A double life. Could you do it?

[Emily Petree]

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It seems that many students find it hard to complete the course load required for their major in the standard four years. As the "5-year plan" becomes increasingly common, students able to finish two majors in little more than four years are harder to find.

One Auburn University student, with a great deal of planning and paperwork, decided that completing two majors was her goal. Becca Bedsole will graduate in December with a major in both apparel merchandising and public relations.

Upon entering Auburn, Bedsole was a declared apparel merchandising major. "I've always been in love with fashion and knew it was what I wanted to do," Bedsole explained. "I was introduced to public relations in a high school public speaking class and was very intrigued by it."

The College of Human Sciences distributed a spiral bound book explaining that these disciplines complemented and interacted well with each other. Upon completing a journalism fundamentals class, she applied to the public relations major and began integrating her courses.

Although the planning and course loads have been far from easy, at least some of the courses required for each major overlapped. For example, a number of the professional electives required for apparel merchandising are also requirements for public relations. While most graduates will receive their diploma for about 120 hours, Bedsole will have completed more than 150 by December.

In order to achieve her goal in just more than 4 years, Bedsole has had to push her limits. Naturally a driven person who's never taken less than 15 credits, she received special permission to take course overloads for the past several semesters. Bedsole has been enrolled in enough course credits over the past year to make most students' heads spin. Last fall, she completed 19 hours, along with working as a teacher's assistant 6 hours each week. The following semester she took 16 credits, another 15 during the summer session and is currently in 18.

"Everything had to work out perfectly to graduate with a double major," Bedsole emphasized.

If those numbers don't speak for themselves, her internship ambition will make up the difference. Because each of her majors requires its own internship, which can only be completed following certain upper-level classes, Bedsole has tailored an internship to meet her requirements by working closely with both of her internship supervisors.

Bedsole has a 12-week internship with fashion label MINT Jodi Arnold in New York City for the upcoming summer. Because she's not allowed to use one internship to count for both, she will be doing 3 hours each day in public relations activities and 6 hours each day in apparel merchandising assignments, to finish the summer with 540 total hours.

Although this ranks within her ideal internships, she sacrificed the opportunity to take a paid internship, which is usually required of apparel merchandising students. Again, she had to receive permission from her internship supervisor to take an unpaid position by explaining why she believes this role is the right choice.

"I helped plan photo shoots and fashion shows for both of the boutiques I worked at in high school. In addition to that, I love the showroom management aspect and I wanted to deal with the public on the fashion side," Bedsole continues.