Should I study for a minor in university?

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Aliakim
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12 Dec 2012, 1:56 am

There are three minors (all related to the major) that I want to do at university. The only thing is, people keep on telling me that doing a minor is more work than doing random electives. I can't seem to get my head around the idea. If I didn't sign up for it as being a minor, I would still want to do literally all of the courses that is required for that minor because that's what I enjoy as well as what will be useful for my future. In fact I could fit all three minors in without exceeding the minimum number of units to get the degree. How is doing a minor more work?



Last edited by Aliakim on 12 Dec 2012, 2:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

EstherJ
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12 Dec 2012, 2:08 am

I'm not sure, but I would change your title to "should I have a minor," that way it doesn't sound....slightly inappropriate....


Doing a minor is NOT more work, if you integrate it into your coursework. It's favored by higher education (if you want a masters or phd) and its favored by employers because it shows you can branch out.

Depends on what your major is. Pick the minor that is the most valuable for later, and that you enjoy the most. Look at the classes offered. I'm a history major, but I study the middle east, so I wanted to learn a middle eastern language. Thus, I have a modern Hebrew minor.

Oh, I could study everything else too. But, what is TOP?

Don't let work scare you off. It pays off, really.



littlelily613
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12 Dec 2012, 2:14 am

Doing a minor is not more work. You still have to take the same amount of credits. If you do a minor, you have less choices about which classes you can take, whereas if you don't do a minor you can pick from all electives available to you. It depends on interests really. I didn't do a minor, but I have two majors. Still was the same amount of work as everyone else.


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Aliakim
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12 Dec 2012, 3:17 am

Whoops. Thanks EstherJ, I really didn't see that in the title.

Thank you - that's what I thought. I'm planning on taking a major in biology and really want to do evolution and ecology,
biodiversity conservation and management as well as biological neuropsychology minors. They are all interests of mine, and there aren't actually that many courses in them that overlap. I definitely would like to do a PhD eventually. I'm not half as interested in any of the other electives I've seen so if I wasn't to officially do the minor, all my electives would be in those areas any way.



eric76
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12 Dec 2012, 5:07 am

I didn't have a declared minor as an undergraduate, but I took physics for all of my science electives and philosophy for all of my liberal arts electives.

I ended up with more than enough credits in physics and philosophy to have a minor in each.