My son is waitlisted for Computer Engineering but (on the hope he gets offered admission): Is it possible to minor in a humanities major (maybe English)?
(He has been accepted to UCSC, UCSD and CPP. Waiting on UCR and CAL)
It’s possible, but it will take some extra work. There just aren’t a lot of free electives in the curriculum. My son’s girlfriend graduated in Civil and minored in philosophy.
It would be interesting to have a minor, but remember, for every class one takes towards achieving what is really a valueless piece of paper (engineering employers for the most part don’t put any positive emphasis on minors; even if it’s a tech minor they only care about the classes) it crowds out the ability to take a tech class.
Good luck!
Thanks for letting us know it has been done at SLO. He is choosing between UCSD and UCSC but we would love it if he got off the waitlist!
A humanities minor is hardly a “valueless piece of paper”. Lol
@momneeds2no, maybe you should go over to the engineering forum and convince all of the hiring engineers that say that over and over why they are wrong.
I am not saying that any of that additional knowledge is useless. A minor however forces one into a ridged number and set of courses to get the paper.
No doubt completing a minor along with a Cal poly engineering degree is logistically difficult. But to assume it’s the case across the board, especially at top univetdities, is naive. To assume that employers don’t value well rounded applicants who demonstrate proven track records of juggling multiple interests is absrud.
@momneeds2no, please ask this on the engineering forum if you want the opinion of engineers who hire. I can assure you, having read this same question MANY times, that the answer will confirm what I’ve already said. It may seem absurd to you, but the vast consensus is that engineers hire technical competencies.
How well rounded someone is can easily be displayed by the clubs they’ve been involved in, the jobs they’ve held and the hobbies they spend their time on. One could argue that a minor displays exactly what engineering employers do not want to see, a student’s face still in the books. It does nothing to show the desired quality described by long term hiring engineer @HPuck35 “plays well with others.” It simply shows they took different classes, at the expense of other technical work.
Now I’m not saying all non-technical classes are worthless. They aren’t. Minors can be very restrictive though forcing students to take classes they might rather not, simply for the paper. The classes they take are what matter, not the diploma. The paper adds little to no value to a student’s resume looking for a job.
I have never ever ever been asked my minor, which is good because they weren’t offered at my school.
I work in engineering field alongside engineers every day. I’ve seen the recent grads who move up in their careers and the ones who sit behind the same computer screen completing the same task for 15 years.
Here’s a list o cp slo minors. Aside from the obvious reason for completing a minor, to round your education and challenge yourself with diverse section of disciplines (aka adding a humanities minor), a minor can add breadth to your degree. Some interesting minors for engneers might be, entrepreneurship, law and society (global focus), construction management, economics, etc.
OP asked if a minor was feasible or possible.
Most minors only have a 6 course requirement and 4 of those can often be part of the 7 required humanities engineering degree requirements. I can’t even imagine that a hiring manager would feel that one minor would dilute an engineering degree. It is more likely for a graduate to be picked out of a pile if the minor contributes to the job’s objectives.
A second language for international projects, economics, art or linguistics minor for a CS major (think Steve Jobs), biology for an ME, EE, CBE in medical equipment, the possibilities are endless. Studying another subject does not mean that you cannot play well with others. Being able to present a project in a foreign language and working with finance dept to fund projects do contribute to being a team player and helping the project move forward.
@KLSD, 8 hours of the Computer Engineering GE requirements could be counted towards the minor in English (one C1 and one C4 course). The minor is 28 hours. Computer Engineering has zero free electives.
I never said there was anything inherently wrong with the coursework for a minor. SOME of it can be useful in the right situation. The paper, I’m arguing has no inherent worth and lots of restrictions, in the form of taking courses that are expensive, might not be useful and can crowd out technical classes.
It doesn’t say can not play well with others. It’s agnostic on the subject.
So minors at CO SLO are expensive and not worth much? Good to know.
I am indeed saying that for engineers a minor is a worthless piece of paper. Hiring engineers look at the classes students take and how well they align with the job they are hiring for. If someone is hiring for a heat transfer position and they are debating between two students who interview equally well, with the same GPAs, one with the deepest coursework in HT and one with less coursework in HT and a minor in anything, the candidate with more heat transfer wins every time. It isn’t that the coursework of philosophy, English, foreign language, etc. might make a person more well rounded, but they can do that equally well on their own time.
For engineering majors at Cal Poly, I would suggest that the time you might spend completing a minor would be better spent on a club geared towards your major - for example, the Baja Racing club for ME majors, or the PolySat Club for Aero majors.
The question is how feasible is adding a humanities minor to engineering degree, not are minors at CP “worthless”?