bring it into the field of user experience.
What I started to notice too with UXers is that everyone came from different backgrounds. Some people worked in business as marketers, others were computer programmers, and even someone I knew was a social psychologist with a PhD. Being a UXer means understanding the user to have empathy for them and what better way to have that than by having UXers with all different kinds of experiences?
