It is not uncommon for students to be a double major or possibly even a triple major, but senior Ben Black became the first student at Bluffton University to be a quadruple major. His four majors are chemistry, physics, mathematics and pre-engineering.
This fall semester, Black added pre-engineering, one of Bluffton’s newest programs, as his fourth major.
Senior Ben Black is a quadruple major in chemistry, mathematics, physics, and pre-engineering. Wit file photo
Black began his college career as a chemistry major at Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio. After transferring to Bluffton his sophomore year, he decided to add physics as his second major.
“I quickly picked up a physics major before classes started due to the amount of overlap and extra time I would have had in my schedule,” said Black.
In his first semester at Bluffton, he took multivariate calculus where he said he learned just how much he enjoyed math classes. He chose all math classes for his electives before deciding to declare mathematics as his third major.
“I thought, why not get something out of it?” said Black. “I decided to add a math minor, but that quickly changed to a major. Why add a minor when you can add a major?”
When Black added the pre-engineering major, he officially had four majors declared.
“I added the fourth major so I would be the first Bluffton student with four majors,” said Black. “It also fits well with want I want to do with my career.”
Black said he wants to continue working with research and development. He was an intern in a research and development lab during his first year of college as well as the past three summers.
“I hope this major will help to open up some communication with other engineers,” said Black. “There is often a communication block between scientists with no engineering experience and the the engineers they need to work closely with.”
However, even though Black said he believes pre-engineering will be helpful for his future, he still had to work out some of the kinks.
“There was a lot of trepidation from my advisor, Luke Myers, to let me do this,” said Black. “He didn’t want me to overload myself.”
Black said he had an idea of how to fit pre-engineering into his schedule.
“It took some strategic planning to see how classes would fit to add a four-year major during my senior year,” said Black. “To accomplish this, I will have one class, analytical mechanics, as a directed study with Luke Myers in fall 2019.”
Black is taking a class off-campus in the evenings this semester.
“[I am taking a class] at Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio, engineering statics, which I am driving one hour and 15 minutes one way, once a week for the three-hour night class to satisfy the major,” said Black. “This is a course that the science department does not plan to offer for a few years through an adjunct, but I only have three semesters left.”
Black said he typically gets one of two reactions when asked about his four majors.
“People often ask me why I would do this to myself, or if I am crazy,” said Black. His responses? “Wanting to stay busy” and “yes.”
