Minor in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

I am a rising Junior in the L&S Computer Science program and I am interested in pursuing a minor in either of these fields. At this point it is too late for me to change majors entirely. I looked at my schedule and can fit in one or the other, or both (with an extra semester).

Question: If I want to go to a graduate school of similar caliber to Berkeley for either Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, would it be possible to do so with only a minor?

Thanks

2

Here are what the chemical and mechanical engineering departments expect from applicants to their graduate programs:

http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/grad/cbe/admission
http://www.me.berkeley.edu/StudentAffairs/ProspectiveStudents/Graduate/FAQ/PreApp.html#p9

Try asking the departments directly if you want more detail. There may, of course, be some variation at other schools.

3

Sure, 2.5 years should be enough time to do a minor at least for ME.
As far as grad school is concerned, it depends which field within ME you want to study and how well you express you’re interested in that field.

4

Minor doesn’t help in the real world, so not sure why many people are willing to take so many classes to get a useless diploma. Try doubling, I’m pretty sure the difference is 2-3 classes at most b/w a minor and another degree (if you have 2 classes to overlap b/w the two majors).

5

^ I don’t know, almost all jobs are interdisciplinary… It only takes 6 ME courses to get the ME minor assuming the lower-div physics and math are taken care of, so there is certainly a difference in course load between major and minor.

It’s not useless diploma, and certainly not a matter of qualification, but more of showing how your experience is relevant for the job or grad school you want along with timing, budget, specific skills, internal personnel, etc.