<p>Why do some people have minors? What good are they?</p>
<p>I am a Psychology major and am thinking about having a minor in Speech Communications.</p>
<p>Is it pointless?</p>
<p>i would like to know the same thing..what is the point of having a minor?</p>
<p>As a way of demonstrating competency in a different subject. For example, I was a Materials Science & Engineering major and minored in Physics. During my interviews at grad schools most professors brought up my minor in Physics as a positive, especially since I took mostly challenging classes relating to materials subjects.</p>
<p>I don't think they would have cared at all if I had minored in history or psychology, though.</p>
<p>They want to have the satisfaction of having knowledge in an additional area other than their major.</p>
<p>It's a way of indicating proficiency in a subject that you didn't major in. Saying "minored in x" is smoother than saying "took a lot of classes in x."</p>
<p>so do you get any sort of recogniton that you minored in something? like a certificate or whatnot? or do you just take a bunch of extra classes in a topic other than your major and say you minored in it?</p>
<p>yea I was wondering why would somebody minor in a subject rather then just double major?</p>
<p>I minored in french because I like the language, not for any other particular reason. Anthropology (my major) also lends itself to learning a foreign language. I didn't want to major in french, because I wanted to learn to speak the language, not have to read baudelaire in the original french.</p>
<p>Minoring rather than double majoring will allow you to take additional electives in your major or any other area.</p>
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yea I was wondering why would somebody minor in a subject rather then just double major?
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<p>Minoring instead of double majoring let me bypass all of the required courses in physics that I wasn't interested in. I didn't want to take the intro physics classes for physics majors, I didn't want to take an extra year of quantum, I didn't want to take courses in astronomy or upper-level E&M stuff. I just wanted to take a handful of classes within the department. It also made it a lot easier for me to graduate early than if I had tried to double major.</p>
<p>And many times you may find that minoring in something is easier than you believe. It varies by college, but this is just an example.</p>
<p>Say you are an engineering major, you take calc 1-3, diffy eq, and a couple advanced math electives. Then depending on your college, you may be a class or two away from being able to minor in mathematics. That could be a possible plus to some employers if you do decide to take the classes and get the minor(and if you could use it, why not?)</p>
<p>At my college, double majoring was difficult. Minoring was the best option for someone who wanted to study two subjects, one as the primary and the other as a complementary subject.</p>
<p>I was a psychology major in college. I started out deciding to minor in mathematics, but I dropped the minor because it was too much homework. I am kicking myself now because mathematics is actually pretty important on the graduate level in psychology -- I have a good quantitative brain and preparation (more than most psych majors, actually) but I wish I had taken a more varied background in calculus and differential equations and applied it to the statistics I know. Then I could skip all this introductory bs and start doing some consulting in statistics and writing some serious papers.</p>
<p>Personal experience aside, adding a minor -- especially one that complements your major, but is substantially different enough from it -- can be beneficial. Personally, I don't see the point of majoring in engineering and minoring in physics unless one just comes across it casually (they took so many physics classes that they qualify for the minor with one or two more classes). Physics and engineering employ a very similar skill set. But, say, you majored in engineering and minored in psychology? Then one could do human factors engineering, which is a hot field right now, or may qualify for management positions or I/O psychology. A minor in Japanese could land you an overseas position in the Tokyo location of a large engineering firm. A minor in writing could mean you become the grant-writer for a large engineering firm. A minor helps you develop a complementary skill set that helps you market yourself.</p>
<p>But some schools don't do minors. In that case, it's okay. You can design your own "minor" and call it a concentration. A lot of students at my undergrad did that, and they just noted to interested parties the range of classes that they took.</p>
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Personally, I don't see the point of majoring in engineering and minoring in physics unless one just comes across it casually (they took so many physics classes that they qualify for the minor with one or two more classes). Physics and engineering employ a very similar skill set.
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<p>It's a huge bonus when you're applying for graduate school and they only care how good you are at one thing. :p</p>
<p>It also got me the practical knowledge that comes with engineering as well as the knowledge of the fundamental phenomena that give rise to all of the things we take advantage of in engineering. It makes me perfect as a person that can understand the underlying physics and then apply it to a larger engineering picture. </p>
<p>I will say I took about 5-6 more physics classes than most of my friends in materials engineering, but they were out of personal interest more than anything else. The only class I had to take for my minor that I didn't really care about was Physics 3, which I didn't mind taking since I needed another class to keep me a full time student in the fall of my senior year. :p</p>
<p>A minor is good because it adds more depth to your education. A Communications major with a minor is business adminstration would be better than just a plain old Communications major..those extra courses in another field is helpful...I'm majoring in Public Relations and hopes to minor in Business adminstration or Economics.</p>