Hey everyone! Just a quick question here; I have been looking around on College websites for minors in Graduate School, but I can’t seem to find any. Is it actually possible to have a minor when obtaining a Master’s?
Some schools do it and some don’t, but generally not with master’s degrees. The purpose is really to specialize anyway, so I’m not sure what you hope to achieve with a minor.
Generally not. Sometimes you can take a class or two in other areas, but it depends on the program. Since a masters is typically only a 2 year program, there is little time for additional courses.
There are master’s degrees that are interdisciplinary like Scandinavian Studies, stuff like that. Generally no, though. If you have a secondary discipline you can use it as part of your thesis or dissertation, though.
Thanks for all the info!
For my M.S. it was very common to have a major field of study and a related minor field. e.g. Soil Science as the major and Vegetable Crops as the minor.
Actually, you can. It’s actually relatively common…however, it’s usually not called a “minor.” Some schools call it a “specialization,” and sometimes you can get a “certificate” in addition to your MS or PhD, but those essentially serve the same functions as minors in college.
The difference is that the specialization is usually directly related to your work and not a chance for you to explore other areas. So, for example, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for an MS program in statistics to offer a specialization or a certificate in finance. (I think this is what you are interested in.) But it would not be likely to have a minor in Spanish or history.
The other thing is that many graduate programs are pretty flexible, so even if they don’t formally have a minor or specialization, you can build one. I built my own specialization in methods when I was in graduate school.