<p>I'm a high school senior, and want to major in neuroscience. I also want to minor in mathematics, but I am confused about how these two are related to each other in my academics (not the math and neuroscience specifically, but the basic major and minor). Meaning, does a minor take the place of any electives I may have as part of my major? I'm not sure how the credits work either, for example: does the number of credits I need to satisfy increase as I add a minor to my load? I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a brief explanation on how the two work together. Thanks!</p>
<p>A minor takes the place of your electives.</p>
<p>
No, it stays the same regardless. At schools that go by a semester system, most majors require 120 credits to graduate. On average, you would take 15 credits per semester. If you’re majoring in something that has space for a lot of elective credits, you can add a minor to satisfy the elective credits. Keep in mind that there are majors that do not have lots of space for electives; engineering, science, and business being possible examples.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A minor takes place of your electives in a sense that you have less “free” electives to take of your choice. But no, it does not take place of electives as part of your major. Majors and minors will both usually require core courses, courses of concentration, and/or electives within that field.</p>
<p>Major/minor electives are different than general electives. Electives outside of your major/minor get you to the university required number of semester/credit hours as a whole (120 or whatever it may be). You can always turn those extra electives into a second major, double minor, etc. But you can also simply take a variety of courses of your choice.</p>
<p>Your courses will be made up of:
General education
Major (and 2nd if you double)
Minor, if you take one
Certificate or other option, if you so choose</p>
<p>Your total required is established by the college, and the number of credits (if any) more than the total of your program is your actual electives.</p>
<p>To make this clear, I’ll use myself as an example.
My school requires 180 credits to graduate.
General education takes up 59 credits
My major is 54 credits
My minor is 24 credits
So I have 43 elective credits I need to add up to 180.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>