Last week Ben Whitesell wrote a great blog on choosing your major which I am sure you all put to great use. So once you have chosen your major, what comes next? You build upon that foundation. As an adviser, I encourage my students to think about their record of their time here at Penn State and to consider what you can do to make that record a reflection of yourself. If I were to look at your transcript, major, minor, clubs, letters to the editor, and all of your other activities, would I have a good picture of you? If I were looking to make a hiring choice and I based it on your record, would you be a good fit for a job you would love?
Minors are absolutely not required for graduation or graduate school admission. They are an opportunity to do a little extra by taking a significant number of courses, typically 6-8, including a few upper level courses in a field outside your major. In some cases the minor will directly support what you need to learn in your major. A great example of this is one of my economics majors choosing the math minor. In other cases minors will set students apart from the rest of the students in their major or will give students a chance to explore an outside interest. For example that same economics student may add a minor in philosophy because he truly enjoyed something he tried out while working on his general education requirements.
Courses you take to meet your major, general education or Bachelor of Arts requirements can all be used to satisfy a minor as well. You will find a list of minors offered by the university as well as the requirements for each minor on the University Bulletin website. Minors are listed on your transcript and you do receive a certificate with your diploma for each minor you complete. If you are interested in a minor, stop by to see your adviser to start the process of adding a minor by getting your application to a minor form signed.
I would like to invite our students who have declared minors to share their major/minor combinations and let the students who are currently working on these decisions know why you chose your particular combination. I’ll go first – I started off with a French major and a psychology minor simply because those are the things I enjoyed studying.