Let's say you have the aspirations of a double major but the laziness of the average, single-majoring college student. Or, perhaps there's a major that would just look oh-so-good on your resume when it's in the hands of Mr. Goldman or Mr. Sachs, but you just really, really don't want to take that Econometrics class you've heard is so terrible. Thanks to the ingenuity of Dartmouth's major system, all your problems are just a modification away.
For me, the decision to modify my major stemmed mostly from my desire to continue making fun of art history majors. Whenever a student would mention to me that he or she was an art history major, I'd let out a good chuckle at the utter inanity of spending $200,000 on a college education only to lock yourself out of any form of future employment. I mean, let's be honest. Most people realize that memorizing the names and dates of countless paintings is going to be relatively useless unless you plan on being a contestant on a (currently non-existent) art-themed game show.
Then one fateful morning during my junior year, I awoke in a cold sweat, having just realized that the only real difference between being a film major (which I was) and being an art history major is that majoring in film is way cooler. How could I continue to ridicule the absurdity of Dartmouth art enthusiasts who decide to eschew the soulless but respected majors of econ and gov to pursue a major about which they are actually passionate, unless I was to change my own major? And then it dawned on me: modification!
Yes, it is true. You can pursue a useless major that fascinates you without necessarily precluding yourself from a life of corporate prostitution. In my case, I chose to keep film, but added the words "modified with economics" to my resume, thus convincing any potential employer that because I've taken classes on the principles of supply/demand and the mechanics of the finance system, I must be eligible for practically any job.
What's the difference between a film major/econ minor and a film-modified-with-econ major? Who knows and that's the point. To me at least, they sound pretty identical, and I'm pretty sure I could just about convince anyone in a job interview that the required courses for my major were pretty much the same as those of a film major/econ minor. However, should I have pursued the latter, it would have required me to take more courses in BOTH film and economics, including some pretty nasty econ courses. Instead, I get to put the word "economics" on my resume without ever actually taking an advanced course in the subject.
So what is a major modification? It's basically a way to fluff your resume without exerting any extra effort. Pick a major to modify (this one should be the one you want to take the most classes in), then pick a major to modify with (for me this was economics), write up a half-decent justification for your modification, and voila you've successfully committed to a double major with half the work. If your smaller, "modified with" aspect of the major isn't harder and/or more respected than the bigger, "modified" part of your major, then you are missing the point of what a major modification is.
So when you're sitting in that impossible-to-pass seminar for your major and about to give up all hope of ever finishing the required courses, don't give up! If you can stomach five minutes in the Registrar and the identity ambiguity of being somewhere between an intellectual and a sellout, a modification is your ticket to ease your courseload in a major way.
