I’m a high school sophomore and I was wondering about what minor will complement Industrial engineering. I am planning to take Industrial engineering as my major, but I still don’t know what is a good minor to complement my major.
Please help.
Thanks
Minors are really designed to serve a personal desire. What do you like that you would enjoy learning more about? Sometimes, you can choose a minor that will give you a specialized edge in the job world, such as business, marketing, economics, a math, a science, a foreign language etc.
Thanks!
It’s not common to see someone at the sophomore HS level to know what an Industrial Engineer does for a living. There’s two of us at home and I doubt our kids do 
To be honest, it all depends on what area of IE you want to focus on. My focus is on Human Computer Interaction, so loading up on related classes like cognitive psychology is not a bad idea. My wife’s focus is Manufacturing Information Systems so computer science would work well. If you’re doing supply chain or operations, then a business minor would work.
@turbo93 Just a random question. Would a business minor work with a Industrial Engineering degree even if you plan on getting a MBA?
Essentially, I plan on getting a MBA anyway, so does that mean that the Minor in Business is essentially useless or not noteworthy?
Not at all… MBA’s tend to have prerequisites and a minor in business would go a LONG way towards fulfilling said prerequisites. I would look into what area of MBA you want to focus on and see what/if prereqs are needed and sneak them into your undergrad…
For what it’s worth I majored in IE and CS and minored in Math. Minor didn’t really serve much purpose but I like math.
It depends on the school but industrial engineering is business like, I would take some technology classes like CS.
My daughter’s roommate is a partner at a hot VC firm in the Bay Area after working at Goldman Sachs in the Technology area for about 2 years. I was amazed when I saw that in her Facebook. But you need really high GPA, something like 3.95 and above.
As all plans have some chance of falling through, I suggest you protect yourself against the unpredictability of the future & get some business courses during your undergraduate phase.
The CS can help in other ways … If you can get some perl, Java, or Python foundation, and maybe exposure to matlab, you’ll have some skills that help with heavy manipulation of raw data. Yeah, every package vendor with a boat payment will swear their stuff does that automatically. And maybe, once in a while, it will.
But sometimes you just need to scan through 100000 lines of raw data looking for some anomaly or maybe your fancy software package can’t deal with spaces in file names … And you have 10000 to sift through.
A basic CS background can be really practical.
https://xkcd.com/1513/
The challenge with Industrial Engineering, is that it covers a wide field of knowledge. I would focus on determining if IE is right for you, and if so, what area do you want to focus on (based on what’s available at your college).
Some examples include Manufacturing Systems, Supply Chain Management, Transportation and Logistics,Information/Communications Systems, Energy/Water Distribution Systems, Financial Engineering, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical, Healthcare Systems,…
After you figure out your focus, you’ll understand which minor work best for you (or perhaps you’ll choose NOT to take a minor, but additional classes in IE, etc.).
With all of that being said, CS and Business are two popular choices. However, if you develop an interest in Energy/Water Distribution systems, you may find it of more use to take civil engineering classes, or minor in Sustainability Studies. So many choices, and now (in High School) is not the time to start limiting your options (but it’s a great time to start asking questions!).
Good Luck!