Katie Aberbach Staff Writer

The next time you find yourself regretting this semester’s five class course load, or your decision to double major, think of Steve Gilhool. The senior has not one, not two, but three (that’s right, three) majors: astronomy, physics, and Japanese. He is the sole triple major in the entire Class of 2005. But he wouldn’t call himself an overachiever.

“I pretty much procrastinate all the time,” Gilhool said. “But I get what I need to get done. [The workload] actually hasn’t been too bad until this semester. Other than that, it’s been pretty manageable.”

Gilhool claims that he never planned to become a triple major—or even a double major. His majors simply reflect his interests, and he just happened to have taken enough courses to major in all three departments, he said.

Astronomy and physics are common double majors at Vassar because they complement each other, and some courses can count for both majors. Gilhool came to Vassar with experience and an interest in physics, and a curiosity about astronomy. He declared the two majors—first astronomy, followed by physics—during his sophomore year.

“I’ve been good at physics since high school,” said Gilhool of his beginnings in Wynnewood, PA. “And I guess I’ve always just had some interest in [astronomy]. I think it would be cool to be an astronaut.”

Like physics and astronomy, Japanese has also been one of Gilhool’s long-time academic interests. He began to study the language in high school, and had always planned to continue studying Japanese in college. He declared a correlate in Japanese, but when it became an official major this year, Gilhool learned that he had enough credits to become a major.

In addition to the Japanese language and culture courses that he has taken at Vassar, Gilhool gained a semester of Japanese credit last fall, when he studied abroad in Japan. He was in a Vassar-approved program at the Kansai Gaidai University, which is located between Osaka and Kyoto. “It was a lot of fun and a great experience,” Gilhool said of his semester abroad. “I’d definitely recommend it.”

Senior theses are optional for all three of Gilhool’s majors, and Gilhool decided not to undertake any theses. He is currently taking four courses this semester, and plans to take another four next semester to complete his degree.

Despite Gilhool’s fairly leisurely pace and low-key attitude toward a triple major, some College administrators do not encourage students to undertake multiple majors. Dean of Studies Sandy Thompson, for example, believes that many students aspire to be multiple majors in hopes that a second line on their transcript will make them more attractive applicants to jobs or graduate school. The negative result of choosing more than one major, Thompson believes, is that students may be forced to take courses in which they are not particularly interested, and are left with little time to explore areas outside of their majors.

“It’s worrisome to me when students extract the courses they would have wanted to take (if they had time),” said Thompson. “The liberal arts college is really the last opportunity many of us would have to experiment with new areas of study, to broaden their horizons and interests. It’s really a luxury.”

Triple majors like Gilhool are “very rare” at Vassar, Thompson said. The Dean of Studies office does not keep track of the number of triple majors; Thompson estimates that there have been ten triple majors in the last ten years. While Gilhool is the only triple major in this year’s graduating class, as of the end of October, 86 students in the Class of 2005 were double majors, according to the Registrar.

Gilhool, who was unaware that administrators discourage multiple majors, said that his triple major has not restricted his selection of classes, nor his exploration of new areas of study.

“Astronomy and physics are natural extensions of each other,” Gilhool said, “and Japanese is so different from the two of them. Since I already had almost all of the credits, that situation wasn’t true of me.”

Besides working as the Japanese department’s intern, Gilhool is a middle hitter on the men’s volleyball team. He completed an internship this summer with the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium, conducting research on pulsars with a professor from Haverford College.

Gilhool hopes to pursue his interests in astronomy, physics and Japanese in the future, but is still uncertain about next year’s plans. He says he may apply for graduate study in astrophysics in the next few years, and also hopes to return to Japan.

“My long term plan is just to be successful and happy,” said Gilhool. “I just want to end up doing something that I like.”