mbchills

I'm in my second year at college planning on going to law school. My plans right now are to double major in Philosophy and Economics, both BAs, and also to minor in Political Science and Business. i can definetely pull it off since after this summer I'll have 21 credits left for Philosophy, 27 in Econ, 6 in Polisci and 6 in Business, that's 60 credits.. 15 credits a semester so it's doable in 2 years.

But it's hard work so for those who are already done with college, do minors really help at all? I figure it's doable and will look really good on my resume and on my application for law school it will show that i'm well rounded. thoughts?

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SuperFLYboy12

I'm planning to do a minor as well, but I really don't know how helpful it'll be in terms of jobs and stuff.... I'm just doing it more for myself wanting to take some classes on that stuff.

If it's possible, maybe look into a double major? That for sure will have an impact on resumes and applications.

mbchills

yes i plan on doing a double major and double minor, i was just wondering how useful the minors would be

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SuperFLYboy12

Haha my bad, didn't see that....

If you're already doing Econ, I can't see how the Business minor would help out as much then. It's kinda close to being redunant almost.... Poli Sci is pretty far away from Philosophy though, so I see what you're saying about being well rounded. I can't say much else about it though...

mbchills

I'm doing business minor because most of the courses cross over with Econ and i only need 2 courses aside from what i'm already going to take anyway.

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macmanmike6100

I highly recommend the minors. Especially when the minor contrasts with your major (Philosophy), it's much easier to impress future employers. The *real* reason you should be taking additional minors, though, is because of the knowledge you're gaining. They really do give you additional perspective that others, who are less educationally-versed in a number of areas, may not be able to contribute.

I majored in Computer Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in Business...two thumbs up!

Paq

I have 6 minors and i love them all. I barely use them now, but the experience gained was great and i was able to turn my minor into my major for an MA degree, so they are pretty useful.

I'd do it

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Chris

la petite moi

I'm majoring in International Business and a minor in another language is required. Reason for this is so you can gain knowledge about the culture and language of the market you are interested in. I would say do it for the knowledge, not necessarily just for the resume.

maleficent

A double minor, if I was looking at your resume, might give me pause... The first thought that woudl go thru my head is that he's indecisive. Double majors are a good thing, especially if done on the 4 year plan, double minors... eh -- I think you are spreading yourself too thin.

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amonkie

I did a minor because I had extra room left for those classes before my scholarship ran out - I've got a BS in Applied/Experimental Psych and a minor in Economics. They're different enough that the minor kind of opens eyes into the business world - I just focused on the core econ classes instead of completing the language requirement to get the BA in Econ because my true interest was in learning more about Economics.

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TM875

I was an Econ major in college with a Sociology minor. As for Econ, don't really worry about getting all the classes for a Business minor (it doesn't do much more) and just make sure you get at least one accounting class and one finance class in.

Philosophy is useless...in life. That's just my general opinion. Sociology is much more closely linked to economics.

Poli-Sci is good, if and only if you want to go to law school. I hated all the profs in our Poli Sci department, so I never took any of those classes (except for business law).

In the end, minors / double majors do help, if only to give you more experience and support your main major. If you're really sure about Economics, then look to a sociology or math minor. I just don't think that philosophy will be that useful to you in the future.

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gremlinx8

I'm doing a minor because I can't imagine going to school and not taking math classes- it just doesn't make sense to me. I just really like math a lot I suppose. My major, genetics, doesn't really require much math, so the minor is just for fun.

mbchills

i'm most likely getting rid of the poli sci minor and instead doing Econ and Philosophy double major with a Business minor.

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FatFreeGoodness

It appears that I might be the first person responding from the point of view of the employer rather than as a student...
A minor may help in that it tells me of an area of interest and study in addition to your declared major. It does not tell me you are competent in that area. However, to be fair, neither does a major tell about competence. In general, I have noted a poor correlation between academic achievement and competence.
By poor correlation I do not mean negative correlation, or no correlation; just an unreliable correlation.
Excellent academic performance does tell me that you are probably smart and know how to work hard, but does not tell me that you are competent in management, or accounting, or programming, or whatever. Conversely, poor grades may mean you are lazy, or not particularly intelligent, but perhaps may mean you were a poor student for other reasons that do not carry over into the workplace. I know many people who did not do well in school but are excellent employees. I can point to quite a few who did very well academically but were utter flops in the workplace.
If the only thing I have to judge you by is your academic record, then a good academic record is important, and one with some diversity is preferable. However, if someone has verifiable success in the workplace they are preferable to someone with good academics, regardless.

And as someone already said, what you learn is way more important than the grades. While school does not in itself make you competent in the workplace, it does teach you things that you can use to become competent. If you are interested, take the minor. Or if it's easy to add, go for it - it may open a door.

Don’t view this as a bad for those just getting out of school; View it as a proof you can always improve your desirability. After all, you are only in this position once, at most, but you will always have a work history.

It’s also a good reason to work some while you are in school.

Slavakion

Except for Mal
But it does suggest experience. And if it is a field related to the job, that could be translated into less or more efficient training.
Which is why it's extremely important to take advantage of any internship programs that your college offers. You will get work experience in your field, college credit, and money. How can you go wrong?

FatFreeGoodness

Slavakion: I disagree that a minor or even a major “suggests experience” in that area. For example, someone with a brand new BA in electrical engineering knows the math and the formulas, but may well have no experience whatever in the actual assignments that they will get in the workplace. This affects not just their ability to come up with a solution, but even how they approach the work.
As an analogy consider a new graduate bricklayer who has carefully studied all the technical literature on the subject. They may be expert in the theory, even more so than someone who simply learned from a mentor and worked for the last 20 years in the field. However, I would have no way of judging whether or not they could really build a wall, or were willing to put in the work to do so. I can examine the other guys work and talk to previous employers. The situation will be different in a year or two. Then I can look at both peoples work, and the much deeper understanding of the academically trained person may well have turned them into a more valuable employee. (“The person who knows what to do will always have work. The person who understands why will always be their boss.” Not always true, but conveys the idea.)
Not to mention whether or not the applicant actually WILL work… there are a surprising number of people who are pretty good at coursework that simply will not do assigned work, for a variety of reasons.
I do agree with you about internships, work/study, or even just summer jobs. All are very valuable. Even a little experience is valuable, especially if it also produces a “track record” that can be evaluated.
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Slavakion

By experience, I didn't mean hands-on experience. I meant experience with the subject matter. For instance, take a business major with an economics minor. For the purposes of my example, assume that our business major has had some real life experience in his major (work-study, internship, whatever). As an employer, you're comfortable that this person would be able to perform wel enough in his job because of the experience that he has. The additional minor in econ may suggest to you that this prospective employee would be better able to apply economic models and theories to business practices than the average business major who took Econ 101 and nothing else. Is it definite? No.

On the other hand, it would be a good idea to take classes or minor in something that directly complements your major and future job. I already have a few such classes planned. Will I be able to brag about them? Not directly, at least not without sounding like a prat. But I'll honestly be able to say "yes, I have experience with that". And that can't hurt.

Then again, I'm only a freshman in college. Maybe I have rose-colored hippy glasses glued to my eyes and have yet to get punched in the face by cold reality.