Does a Minor in Mathematics Help with Engineering Grad School Admissions?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm an undergrad engineering student with ambitions of grad school in Aerospace Engineering. I'm only 2 classes away from a minor in Math. Would adding a minor in Math help with my grad school admissions or would it simply be overlooked?? If it would not help me maybe I should not waste my time going through two more rigorous math courses. Does anyone have experience with this?</p>

<p>Thanks in Advance!</p>

2

<p>In my experience, engineering grad programs are much more mathematically rigorous than undergrad programs. Being stronger in math will definitely help you complete a grad degree, but for admissions it is a little more iffy - they are only likely to care about one or two relevant math courses, so a full minor might not help if it goes beyond the,.</p>

3

<p>cosmicfish, thanks for the helpful reply. I didn’t know there was such a leap in math curriculum between undergrad and graduate engineering. That is good to know. I originally was only considering a Math Minor to boost my admissions chances. Anyone else have any input on whether a Math Minor will boost my chances for grad school? Would it be completely ignored?</p>

4

<p>In general, grad admissions don’t care about minors or double-majors – they care about courses. If fulfilling a math minor will keep you from taking one or two courses, math or otherwise, that are more relevant to your intended graduate field, then you should drop the minor.</p>

5

<p>no, everyone in engineering has a minor in math. If your school is like mine you get the minor as apart of the curriculum. I would assume that your school is very similar. It wont tell the grad school much about your abilities as a student. I have a minor in math and Econ and only the econ really helps</p>

6

<p>

Not true, although it is often close. At Penn State, for example, an EE major automatically completes most of the requirements for minors in math and physics, but each of those minors requires a certain number of senior-level courses not included in the core EE curriculum. Some of these courses can be taken as technical electives, but it is not a perfect overlap - you can get a physics minor using only technical electives, but a math minor would require at least one additional course, all assuming you are willing to spend your electives this way (not usually a good idea).</p>