Hey everyone! I have something I want opinions on. I currently have two minors (one in English, the other in neuroscience). I’m highly interested in courses in another field (family social science) and plan to take several. Because of this, I am one additional course away from another minor in family social science. I’m going to be at my university for a while longer, due to an additional certificate in addiction studies I’m pursuing (credits count toward my undergraduate degree, but the certificate itself is separate).
I am confident that I have the time and am capable of the work. My question is, would it look bad in any way to have three minors? I’d end up with a degree in psychology, a minor in English, a minor in neuroscience, a minor in family social science, and a certificate in addiction studies. I’m interested in pursuing graduate school for clinical social work. I think all of these are worthwhile and would show my interest and capability in the field. However, I don’t want it to come off as though my focus is split too many ways. How do you think this would come off on an application? Is there a downside to doing another minor?
Take the classes if you want the l’arning. No one ever cares what your minors are. Actually, making the paperwork and organizational efforts to get three minors sort of hints that you have a potential OCD issue.
I’m not totally sure about that. For a job application? Probably not. For grad school? I’ve heard that it can be good to show you have experience in topics outside your field. My concern is that I have too much, and it will look bad.
It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t look bad, and at most, someone might just ask you about it. I also wouldn’t count on graduate schools considering it a good (or bad) thing. Most won’t care, and some people might think it’s interesting but it’s pretty inconsequential in either direction. I had a classmate in grad school who had three minors from undergrad, and no one cared except her.
And it doesn’t really matter in you have too many or too little minors. Grad schools will see your transcripts so they will see what courses you took. It doesn’t matter if you called it a minor or not because it depends on the coursework. They won’t care if you took extra courses as long as you have a good background in your intended field, and if anyone asks, you can just explain how it would make you a better academic.
To me, it doesn’t sound like your focus is split too many different ways. The minors and the certificate seem fairly coherent and make sense to be paired with your major. I’m neither an employer nor a grad school, so I don’t know how they would view it, but from an outside perspective I would say go for it if it interests you and seems manageable, which it sounds like it does.
It’s fine to just take the classes you’re interested in, but it’s also fine to prefer a more structured curriculum. (Minors are designed to give you a coherent overview of a field. Educationally, it’s easy to see why someone would prefer a minor over a few random classes.) I don’t see anything OCD about taking a few sets of classes that are grouped together, but you shouldn’t expect this to have any effect on your job prospects.
This depends heavily on the minor and the college. Where I went to undergrad, for example, in many minors, you could take pretty much whatever you wanted. The only limits were a requirement for the minimum number of courses (a requirement set by the university) and often a minimum number of upper division courses. Some minors have a list of pre-approved courses you can select from, but many let you choose nearly anything in the department. So yes, you could take a random assemblage of courses and still get a minor. They’re not necessarily mutually exclusive.
That’s true. I just figured that the OP’s school must have something more structured for their minors if she has to decide between taking the minors or just classes.
I don’t think the OP was deciding between taking minors or taking classes. My understanding was that they already had two minors, and they were taking nearly enough classes in another field of interest (family social service) to get a third minor. It sounded like they were already taking the classes out of interest, not to get the minor. The question was just “should I call it a minor or is it bad to have too many minors?”
Yes, that’s correct. It’s a small minor (five classes) and I’d only need one that I wasn’t planning on taking. It looks interesting and I’m going to be here anyway, so I think I’ll probably do it.