How useful would a minor in one of the sciences be?

[b_r_um]

<p>

I actually think just one political philosophy class, with the right professor, can be extremely beneficial. You learn to question your and others’ long held beliefs on a myriad of subjects, and you learn some machinery to test the validity of many claims people around you may make.

You also get that from a proof-based math or rigorous science or social science class. The only departments (at my liberal arts college) where many students seem unacquainted with rigorous reasoning are the humanities. </p>

<p>

Music will almost certainly give you skills in playing a musical instrument (different from music history), which for me is a hobby that is very practical in life.

If we include include playing an instrument under “practicalities of life”, then we should also include building electrical circuits. Artistic hobbies are no more “practical” than technical ones. I was thinking of “skills for the practicalities of life” as something that helps me with other aspects of my life, including non-monetary ones, rather than something I do for the sake of itself (like playing an instrument). As L’Hopital pointed out, your use of “practical” isn’t very useful because it includes anything that anyone could ever do for fun.</p>

<p>

Why? I don’t want to here that I’ll know how to fix my computer better, because my friend who is one of the top programmers at my university couldn’t even fix my computer, even though he is paid to do so. He overanalyzed it a ton for like an hour. When I decided to try a couple things I fixed the problem in like five minutes.

The average computer science major knows as little about fixing computers as the average astronomy major knows about the inner workings of modern telescopes or an English major about the production process of a dictionary.</p>