A Double-Edged Sword? Double Concentrations Create Both Pressure and Opportunity for Harvard Students

Three years since Harvard introduced double concentrations, the number of students pursuing them has nearly doubled.

In the 2022-23 academic year, there were 525 students pursuing double concentrations. The number rose to 861 in the 2023-24 academic year — then to 991 in 2024-25.

When the Faculty of Arts and Sciences first approved double concentrations in 2022, the faculty intended to offer students the opportunity to seek degrees in two disciplines without writing a joint thesis, similar to the double majors offered by many peer schools. In spring 2024, the first class of double concentrators walked across the Commencement stage.

Some students agree that the new degree pathway has offered them more freedom to dive deep into diverse academic interests. But others say the rising double concentration numbers reflect pressure for students to differentiate themselves from their peers — or pad their resumes for potential employers.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda J. Claybaugh first anticipated that only a few students would want to pursue double concentrations. In reality, she said, students began packing more classes into each semester to tack a second concentration onto their degree.

Claybaugh wrote in a statement that double concentrations “can be a good choice for students who are genuinely interested in studying two different things — and who are willing to make sacrifices to do so.”

But she added that she worried piling on two credentials was becoming a “default expectation.”

“It’s great when students are interested in two different things, but often a concentration and a secondary makes more sense,” Claybaugh wrote. “And it’s great when students want to do something academically ambitious, but a double concentration is only one of many academically ambitious paths.”

Henry Zeghibe ’28, who studies History and Government, said that double concentrating has “the most requirements” out of any degree path that Harvard College students can follow.

“Obviously, that’s a blessing and a curse in the sense that it means that you’ve got far less electives that you can take,” Zeghibe said.

Double concentrators fall into two main categories, said Adam C. Hesterberg, associate director of undergraduate studies in Computer Science. In the first, students take a variety of courses — then, after a few semesters, they realize the classes naturally fill two buckets, so they declare a double.

In the second, however, students feel “grade compression, grade inflation, subsequent grade compression has left them with not much way to distinguish themselves by grades,” Hesterberg said.

According to Hesterburg, that means some students resort to planning out an entire four-year schedule to fit in courses satisfying two sets of requirements with little room left to explore.

In the Computer Science department alone, 143 of the 471 concentrators pursue a double concentration. Of those, 52 are with Economics, 51 are with fields adjacent to Computer Science — Applied Math, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, or Physics. The other doubles are with concentrations in the humanities, life sciences, and social sciences.

In interviews with The Crimson, several students said they expect having an additional concentration on their resume will boost their chances in the job market.

Tudor “Teri” Terian-Dan ’28, who comped The Crimson’s News board in spring 2025, said that he feels pressure from both Harvard and the job market to take on more than one concentration. He said a double will help him stand out to employers and academic programs.

“If you want to go into quant, for example, it’s very useful to have something else like computer science, statistics, and applied mathematics on top of your economics degree,” he said.

A secondary field would not suffice, Terian-Dan said. It signals “you didn’t embark on an academically rigorous enough road to have two concentrations,” he added.

Double concentrations have allowed some international students seeking to lengthen their stay in the U.S. to pursue humanities and social sciences degrees, in addition to degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math — fields that tend to be more conducive to visa extensions.

The STEM Optional Practical Training extension program introduced by the Department of Homeland Security in 2008 allowed international students to remain for three years instead of just one when they pursue STEM degrees.

“I wanted a three-year visa after college,” Rauf Nawaz ’28, an Economics and Social Studies double concentrator and a former Crimson News editor, said. “If I just did a joint or just Social Studies, I would only be able to work in the U.S. for one year, and then I would require a work visa.”

Double concentrators sometimes pursue one concentration for job purposes and another out of personal interest — “one is for mom, and one is for me,” as Claybaugh put it in an interview.

Elise Tao ’28, who comped The Crimson in fall 2024, said she would pursue a single concentration in English with a secondary in Economics in “a perfect world.”

“It’s more realistic in the current job market for me to double concentrate,” she continued.

“Definitely a part of me was thinking about it in terms of my career and what I wanted to do after college,” said Sophia Mills ’27, who studies Government and Economics. But she added that double concentrating was also a good way to satisfy her interests in fields with relatively little overlap in required coursework.

Some faculty said they worried that — rather than opening up new opportunities for students to follow their academic interests — double concentrations merely amped up the pressure to seek a degree that might appeal to employers.

“I worry a little bit about the students who are pursuing a plan of study that reflects a bifurcation between their real intellectual interests and their understanding of the employment market that waits for them,” said David F. Elmer, the director of undergraduate studies in Classics.

History professor Mary D. Lewis, the department’s director of undergraduate studies, said that “students and sometimes their families have incomplete information about what employers are looking for.”

Lewis said she fears that students see doubles as another accomplishment to check off in the “arms race” of Harvard’s competitive atmosphere.

“Harvard is an incredibly competitive place, and I think sometimes slowing down a little bit wouldn’t be the worst idea,” Lewis said.

But not all students in double concentrations see them as a significant additional academic burden.

“Looking at all the requirements, I said it’s definitely doable in those four years, and I would take the same amount of classes, even if I would take a joint or a minor,” said Stefan Nicov ’27, double concentrator in Statistics and Economics. “So in the end, if I’m still taking the same amount of course load, why not just do the double?”

And some students said that career interests were not a major factor behind their decision to double concentrate.

Ashley R. Ferreira ’24 declared a double in Government and Art, Film, and Visual Studies during the fall semester after its approval in April 2022. In her experience, she said, “it really wasn’t the case” that double concentrators in AFVS “were just rushing just to get it to put on a resume.”

“It was something that really allowed us to explore our interests in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to without the double concentration,” said Ferreira, a former Crimson News editor.

Ferreira, who is now in law school, produced a 15-minute film about a jury deliberation inspired by “12 Angry Men” for her thesis. Without a double concentration, she said, “the government department had very stringent requirements and would not have approved a plan to do a creative thesis.”

In just a few years, the College’s culture rapidly embraced double concentrations — so much so, Claybaugh said, that they’re now part of how many Harvard freshmen introduce themselves.

“‘I want to concentrate in this and that’ — it’s become part of their Harvard introduction,” she said. “It’s almost like it’s embarrassing to only have one, and I worry about that norm.”

With a five-year review of double concentrations coming up in 2027, a subcommittee of faculty who sit on the FAS’s Standing Committee on Undergraduate Educational Policy will soon have a chance to weigh whether the degree pathway should continue in its current form.

Some of their colleagues see cause for caution.

“It is very onerous to do a double concentration, and you certainly deprive yourself of the opportunity to do a lot of the intellectual exploration that a liberal arts education should really be about,” Elmer said.

—Staff writer Ellen P. Cassidy can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Catherine Jeon can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @cathj186.