<p>I'm a biochemistry major. I realized I have space to add classes for a minor, and I still have time to do this because I'm only starting my sophomore year of college. I tried to think of possible minors but it's surprisingly hard. Bio and Chem are out, they're too similar to my major, and I don't want to get something totally out there like Russian or English (both things I'm slightly interested in, but too much effort to minor in)</p>
<p>So I figured, why not get a psych minor? I'm interested in psychology, I already have AP Psych credit so I can get right into the interesting stuff, and - okay this is going to sound awful no matter how I say it - I have a baby brother who was recently diagnosed with autism, and if I minor in psych I'll get the opportunity to learn more about his condition in higher level psych classes as a junior or senior. </p>
<p>I talked to my parents about getting a psych minor. My dad doesn't care but my mom is against it. She says it won't help me in my research career, and it's a waste of the tuition money she's paying. I tried to explain to her that having a minor looks better for grad school, and that psychology is a genuine interest of mine, but she's still against it. I didn't want to mention my little brother because she might accuse me of being selfish for using him in an argument like that. </p>
<p>So, how can I convince my mom to let me get a psych minor? Does it genuinely look better to have a minor in addition to a major when applying for grad school? Is there a way to somehow use psychology when doing biological or medical research? Should I mention autism at all? Halp... </p>
<p>Minors make no difference for grad school, but if you like it, then go for it. Tell your parents that if you didn’t do a focused minor, you would just be taking a bunch of random elective classes that would be even less useful for a research career.</p>
<p>Also, why do you need your parents permission? You could just not tell them about the minor…</p>
<p>Well if the minor gives you a focus on courses instead of random elective courses, I don’t see how that would be a bad thing. You are still focusing on completing your major, and the only case I would be against it is if it takes extra time to graduate. They are certainly interrelated in some aspects, but you may find a field like neuroscience better connects the two with its interdisciplinary nature. Anyways, minors don’t matter that much in the long run, but if that is what you are interested in, why do you think your parents are against it?</p>
<p>How controlling of your mother to be saying anything about a proposed minor except ‘how interesting!’ Are you saying she has to pay more for you to take a minor? If so then just don’t take one, it matters little for grad school. Just take whatever electives you want, you shouldn’t have to justify curiosity and scholarship in any area. You can give the famous example of Steve Jobs auditing a calligraphy class out of interest, then using it many years later in selecting typeface for apple computer and how he developed a real design aesthetic that defined his company in the marketplace. People use stuff in their life, and learning about something you are interested in is never a waste. You want to take stuff that keeps you interested and motivated and this is a nice contrast to your major to stimulate your mind and learn other things. I guess this is a lesson to avoid being forthcoming with your mom about your schedule.</p>
<p>Waste of tuition money? How so? I’m sure you need social science credits anyway and a minor usually consists of relatively few courses… Does your school have a Cognitive Science minor? This might be a good alternative because many times psych courses overlap and may count toward this minor…But I believe psych always relates to any major…a basic understanding of human nature is never a waste…can you show your mom the courses you would anticipate taking? I think maybe this is a lack of understanding on your mom’s end…</p>
<p>Yeah, my mom is actually quite controlling lol. She says it will cost extra because technically, I CAN fulfill all my requirements without taking a minor. Having any sort of minor will increase the total credit hours I have to take, which increases the amount my parents have to pay I guess. Still, I’ll try explaining things to her again, because it’s ridiculous for her to control the classes I take in college. </p>
<p>You have a set number of credits you have to fulfill to graduate…is your mom correct that a minor will cause them to pay more or does the minor fit without extra expense? Do you pay by the credit hour or by semester with the possibility of varying amounts of hours? Is she thinking you could graduate in less than four years by taking only your major requirements? I think you need to map out all the required courses for the two- major and minor and then ask someone in your major dept. to back up your reasoning for a psych minor.</p>
<p>Go ahead and sign up for the psych courses. (I minored in this area because the coursework overlapped and I could get two for one credit)</p>
<p>In order for you to work effectively with various personalities in the research field, you have to be able to deal with their personal “idiosyncrasies” especially at the fiscal year deadlines, during the Grant and funding phases of research. (If you watch the Big Bang Theory, when they discuss funding for research, you can see how they discuss and exaggerate the personality issues-but they’re not too far off.)</p>
<p>Additionally, some of the psycho-social experiments you will conduct have a lot to do with pecking order/flow chart “mentality” of research.</p>
<p>When you take physiological psychology, a required course for any psych major and minor, you will be studying the cranial nerves, the circle of Willis, the meninges, neurotransmitters, etc. This is a tough course. How these areas of the brain respond to medications, behaviors, and various psychological conditions will affect and impact your research. If your research involves human subjects, you’ll be ahead of the game because you will know how to deal with your control and experimental groups. </p>
<p>One of the required books for this course was an anatomical “coloring” book which really helped my understanding of the pathways. Additionally, when you interview for any research position, highlight your psych minor and indicate to them how your psych experiments overlapped with your major (Brownie points!) to help with your research. We always had an overlap of disciplines when we studied the brain.</p>
<p>@aunt bea physiological psychology is certainly not a required class for psych majors and minors at all schools, and nothing even similar to that was offered at my school. Requirements vary widely from school to school</p>
<p>@OP: check what specific classes are required for the psych minor at your school and see if they are relevant to your interests. I think it’s admirable to want to learn more about autism to better understand your little brother, but the vast majority of psych classes do NOT touch on autism except for abnormal psychology. You might be better off just taking the class in abnormal rather than completing the whole minor if the rest of the classes are topics that would not interest you.</p>
<p>The OP wanted to know how to convince her parents about psych. This was an avenue that could be used. The OP can take abnormal psych and physiological psych if the option is there and this is an area of interest for the OP. This coursework was part of our minor in California. Requirements probably do vary among schools.</p>