All About Minors

By: Team E

Common Engineering Minors:

Congratulations! You are an engineering student at Penn State! You are on the path to greatness, and there is no doubt there will be success in your future. Adding on a minor to enrich your education is a potential next step to take in your academic career. Adding a minor in general is a big step for a student; it is an additional 18 credits to take on top of your major. Whether you are adding a minor to build on your engineering horizon, or to take a breath away from the rigorous world of engineering, adding a minor will overall round you out better as a student.

To start the hunt for a minor, you have to understand all of the options available to you. There are engineering minors and non-engineering minors. Let’s start with engineering minors. There are 13 minors offered by the College of Engineering. It is common for an engineering student to add an engineering minor because a lot of the prerequisite classes are already met, and this minor will enhance your knowledge and ability as an engineering. You can find a more extensive list of engineering minors here

As for non-engineering minors, there are a plethora of options. However, I will only highlight the common options. One common minor is a language minor. This can come in handy for different jobs within companies and for international career opportunities. Especially with AP credits and language backgrounds, minoring in a language can be very useful.

Another common minor is a STEM minor that is not engineering. This can include different sciences (biology, chemistry, etc.), technologies such as computer science, and math minors (statistics, math, etc.). These minors complement engineering majors well because a lot of the course material is similar, and the prerequisites for math and science are already covered.

The last common minor category is the liberal arts/business category. It is very common for engineering students to minor in a subject that falls in this category, such as economics, psychology, entrepreneurship, and finance. These are just a few of the “business” minors that are available at Penn State. These minors are popular because of the hand-in-hand nature that business and engineering subjects have in the real world. Knowing more about business gives a special edge to an engineer.

 

Benefits of a Minor:

So why should you minor and what kind of benefits does it have? From engineering to business to humanities, minors are a unique opportunity to explore interests that aren’t present in your major!

 Customizing Your Engineering Degree

Minors allow for the opportunity to tailor your engineering curriculum to your interests. For example, someone interested in how Information and Science Technology (IST) interacts with engineering may pursue an IST for Aerospace Engineering or IST for Industrial Engineering minor. Minors can take your engineering education to the next level by expanding your curriculum.

 Exploring Humanities and Non-Engineering Interests

Alternatively, minors in the humanities, foreign languages, or other non-engineering subjects enrich your STEM-based course load with a different mindset. Learning about topics of personal interest is deeply fulfilling and allows for a break from engineering problem sets. Additionally, minors like foreign languages can be useful if you strive to live abroad or work with international teams as an engineer.

 Communicating Interests to Employers

Another benefit of minors is an easy, succinct way to communicate to recruiters and potential employers what your interests are. For example, a foreign language minor may lead to a conversation about international jobs or internship opportunities. Since a minor typically requires around 6 courses, you will be familiar with the topic your minor is in, which will allow you to confidently speak on this area of interest.

 The Wrong Reason to Pursue a Minor

Minors are awesome and have many benefits. However, avoid taking on a minor because “it looks good”. At the end of the day, minors should be something you are passionate about and interested in. Taking a minor for the wrong reasons will often mean that your passion won’t shine through when talking about why you pursued it. Minors are not required, so don’t feel obligated to have one just because you feel like you should!

 

How to Pick a Minor:

So, you’ve decided you want to pursue a minor, but now you need to go about picking one! Below I’ll outline some personal tips and tricks I’ve used in selecting (or not selecting) a minor.

 Use Your Network

One of the many benefits of WEP is having a huge network of upperclassmen women who are pursuing a variety of different minors! Hearing about other’s personal experiences within their minors is a great way to gauge the type of classes and rigor of material a minor will have. Additionally, the passion with which someone talks about their minor can help indicate how fulfilling their minor is to them. Some minors may be heavily project-based (such as ENTI) while others may include a study abroad element (such as International Engineering). They may also put you in contact with others who can off more insight into what minors actually entail.

Penn State Resources

Penn State’s extensive online documentation is a great resource for finding out more information about minors. They often have their own dedicated site and my go-to for finding them is simply “_________ minor PSU” and I can normally find it. Additionally, talking with an advisor can set realistic expectations about completing your minor, which brings me to my next tip.

Timing

As with many things in life, when it comes to planning you can never be proactive. Starting early gives you benefits like being able to balance your minor classes ideally with your other classes and will reduce your stress in later years. For minors with minimal overlap with major requirements, such as languages, this is especially ideal. On the contrary, you also can easily complete a minor without starting right away. If it takes you a few semesters to feel out your interest, it is OK and very common. The timing conversation is one best to have with an advisor because they’ll be able to advise on how requirements overlap and give you a realistic idea of how many credits you’ll need to take per semester

Balance

Balance here has two parts, balancing your time and balancing Passion vs. Professionalism. First, minors should be a supplement to your education, not overtake it. If adding a minor will add significant stress or hinder your academics in major-related classes, it is a sign to take a step back and determine if the minor is truly worth it. If you are having trouble with the idea of balancing a minor, remember there is no harm in taking a few classes you are interested in! Though they may not have an official title you will still be able to learn a lot and reference them in the future.

Penn State has so many amazing minors to choose from but will the many tools in your toolbox you are sure to find something you are passionate about!