November 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Your student keeps hearing “What’s your major?” but the smarter question might be “What’s your mix?” We dig into the real value of college minors—what they are, how they fit inside a standard 120-credit path, and why four to six targeted courses can shift confidence, sharpen skills, and make a resume pop. With Vicki Nelson, professor and parent of three college grads, and Sarah Shane, director of advising and academic success, we unpack how minors work on campus today and what has changed since many parents went to college.
We explore two common paths: students who plan for a minor from day one and those who “accidentally” earn one after loving a few electives. You’ll hear practical examples that employers notice, like business with public relations, art with marketing, theater with psychology, and science or sports fields with ethics or law. We talk through mixing theory and hands-on learning, using minors to complement or contrast a major, and crafting a degree that tells a clear story about curiosity and capability.
Advising matters more than ever. We share how to map sequences and prerequisites, why early exploration opens options, and when to declare or drop a minor without stress. Parents get conversation starters that actually help: ask what sparked interest, which course unlocks the next step, and how the combination strengthens career goals. Students learn how to use advising and student success offices, especially if they’re undecided, to test interests quickly and avoid a fifth year. By the end, you’ll know how to turn electives into momentum and build a mix that stands out in the real world.
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Thank you for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Welcome to the College Parent Central Podcast.
Whether your child is justbeginning the college admission
process or is already incollege, this podcast is for
you.
You'll find food for thought andinformation about college and
about navigating that delicatebalance of guidance,
involvement, and knowing when toget out of the way.
(00:31):
Join your hosts as they sharesupport and a celebration of the
amazing experience of having achild in college.
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Welcome to the College Parent Central Podcast.
This is the podcast where wetalk about just about everything
that has to do with being theparent of a college student, the
parent of a high school studentwho may be headed to college,
and sometimes we even talk aboutstudents who are out of college
and what it's like when theytake those first steps beyond
(01:06):
college.
Because all of those areparenting challenges as we go
along.
My name is Vicki Nelson, and Iam a professor of communication
at a small liberal arts collegein New England.
And I am also, and sometimesmore importantly, the parent of
three daughters who have allgone to college.
(01:28):
They have all come out the otherside.
So we have lived through allkinds of college experiences.
And that's sometimes even moreimportant than my work as a
professor, although it meansthat I work with students every
day and see what's going on intheir lives.
And I am very excited becauseI'm here today with another one
(01:50):
of our co-hosts that doesn't getto join us as often because she
is a very busy person.
So I'm going to let herintroduce herself.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Sure.
Thank you so much, Vicky.
I'm Sarah Shane, I'm thedirector of advising and
academic success at a smallliberal arts college.
And yes, it is a very busy, itis a very busy place.
And I also am the mom of twostudents, one who is a recent
(02:20):
college graduate.
He's a double major and was adouble minor, which is fitting
for what we're going to betalking about.
And then my uh another son,who's a sophomore, and we're
having similar conversationsright now about looking at the
degree and what other avenuesmight make sense.
SPEAKER_04 (02:43):
So some of it is a little bit in the rearview
mirror for me, but you areliving it day to day.
And uh and it it's verydifferent when you're in the
middle of it all.
Sure.
Um and you know, it as you wereintroducing yourself, uh I it
was interesting because we usedto talk about the office of
(03:04):
academic advising, and now it'sadvising and student success.
SPEAKER_02 (03:09):
Academic success?
SPEAKER_04 (03:10):
Yes, so that so that a lot of colleges now have
designated people and designatedoffices just to help students
figure out how to makeeverything work.
Exactly.
It's important that parents knowthat because that's a kind of
support that when we went tocollege didn't exist.
Sure.
So it's certainly different.
(03:30):
But what we wanted to talk abouttoday is minors, because
students get asked all the time,and and you know, they come home
for the holidays or the asthey're in the admissions
process.
Excuse me.
Um people say, you know, whatare you gonna major in?
What are you gonna do?
(03:50):
What kind of job do you want toget?
And and there there's always thequestion about major, but not so
much about minor.
Um and so we thought it mightmake sense to talk a little bit,
see if we could understand alittle bit more about what
minors are and why they matterand how they work and and all of
that, because not everybodyunderstands it.
Um so so really starting at thebeginning, I don't know, Sarah,
(04:14):
do you want to take a stab atsort of defining what is a
minor?
SPEAKER_02 (04:19):
Sure, sure.
So it's another kind of avenueor field of study that is
smaller than the major, and ittypically comes out of a
student's kind of pod of generalelectives.
So if you're kind of looking ata you know, pie chart or, you
know, a circle, um, you know,the major has a great big piece
of the pie, and then you'd havegeneral education requirements
(04:42):
or liberal arts at differentschools or called different
things, but that would also be adecent sized piece of the pie.
And then you have the, you know,a great big remaining piece of
the pie that's just generalelectives that for the most part
can be any college-level course.
And typically when studentschoose a minor, that kind of
siphons off about four to sixcourses, um, depending on each
(05:06):
school and a number of things,but that kind of will become a
minor.
So it's a way in which you canum get a little bit more
advanced knowledge in a field.
So general electives are great,but they can be anything, and
that's certainly encouraged aswell.
Um, but the minor focuses um onan area.
SPEAKER_04 (05:27):
I think focus is a is a good word because it really
does sort of narrow, narrow thefocus a little bit.
And some students, some studentsreally want to explore
everything, and they don't wantthat focus, and then others
really say, but you know, thisis an area that I want a little
bit more.
And um, and it, you know, fourto six courses, which most of
(05:49):
them are, there might be some ofyou know, some more complicated,
complex minors that would be alittle more.
That's not that much.
Um, and you know, you were we wealways throw these things around
that we understand.
Um, talking about generaleducation courses, which are
those those um usually allcollege requirements that
(06:10):
students have to do.
And then these general electivesthat students have to take
because they have to reach acertain threshold of the number
of credits that they have tograduate.
SPEAKER_03 (06:19):
Yes.
SPEAKER_04 (06:20):
It's often around 120, I think.
And so, you know, they've doneeverything for their major and
they've done everything that thecollege is asking them to do for
college requirements, and theystill aren't at 120.
So that's these generalelectives.
Um and it's only four or sixcourses, so you know that that
(06:42):
sort of answers the questionthat that was going around in my
mind, and that is that sometimeswhen you talk to students, it
seems as though it's going to beso hard to get this major done.
You know, the major requires meto do this and this and this.
And I, you know, I I don't knowif how am I going to complete a
major.
How could I possibly take on aminor in addition to to the
(07:07):
major?
But the fact that it's a shorterlist of classes and um sometimes
some minors have requiredclasses.
You have to do this and this.
SPEAKER_02 (07:20):
Yeah, maybe typically one course will be,
you know, maybe the intro or oneor two, but most of them you
typically have a choice.
Some might say you need to takethe intro in the subject area,
and then maybe a 1000 or 2,000level or 3,000, they might have
some kind of parameters, but forthe most part, you have a lot of
flexibility.
(07:41):
Right.
And I find too that a lot ofstudents kind of it's almost
50-50 how students fall intominors because some um come
gung-ho and they're superexcited and they, you know, they
know they're minor, they'remajoring in something else.
And um, you know, this when wecan talk about this later too,
it may or may not have anythingto do with a major.
(08:02):
Right.
Um, so that's a whole othertopic, but you know, we can get
to, but so some students comeinto it intentionally, right?
But a lot of students are theopposite, and they absolutely
don't.
They don't even, you know, kindof know the term or know it's an
option or why they should do it.
And a lot of them um end upexploring an a focus area
(08:23):
because they've taken somegeneral it or you know, whatever
again, liberal arts courses,general education requirements
in a field that were actuallyreally interesting.
So, and to give a little, youknow, kind of background of what
that might mean.
So a lot of schools, you know,you have to take a certain
number of credits in humanitiesand certain credits in social
sciences.
So upon doing that, you know,most places you you have an
(08:45):
array of choices within that.
So students kind of try tochoose ones that are of interest
to them, and then they take one.
They're like, well, that wasinteresting.
What else you got?
SPEAKER_05 (08:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:54):
And then they take a second, and then maybe they take
a third, and then they re andthen they realize if I take one
more class, I have a minor.
And so that's that stumblinginto the minor without really
and then watching thatrealization happen for some
students is actually kind of funbecause it's like I just
(09:15):
realized if I just take onemore, I have a minor in
psychology.
And I was just taking psychclasses because I was
interested.
Yeah, because I like them.
So um so so it really, it reallyis doable.
And you said that your youroldest had a double minor.
SPEAKER_02 (09:34):
He did, he did, and again, it was the same thing.
He hadn't intended to do that.
Um, he actually changed hestarted with one major, then
changed that major, and thenrealized he really liked another
major and ended up with twomajors, and then um a minor he
realized that was um kind ofsimilar to some of the things he
(09:56):
was learning, but a littleoutside the bend.
So he was like, Oh, let me see,because he still needed credits.
Yeah.
And so that worked.
And then he was like, uh-huh.
What if I tried this?
And then ended up, and and partof that, I mean, that's a little
extreme, two majors and twominors, but um, if you I guess
if you have a mother who'sdirector of advising and
(10:18):
harassing you nonstop to look atyour degree plan and your degree
audit and see it.
Figure, yeah, yeah.
So um, but I think you know, youto to have more than one, you
might need to be a little kindof strategic and plan ahead a
little bit.
Um, but the you know, he reallydid fall into them um because he
was enjoying learning thingsthat he hadn't necessarily
(10:39):
anticipated.
Yeah.
And I mean, of course, that'sthe point of college.
You know, you you and and somany students I like you were
saying, focus on the major.
And it's interesting.
And we watch students who comein committed to being ex major,
and then they take a semester ortwo of that, and they're like,
oh, this isn't really what Ithought it was good.
(11:00):
Right.
And so, you know, but then theyfind that you know they were
taking some other kind of youknow, general elective courses,
and they really like those, andthey either in many cases became
a major, a minor, or their majorthey changed to.
So it's very interesting howstudents come to this in
different things.
SPEAKER_04 (11:18):
Or the the the thing that was a major, and they took
a few courses and then saidmaybe not, not this is really
not where I want to be.
I'm going to switch.
But that thing that was theirmajor now can become a minor
because they have, you know,maybe it's take one more course
that that's stumbling in becauseof of the switch.
(11:39):
Yeah.
And so it's a way to um, if youif you do change, and often when
students change major, parentspanic.
You know, oh my god, you'rechanging.
What do you what does that mean?
What is it?
How long are you gonna be there?
What are you doing?
Yeah.
Um, and realizing that you know,often at that point they already
have a lot of their generaleducation, those liberal arts
(12:01):
things taken care of, and nowthey may have have that minor,
and so it um it works that way.
Um and a minor is in most casesnot required.
SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
Right, right.
I don't know of any schools offthe top of my head that require
a minor.
Um, I think you know it's niceto at least mention the idea of
it to students early on becausethey don't know that it even
exists or what it entails, sothat they can start thinking
about it.
Most schools have significantlymore minors than majors.
(12:34):
Oh, yeah, because it's so muchit's so easy for it's much so
easy, but it's easier to developminors in terms of the inner
workings of a college, kind ofgoing through curriculum
committee and all that.
That's a different topic, but itis a lot easier to create a much
smaller, you know, area of focusin a minor versus the kind of
(12:55):
rigmarole that has to happen fora major.
SPEAKER_04 (12:57):
And the minors can be very specialized.
Yep.
So that within, I mean, youmight be a I keep picking on
psychology, but uh, and I don'tknow why, but um, you know, you
might be a psychology major, butif you're looking for a minor,
it might be uh sports psychologyor it might be family
psychology.
Counseling psychology.
(13:18):
Yeah.
So that um so that a broaddepartment, a broad major would
have s usually several smallerminors, partially because
they're easier to put together,but also because they
specialize.
SPEAKER_02 (13:34):
Right, and they have the faculty who have the
knowledge and can speak to thatand put that together, and it's
it's very kind of eye-openingfor students, especially as as
they go along in their major.
And like you're saying, likethey may take certain things and
oh, I really like this aspect.
And so then they start takinganother more advanced course and
maybe counseling psychology orsomething, and that's when they
(13:55):
realize, oh, I actually couldnot far off from getting a
minor.
I didn't even know that existed,and I didn't even know I liked
this, and so you know, so umit's it's nice to have that.
I think when students can thinkabout it more proactively,
sometimes it can open a littlebit more for them in terms of
options because um, you know,they just have more time to
(14:17):
explore.
I think one thing that's hard iswhen students maybe don't
realize till they're kind ofsenior year and they're like,
Oh, I didn't know, you know, andso they take more courses and
sometimes it it can still workout.
You just have to kind of be alittle strategic.
But it's nice to start thinkingabout it ahead of time if you
can, so that you can kind of atleast leave space in your degree
(14:38):
kind of plan, your degree on itfor those courses, if you not
take all these random coursesand then say, Oh, I wish I had
um more room to do this minor orsomething like that.
SPEAKER_04 (14:52):
And you know, I think it's worth thinking about
why why do a minor.
You know, we we're talking aboutthe ways that you can do a
minor, and it's only four or sixcourses, and um, but there there
are there are different reasonsfor wanting to do a minor.
Um, I I think one of the thingsthat seems sort of obvious, but
(15:17):
is that it can complement themajor.
So I might be a business major,but I decide to do a minor in
public relations or a a businessmajor and I decide to do a minor
in broadcasting because I reallywant to work in the broadcasting
field, but I want to work in themanagement part of it.
(15:39):
I don't want to be on air.
So thinking about how can I mixand match, and and I think for
students to really think aheadabout about their resume and
about the the jobs that theywant, and how can some
particular combination make thema little bit unique?
SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
Exactly, exactly, and I think absolutely, I think
that um a lot of students dothink of things in a
complementary way, like you'resaying.
So, I mean, if you're majoringin something and um that kind of
has a a back door to my, youknow, like you were saying,
business, maybe to marketing oryou know, something similar, and
(16:21):
and which is great, and that'shelpful when you're kind of
taking those courses andrealizing that.
I think the thing that studentsdon't often realize is that your
minor can have absolutelynothing to do with your major
and be something totallydifferent.
And we really try to encouragethat too, because again, and and
sometimes it happens the otherway around, like we were
mentioning before.
(16:42):
Students started majoring insomething that didn't end up
being what they thought it was.
Um, but but they thought thatwas gonna be their major, but
they really loved, you know,maybe not to I guess focus on
business, but so if they starttaking business classes, they
really thought that's what theywere gonna major in, but maybe
didn't have any experience withthat because they weren't
introduced to it in high school,and just kind of the idea of it
was interesting.
(17:03):
Um, so they wanted to major inthat, um, but then really wanted
to take they realized, you know,there's painting and there's
different art and differentkinds of things that they
enjoyed doing in high school ashobbies.
And a lot of students don'trealize you can get credit for
that.
Those are credit-bearingcourses.
And um so for example, we I knowwe've had students who started
(17:23):
in something that they thoughtwas gonna they really gonna
enjoy, and then maybe thatwasn't that, but then their
minor, which you know they weredoing because it was a passion,
right, ended up loving.
So majoring in that, and thentheir former major is now a
minor, yeah, and which workstoo, because then if you're some
you know, kind of art major,it's nice to have a minor in
(17:44):
business or something,especially if you're gonna be
creating some kind of somethingthat you're gonna market or
you're gonna, you know, createand sell.
You would nice to have a minorso that you know how to run a
business and do accounting andthat type of thing.
So those aren't typically, youknow, things that you think go
together, but they in real lifethey do.
SPEAKER_04 (18:03):
And it really helps students to start thinking about
the mix and match and how youmight.
I remember at some point umtalking to someone who was a
theater major and wanted to bean actress, and what she was
advised to do was to takepsychology classes.
Not because, you know, if you'regoing to be an actress and
(18:26):
you're going to put portraycharacters, you have to
understand how people think andand the mind and all of that.
And you know, you would think ofthis this person who's the
theater major as being the kindof artsy and all of that, but
no, the psych classes werereally helpful.
Or someone who's going intosports broadcasting and might
(18:47):
want to take a couple ofcriminal justice or law courses
because that's going to helpthem understand some of the
ethical kinds of issues thatgot.
I mean it it's reallyfascinating to think about the
conversations.
SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
Absolutely.
And that's what's so excitingand unique about it because it's
just so specific to theindividual that we couldn't
possibly think of all thecombinations, but the students
can as they start getting intothese things and realize, oh,
you have that?
What does that mean?
That's so that sounds so cool.
What is that?
And then I mean, similarly, Iknow of a student who's a
dancer, and that's a lot ofcredits and a number of, you
(19:26):
know, all kinds of courses.
But then he was thinking ofminoring in marketing because
really you're gonna be anindependent contractor of your
own making once you graduatewith that.
So how do you market yourselfand how do you, you know, sell
yourself and create a websiteand do whatever digital things
you need to do for that?
And that's not the same skillset, and it's not automatic that
(19:48):
just because you're good at onething, you know how to kind of
sell yourself.
And again, whether that's danceor art or anything, right?
SPEAKER_04 (19:55):
It's hard to figure that out.
Interesting to think of thosecombinations.
And you know, the other thingthat it can balance is the
theoretical and the practical.
Like, you know, maybe you'remajoring in something that's all
very theoretical andresearch-based and uh something
(20:16):
of that nature, and but but youthen you want to minor in
something that's going to giveyou more practical skills or the
other way around.
So not only the subject matter,but the type of approach and the
type of of thing.
Um and and then those amazingcombinations make your resume
(20:39):
just stand out, right?
That uh, you know, they're goingto be you know, there are going
to be 50 people applying forthis this PR job, but this
you're the only one you're theonly one that has this
background in this other thing,or a couple of minors.
I mean, you talked about twomajors and two minors, that is
(21:01):
more unusual, but one major andtwo or three minors is not that
unusual.
So you know, it makes you standout in the kind of way.
SPEAKER_02 (21:11):
And it's so true, and there's so many jobs that
you know they can't post everyaspect of the position in there,
but then if they see a resume,oh, they have a background,
that's great because you know,so it's just so nice if you can
kind of figure out things thatyou're interested in and then
you know, utilize them to kindof market yourself a little bit
(21:33):
more and showcase all the thingsthat you're that you're
interested in and that you havea little more information about.
SPEAKER_04 (21:39):
Yeah.
You know, we've talked about howhow a student might decide, you
know, because he loves somethingor or because if it's going to
compliment or unique and all ofthat.
Um but I think one of the thingsyou you you commented when you
were talking about your son, yousaid, you know, it's because he
has a mom who's advising.
(22:02):
Um, and not many students dohave moms who are professional
advisors, um, but they want towork with their advisors.
There there are advisors there,their academic advisor or
somebody in an advising centeror a career center or something
to really understand what theoptions are uh and and and what
(22:28):
makes sense and when to start.
And and you may only have totake four or six courses, but
sometimes they have to be insequence.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Exactly.
And you can't necessarily waittill the you know last year
because they're not all offeredevery semester, or like you're
saying, one might have aprerequisite to something else.
And I think that's just soimportant too, to really talk to
your whether it's your academicadvisor or someone in career
services or who would whowhatever the resources are that
(22:57):
are available to you, don't beshy, don't wait for them to ask
you questions, like reach out.
They want to help you.
They're there because they lovewhat they do and they want to
help you love what you're gonnado.
And but you need to kind ofspeak up and reach out and and
talk about the things thatyou're interested in.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
Because and we find that all the time with first
year students who are a littlebit more can be a little bit
more quiet initially, a littlemore um kind of hesitant to talk
to the grown-ups and the facultyand the staff.
SPEAKER_01 (23:27):
Especially after COVID.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
Oh, yes, of course, of course.
Um, and the thing is thestudents don't have to know,
especially right off the bat,all the things we offer, but the
staff and the faculty do.
So if you kind of start if thestudent starts to talk about
things they're interested in, wecan say, hey, guess what we
have?
Guess what might be of interestto you?
And you know, there are so many,you know, majors, certainly
majors, but especially minorsout there that students would
(23:51):
never have heard of from justwhat you're exposed to in high
school.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:54):
So, and that of course accounts for a lot of why
students change their, you know,major, of course, when they get
to college because they didn'teven know that field existed.
Right.
So, I mean, this and it's thesame with minors times 10, just
because there's so many moreminors.
So it's just great to kind ofreally try to open up to the
folks in your academic world whocan support you because they can
(24:17):
help you narrow down and youknow, really see what's
available to you that you maynot even know.
SPEAKER_04 (24:23):
And you don't need to be all in and declare a minor
right off the bat.
Oh, of course not.
But what but what you can do istake a course.
Yes.
Knowing that this is a coursethat would count toward this
minor if I wanted to.
It could lead to something ifRight.
And you and so you're you'rereally sampling in a way.
(24:43):
Um it's like, okay, I've lookedat all these minors and I've
committed that this is going tobe the minor I'm going to do.
Yeah, well, this one and thisone both look interesting to me.
Okay, take a course in bothareas.
Yep.
And then see what speaks to youand and see where you go from
there.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
Exactly.
And it's it's just sointeresting because, and it and
it's a great point too, becauseso many students come to college
and they say, you know, that I'mgonna be a you know, criminal
justice major or a businessmajor, and then they want to
know, well, why why am I nottaking five business courses?
And I say five because that'sthe typical load, five three
credit courses.
Typically, that's you know, 15credits a semester is typically
(25:23):
about um what most um semestersin college entail, depending on
each school, of course.
But um, and the reason for that,of course, is there's many
reasons, but um you know,colleges know that as much as
you kind of think you know whatyou want to do, they know that
for you to be a well-roundededucated individual, you have to
(25:44):
know about more than just onething.
And so they want you to startwith taking your writing and
maybe a language and maybe amath, depending on what you know
kind of options are there.
Um, but also leaving room forwhat you're saying for taking
some general electives in thefirst semester, in addition to
maybe one, maybe two, buttypically one major course,
because that gives you theoutlet to try new things before
(26:08):
you get so focused without evenrealizing all the things that
are available to you.
So we always encourage studentsto, you know, certainly maybe
writing is great because ityou're gonna need that in most
of your classes anyway.
So kind of taking that soonerrather than later.
Yeah, you really kind of needthat as soon as possible.
But and then your intro to yourmajor course, um, and then see
(26:30):
what else speaks to you becausethe sooner you look into things,
the more you can be like, oh,this is really interesting.
Or the opposite and say, Oh,that's not really what I thought
it was going to be.
What else you got?
But that's great because thenyou open yourself up to
different paths and other paths.
So exploring is really the kindof the name of the game, and
(26:50):
doing so from the very beginningand having an open mind as much
as possible is you know, willonly typically only helps you in
the long run.
SPEAKER_04 (26:58):
And you know, I think it's it's especially uh
helpful for undecided studentsbecause they're they're
sometimes they're almostparalyzed.
I don't I'm afraid to startanything because it might not be
what I really want.
Um but so you start it and yousee, and then if it isn't what
you really want, maybe youabandon it entirely, or else
(27:21):
maybe it becomes a minor.
And it takes some of that stressaway of of being an undecided
student in the world.
No, I think so.
SPEAKER_02 (27:30):
And it's it's so interesting because I think that
undecided students bring a um adifferent component, like you're
saying, of a little bit ofstress because they think that
everybody else knows what theywant to do because they've
declared a major, which theydon't realize that half of them
are probably gonna change it atleast once.
Um but I think a unique kind ofwonderful trait that many
(27:51):
undecided students bring to thetable is that once they try
something, you know, they takean intro course on something and
they're like, oh, okay, maybeyou know, maybe they'll take the
next one, or maybe that isn'treally what I thought it was
gonna be, and then they goright, you know, they're oh,
here's my list of things I'minterested in.
So they're very open to tryingnew things.
And I think that's a wonderfultrait that if all students could
(28:13):
have that, um, because I thinksome students come in so focused
that when something isn't whatthey thought it was gonna be,
they kind of get paralyzed with,oh my gosh, what am I doing
here?
This isn't I can't oh yeah andkind of go down a little bit of
a spiral.
Yes, yes, without realizingthat's okay.
Like you came here to to growand learn and you know develop,
(28:36):
and it might not be in the waysthat you automatically assumed.
So that's okay to try newthings.
And I think minors end up being,if not intentional, a great
byproduct of a lot of that.
SPEAKER_04 (28:47):
Right, right.
They can use them for all kindsof all kinds of reasons.
You know, I think one of thefears, I think we've really
talked about this, but I I Ijust want to make sure it's
clear that uh a lot of parentsmight have, because parents are
many times paying the tuition,is um will doing this minor,
(29:08):
will adding a minor, um, meanextra time?
Does it mean you're going tohave, you know, you're on the
five-year plan now instead offour?
Right.
And I think I yeah, you know, itshouldn't.
It shouldn't.
And and the fact that it isusually a very limited number of
of courses and um and thatstudents really do have room for
(29:31):
all these electives.
I think your description of thethe pie chart is really helpful
that you have a a good chunk ofthe pie that's your major
because you're digging deep inthat area.
And then you have the generaleducation, the liberal arts, the
all college requirements, that'sanother part.
But then there is this part thatare those general electives, and
(29:55):
that's where the minor can go.
And those are the areas thatyou're a little shallower in.
So you're You're deep in themajor and shallow in this this
other.
Um so there should be plenty ofroom in terms of credits uh that
it shouldn't take extra timeunless it's senior year and you
suddenly decide, you know, nowI've just discovered that I love
(30:17):
sociology and I want a sociologyminor, and that's when you say,
How much is it really worth itto you?
Um and and because the minor isnot required, if a student can't
complete the minor, they justdrop it.
Right, right.
There's no harm you can't dothat with a major.
(30:40):
You have to finish a major.
But a minor is optional.
Yeah.
You you can't finish it, okay.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
That's and and that's fine too.
And you know that it's somethingyou're interested in, so you can
explore that outside of collegeand other ways.
And um certainly, but yes,there's no pressure to that.
And sometimes I you know willtell students if they're kind of
on the fence, well, go ahead anddeclare it because then it'll
show on your audit and you cansee what courses there are.
And you know, you can of courseevery place is different, but
(31:09):
you can kind of click on it andsee what the different options
are, and if those interest you,great.
And it's a little more umhelpful to be able to see what
your options are versus justkind of looking in the general
catalog or whatever.
Right.
But you certainly don't, asyou're saying, you don't have to
finish it.
Right.
And if you know, students kindof change things or drop things
all the time, and that's fine,but at least kind of thinking
(31:32):
about it and m looking into itahead of time always minimizes
the risk of kind of running outof time for something.
Right.
Um, but again, like even if youended up just taking two or
three courses and knew that itwas something you're interested
in, didn't have time to finishit because he came upon that a
bit late, that's okay becauseit's you know another avenue for
(31:53):
you to pursue in other ways.
SPEAKER_04 (31:55):
And you can still talk about it when you have that
interview or or not so much onyour resume, but in the
conversation.
Well, you know, I uh I mean youdon't have to say I started a
minor and I couldn't finish it,but but you can say, well, I
have I you know I focused someof my studies on and I really
enjoyed learning about you knowso you can still talk about it,
(32:16):
and there is absolutely no shamein dropping a minor.
I think again, students feellike, oh, I'm a failure if I
didn't don't finish what Istarted.
And and you just do it all thetime.
Yes.
Um hopefully that helps you knoweverybody understand uh a little
(32:38):
bit more about minors.
And I think maybe a thought toend with is um for parents,
having these conversations withyour student is really
fascinating because it's anotherway to get to know your student
in a way you didn't before.
And so you can, you know, youyou be the mom advisor, you
(33:01):
still send them to theiracademic advisor.
Yes, definitely.
But um, but you get to know yourstudent.
You oh really, why do you likethat?
What do you think?
Well, how are you going to talkabout that?
And what what what's involved?
What courses will you be taking?
Right.
And you really can learn.
SPEAKER_02 (33:21):
No, it's so true.
And I think just giving thisyour student permission to ask
more about this, you know, totheir visor, because I think
most, you know, we we know whatwe know, and we don't really
know when our students pick upon certain things or certain
terms, or we assume they'regetting information about it,
which they probably are, andthey probably aren't necessarily
(33:41):
opening every email that they'regetting or reading all the
things.
Yes.
So, so kind of mentioning thingsjust to give them some food for
thought and then encouragingthem to reach out to their
advisor or to the people againin their world, whether it's
career services or whatever thedepartment, because and I went
through this with both my boys,and they were, oh well, I don't
want to bother them.
(34:02):
Oh my goodness, you're notbothering them.
That's what they're there for.
And they want you to come, theywant to hear from you, they want
to know what you're interestedin, they want to know how they
they can help you.
You're absolutely not botheringthem.
They can't help you if you don'topen up about what you're kind
of thinking, and you know, evenif you don't even feel like you
have any direction, that's fine.
(34:23):
You go talk about yourinterests, talk about things you
maybe you saw a flyer on andyou're like, I don't even know
what I don't even know what toask about that because I don't
know what that means.
That's great.
I can tell you more about that.
You know, and and even someminors too, which folks aren't
always aware of areinterdisciplinary.
So they might have, you know, acouple sociology courses with a
psych course in there and ahumanities course, you know,
(34:45):
just very interesting that aremuch more um, you know, outside
the box that students wouldn'teven know about.
So really just opening up andsharing with you know your
advisor, and you can learn somuch that you didn't even
realize you didn't know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (35:01):
So if parents can, you know, get that conversation
started about minors andthinking about it and
understanding, you know, whatwhat it can do for you and how
you go about it, um, I thinkthat'd be great conversation
with that.
SPEAKER_02 (35:16):
Definitely, because anything you can say that can
spark some thought and possiblefurther conversation from your
student is is wonderful.
Right.
Good.
SPEAKER_04 (35:27):
Well, we hope this helped.
We hope people you know have alittle bit of understanding now.
And uh we want to say thank youfor joining us and being here
with us.
And if you know someone whomight appreciate learning a
little bit more about college,uh word of mouth is sometimes
the best best way to pass passon uh information about our
(35:51):
podcast, and we appreciate that.
So thanks for being here and forsharing, and we'll see you next
time.
Thank you so much.
Welcome to the College Parent Central Podcast.
Whether your child is justbeginning the college admission
process or is already incollege, this podcast is for
you.
You'll find food for thought andinformation about college and
about navigating that delicatebalance of guidance,
involvement, and knowing when toget out of the way.
(00:31):
Join your hosts as they sharesupport and a celebration of the
amazing experience of having achild in college.
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Welcome to the College Parent Central Podcast.
This is the podcast where wetalk about just about everything
that has to do with being theparent of a college student, the
parent of a high school studentwho may be headed to college,
and sometimes we even talk aboutstudents who are out of college
and what it's like when theytake those first steps beyond
(01:06):
college.
Because all of those areparenting challenges as we go
along.
My name is Vicki Nelson, and Iam a professor of communication
at a small liberal arts collegein New England.
And I am also, and sometimesmore importantly, the parent of
three daughters who have allgone to college.
(01:28):
They have all come out the otherside.
So we have lived through allkinds of college experiences.
And that's sometimes even moreimportant than my work as a
professor, although it meansthat I work with students every
day and see what's going on intheir lives.
And I am very excited becauseI'm here today with another one
(01:50):
of our co-hosts that doesn't getto join us as often because she
is a very busy person.
So I'm going to let herintroduce herself.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Sure.
Thank you so much, Vicky.
I'm Sarah Shane, I'm thedirector of advising and
academic success at a smallliberal arts college.
And yes, it is a very busy, itis a very busy place.
And I also am the mom of twostudents, one who is a recent
(02:20):
college graduate.
He's a double major and was adouble minor, which is fitting
for what we're going to betalking about.
And then my uh another son,who's a sophomore, and we're
having similar conversationsright now about looking at the
degree and what other avenuesmight make sense.
SPEAKER_04 (02:43):
So some of it is a little bit in the rearview
mirror for me, but you areliving it day to day.
And uh and it it's verydifferent when you're in the
middle of it all.
Sure.
Um and you know, it as you wereintroducing yourself, uh I it
was interesting because we usedto talk about the office of
(03:04):
academic advising, and now it'sadvising and student success.
SPEAKER_02 (03:09):
Academic success?
SPEAKER_04 (03:10):
Yes, so that so that a lot of colleges now have
designated people and designatedoffices just to help students
figure out how to makeeverything work.
Exactly.
It's important that parents knowthat because that's a kind of
support that when we went tocollege didn't exist.
Sure.
So it's certainly different.
(03:30):
But what we wanted to talk abouttoday is minors, because
students get asked all the time,and and you know, they come home
for the holidays or the asthey're in the admissions
process.
Excuse me.
Um people say, you know, whatare you gonna major in?
What are you gonna do?
(03:50):
What kind of job do you want toget?
And and there there's always thequestion about major, but not so
much about minor.
Um and so we thought it mightmake sense to talk a little bit,
see if we could understand alittle bit more about what
minors are and why they matterand how they work and and all of
that, because not everybodyunderstands it.
Um so so really starting at thebeginning, I don't know, Sarah,
(04:14):
do you want to take a stab atsort of defining what is a
minor?
SPEAKER_02 (04:19):
Sure, sure.
So it's another kind of avenueor field of study that is
smaller than the major, and ittypically comes out of a
student's kind of pod of generalelectives.
So if you're kind of looking ata you know, pie chart or, you
know, a circle, um, you know,the major has a great big piece
of the pie, and then you'd havegeneral education requirements
(04:42):
or liberal arts at differentschools or called different
things, but that would also be adecent sized piece of the pie.
And then you have the, you know,a great big remaining piece of
the pie that's just generalelectives that for the most part
can be any college-level course.
And typically when studentschoose a minor, that kind of
siphons off about four to sixcourses, um, depending on each
(05:06):
school and a number of things,but that kind of will become a
minor.
So it's a way in which you canum get a little bit more
advanced knowledge in a field.
So general electives are great,but they can be anything, and
that's certainly encouraged aswell.
Um, but the minor focuses um onan area.
SPEAKER_04 (05:27):
I think focus is a is a good word because it really
does sort of narrow, narrow thefocus a little bit.
And some students, some studentsreally want to explore
everything, and they don't wantthat focus, and then others
really say, but you know, thisis an area that I want a little
bit more.
And um, and it, you know, fourto six courses, which most of
(05:49):
them are, there might be some ofyou know, some more complicated,
complex minors that would be alittle more.
That's not that much.
Um, and you know, you were we wealways throw these things around
that we understand.
Um, talking about generaleducation courses, which are
those those um usually allcollege requirements that
(06:10):
students have to do.
And then these general electivesthat students have to take
because they have to reach acertain threshold of the number
of credits that they have tograduate.
SPEAKER_03 (06:19):
Yes.
SPEAKER_04 (06:20):
It's often around 120, I think.
And so, you know, they've doneeverything for their major and
they've done everything that thecollege is asking them to do for
college requirements, and theystill aren't at 120.
So that's these generalelectives.
Um and it's only four or sixcourses, so you know that that
(06:42):
sort of answers the questionthat that was going around in my
mind, and that is that sometimeswhen you talk to students, it
seems as though it's going to beso hard to get this major done.
You know, the major requires meto do this and this and this.
And I, you know, I I don't knowif how am I going to complete a
major.
How could I possibly take on aminor in addition to to the
(07:07):
major?
But the fact that it's a shorterlist of classes and um sometimes
some minors have requiredclasses.
You have to do this and this.
SPEAKER_02 (07:20):
Yeah, maybe typically one course will be,
you know, maybe the intro or oneor two, but most of them you
typically have a choice.
Some might say you need to takethe intro in the subject area,
and then maybe a 1000 or 2,000level or 3,000, they might have
some kind of parameters, but forthe most part, you have a lot of
flexibility.
(07:41):
Right.
And I find too that a lot ofstudents kind of it's almost
50-50 how students fall intominors because some um come
gung-ho and they're superexcited and they, you know, they
know they're minor, they'remajoring in something else.
And um, you know, this when wecan talk about this later too,
it may or may not have anythingto do with a major.
(08:02):
Right.
Um, so that's a whole othertopic, but you know, we can get
to, but so some students comeinto it intentionally, right?
But a lot of students are theopposite, and they absolutely
don't.
They don't even, you know, kindof know the term or know it's an
option or why they should do it.
And a lot of them um end upexploring an a focus area
(08:23):
because they've taken somegeneral it or you know, whatever
again, liberal arts courses,general education requirements
in a field that were actuallyreally interesting.
So, and to give a little, youknow, kind of background of what
that might mean.
So a lot of schools, you know,you have to take a certain
number of credits in humanitiesand certain credits in social
sciences.
So upon doing that, you know,most places you you have an
(08:45):
array of choices within that.
So students kind of try tochoose ones that are of interest
to them, and then they take one.
They're like, well, that wasinteresting.
What else you got?
SPEAKER_05 (08:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:54):
And then they take a second, and then maybe they take
a third, and then they re andthen they realize if I take one
more class, I have a minor.
And so that's that stumblinginto the minor without really
and then watching thatrealization happen for some
students is actually kind of funbecause it's like I just
(09:15):
realized if I just take onemore, I have a minor in
psychology.
And I was just taking psychclasses because I was
interested.
Yeah, because I like them.
So um so so it really, it reallyis doable.
And you said that your youroldest had a double minor.
SPEAKER_02 (09:34):
He did, he did, and again, it was the same thing.
He hadn't intended to do that.
Um, he actually changed hestarted with one major, then
changed that major, and thenrealized he really liked another
major and ended up with twomajors, and then um a minor he
realized that was um kind ofsimilar to some of the things he
(09:56):
was learning, but a littleoutside the bend.
So he was like, Oh, let me see,because he still needed credits.
Yeah.
And so that worked.
And then he was like, uh-huh.
What if I tried this?
And then ended up, and and partof that, I mean, that's a little
extreme, two majors and twominors, but um, if you I guess
if you have a mother who'sdirector of advising and
(10:18):
harassing you nonstop to look atyour degree plan and your degree
audit and see it.
Figure, yeah, yeah.
So um, but I think you know, youto to have more than one, you
might need to be a little kindof strategic and plan ahead a
little bit.
Um, but the you know, he reallydid fall into them um because he
was enjoying learning thingsthat he hadn't necessarily
(10:39):
anticipated.
Yeah.
And I mean, of course, that'sthe point of college.
You know, you you and and somany students I like you were
saying, focus on the major.
And it's interesting.
And we watch students who comein committed to being ex major,
and then they take a semester ortwo of that, and they're like,
oh, this isn't really what Ithought it was good.
(11:00):
Right.
And so, you know, but then theyfind that you know they were
taking some other kind of youknow, general elective courses,
and they really like those, andthey either in many cases became
a major, a minor, or their majorthey changed to.
So it's very interesting howstudents come to this in
different things.
SPEAKER_04 (11:18):
Or the the the thing that was a major, and they took
a few courses and then saidmaybe not, not this is really
not where I want to be.
I'm going to switch.
But that thing that was theirmajor now can become a minor
because they have, you know,maybe it's take one more course
that that's stumbling in becauseof of the switch.
(11:39):
Yeah.
And so it's a way to um, if youif you do change, and often when
students change major, parentspanic.
You know, oh my god, you'rechanging.
What do you what does that mean?
What is it?
How long are you gonna be there?
What are you doing?
Yeah.
Um, and realizing that you know,often at that point they already
have a lot of their generaleducation, those liberal arts
(12:01):
things taken care of, and nowthey may have have that minor,
and so it um it works that way.
Um and a minor is in most casesnot required.
SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
Right, right.
I don't know of any schools offthe top of my head that require
a minor.
Um, I think you know it's niceto at least mention the idea of
it to students early on becausethey don't know that it even
exists or what it entails, sothat they can start thinking
about it.
Most schools have significantlymore minors than majors.
(12:34):
Oh, yeah, because it's so muchit's so easy for it's much so
easy, but it's easier to developminors in terms of the inner
workings of a college, kind ofgoing through curriculum
committee and all that.
That's a different topic, but itis a lot easier to create a much
smaller, you know, area of focusin a minor versus the kind of
(12:55):
rigmarole that has to happen fora major.
SPEAKER_04 (12:57):
And the minors can be very specialized.
Yep.
So that within, I mean, youmight be a I keep picking on
psychology, but uh, and I don'tknow why, but um, you know, you
might be a psychology major, butif you're looking for a minor,
it might be uh sports psychologyor it might be family
psychology.
Counseling psychology.
(13:18):
Yeah.
So that um so that a broaddepartment, a broad major would
have s usually several smallerminors, partially because
they're easier to put together,but also because they
specialize.
SPEAKER_02 (13:34):
Right, and they have the faculty who have the
knowledge and can speak to thatand put that together, and it's
it's very kind of eye-openingfor students, especially as as
they go along in their major.
And like you're saying, likethey may take certain things and
oh, I really like this aspect.
And so then they start takinganother more advanced course and
maybe counseling psychology orsomething, and that's when they
(13:55):
realize, oh, I actually couldnot far off from getting a
minor.
I didn't even know that existed,and I didn't even know I liked
this, and so you know, so umit's it's nice to have that.
I think when students can thinkabout it more proactively,
sometimes it can open a littlebit more for them in terms of
options because um, you know,they just have more time to
(14:17):
explore.
I think one thing that's hard iswhen students maybe don't
realize till they're kind ofsenior year and they're like,
Oh, I didn't know, you know, andso they take more courses and
sometimes it it can still workout.
You just have to kind of be alittle strategic.
But it's nice to start thinkingabout it ahead of time if you
can, so that you can kind of atleast leave space in your degree
(14:38):
kind of plan, your degree on itfor those courses, if you not
take all these random coursesand then say, Oh, I wish I had
um more room to do this minor orsomething like that.
SPEAKER_04 (14:52):
And you know, I think it's worth thinking about
why why do a minor.
You know, we we're talking aboutthe ways that you can do a
minor, and it's only four or sixcourses, and um, but there there
are there are different reasonsfor wanting to do a minor.
Um, I I think one of the thingsthat seems sort of obvious, but
(15:17):
is that it can complement themajor.
So I might be a business major,but I decide to do a minor in
public relations or a a businessmajor and I decide to do a minor
in broadcasting because I reallywant to work in the broadcasting
field, but I want to work in themanagement part of it.
(15:39):
I don't want to be on air.
So thinking about how can I mixand match, and and I think for
students to really think aheadabout about their resume and
about the the jobs that theywant, and how can some
particular combination make thema little bit unique?
SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
Exactly, exactly, and I think absolutely, I think
that um a lot of students dothink of things in a
complementary way, like you'resaying.
So, I mean, if you're majoringin something and um that kind of
has a a back door to my, youknow, like you were saying,
business, maybe to marketing oryou know, something similar, and
(16:21):
and which is great, and that'shelpful when you're kind of
taking those courses andrealizing that.
I think the thing that studentsdon't often realize is that your
minor can have absolutelynothing to do with your major
and be something totallydifferent.
And we really try to encouragethat too, because again, and and
sometimes it happens the otherway around, like we were
mentioning before.
(16:42):
Students started majoring insomething that didn't end up
being what they thought it was.
Um, but but they thought thatwas gonna be their major, but
they really loved, you know,maybe not to I guess focus on
business, but so if they starttaking business classes, they
really thought that's what theywere gonna major in, but maybe
didn't have any experience withthat because they weren't
introduced to it in high school,and just kind of the idea of it
was interesting.
(17:03):
Um, so they wanted to major inthat, um, but then really wanted
to take they realized, you know,there's painting and there's
different art and differentkinds of things that they
enjoyed doing in high school ashobbies.
And a lot of students don'trealize you can get credit for
that.
Those are credit-bearingcourses.
And um so for example, we I knowwe've had students who started
(17:23):
in something that they thoughtwas gonna they really gonna
enjoy, and then maybe thatwasn't that, but then their
minor, which you know they weredoing because it was a passion,
right, ended up loving.
So majoring in that, and thentheir former major is now a
minor, yeah, and which workstoo, because then if you're some
you know, kind of art major,it's nice to have a minor in
(17:44):
business or something,especially if you're gonna be
creating some kind of somethingthat you're gonna market or
you're gonna, you know, createand sell.
You would nice to have a minorso that you know how to run a
business and do accounting andthat type of thing.
So those aren't typically, youknow, things that you think go
together, but they in real lifethey do.
SPEAKER_04 (18:03):
And it really helps students to start thinking about
the mix and match and how youmight.
I remember at some point umtalking to someone who was a
theater major and wanted to bean actress, and what she was
advised to do was to takepsychology classes.
Not because, you know, if you'regoing to be an actress and
(18:26):
you're going to put portraycharacters, you have to
understand how people think andand the mind and all of that.
And you know, you would think ofthis this person who's the
theater major as being the kindof artsy and all of that, but
no, the psych classes werereally helpful.
Or someone who's going intosports broadcasting and might
(18:47):
want to take a couple ofcriminal justice or law courses
because that's going to helpthem understand some of the
ethical kinds of issues thatgot.
I mean it it's reallyfascinating to think about the
conversations.
SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
Absolutely.
And that's what's so excitingand unique about it because it's
just so specific to theindividual that we couldn't
possibly think of all thecombinations, but the students
can as they start getting intothese things and realize, oh,
you have that?
What does that mean?
That's so that sounds so cool.
What is that?
And then I mean, similarly, Iknow of a student who's a
dancer, and that's a lot ofcredits and a number of, you
(19:26):
know, all kinds of courses.
But then he was thinking ofminoring in marketing because
really you're gonna be anindependent contractor of your
own making once you graduatewith that.
So how do you market yourselfand how do you, you know, sell
yourself and create a websiteand do whatever digital things
you need to do for that?
And that's not the same skillset, and it's not automatic that
(19:48):
just because you're good at onething, you know how to kind of
sell yourself.
And again, whether that's danceor art or anything, right?
SPEAKER_04 (19:55):
It's hard to figure that out.
Interesting to think of thosecombinations.
And you know, the other thingthat it can balance is the
theoretical and the practical.
Like, you know, maybe you'remajoring in something that's all
very theoretical andresearch-based and uh something
(20:16):
of that nature, and but but youthen you want to minor in
something that's going to giveyou more practical skills or the
other way around.
So not only the subject matter,but the type of approach and the
type of of thing.
Um and and then those amazingcombinations make your resume
(20:39):
just stand out, right?
That uh, you know, they're goingto be you know, there are going
to be 50 people applying forthis this PR job, but this
you're the only one you're theonly one that has this
background in this other thing,or a couple of minors.
I mean, you talked about twomajors and two minors, that is
(21:01):
more unusual, but one major andtwo or three minors is not that
unusual.
So you know, it makes you standout in the kind of way.
SPEAKER_02 (21:11):
And it's so true, and there's so many jobs that
you know they can't post everyaspect of the position in there,
but then if they see a resume,oh, they have a background,
that's great because you know,so it's just so nice if you can
kind of figure out things thatyou're interested in and then
you know, utilize them to kindof market yourself a little bit
(21:33):
more and showcase all the thingsthat you're that you're
interested in and that you havea little more information about.
SPEAKER_04 (21:39):
Yeah.
You know, we've talked about howhow a student might decide, you
know, because he loves somethingor or because if it's going to
compliment or unique and all ofthat.
Um but I think one of the thingsyou you you commented when you
were talking about your son, yousaid, you know, it's because he
has a mom who's advising.
(22:02):
Um, and not many students dohave moms who are professional
advisors, um, but they want towork with their advisors.
There there are advisors there,their academic advisor or
somebody in an advising centeror a career center or something
to really understand what theoptions are uh and and and what
(22:28):
makes sense and when to start.
And and you may only have totake four or six courses, but
sometimes they have to be insequence.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Exactly.
And you can't necessarily waittill the you know last year
because they're not all offeredevery semester, or like you're
saying, one might have aprerequisite to something else.
And I think that's just soimportant too, to really talk to
your whether it's your academicadvisor or someone in career
services or who would whowhatever the resources are that
(22:57):
are available to you, don't beshy, don't wait for them to ask
you questions, like reach out.
They want to help you.
They're there because they lovewhat they do and they want to
help you love what you're gonnado.
And but you need to kind ofspeak up and reach out and and
talk about the things thatyou're interested in.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
Because and we find that all the time with first
year students who are a littlebit more can be a little bit
more quiet initially, a littlemore um kind of hesitant to talk
to the grown-ups and the facultyand the staff.
SPEAKER_01 (23:27):
Especially after COVID.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
Oh, yes, of course, of course.
Um, and the thing is thestudents don't have to know,
especially right off the bat,all the things we offer, but the
staff and the faculty do.
So if you kind of start if thestudent starts to talk about
things they're interested in, wecan say, hey, guess what we
have?
Guess what might be of interestto you?
And you know, there are so many,you know, majors, certainly
majors, but especially minorsout there that students would
(23:51):
never have heard of from justwhat you're exposed to in high
school.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (23:54):
So, and that of course accounts for a lot of why
students change their, you know,major, of course, when they get
to college because they didn'teven know that field existed.
Right.
So, I mean, this and it's thesame with minors times 10, just
because there's so many moreminors.
So it's just great to kind ofreally try to open up to the
folks in your academic world whocan support you because they can
(24:17):
help you narrow down and youknow, really see what's
available to you that you maynot even know.
SPEAKER_04 (24:23):
And you don't need to be all in and declare a minor
right off the bat.
Oh, of course not.
But what but what you can do istake a course.
Yes.
Knowing that this is a coursethat would count toward this
minor if I wanted to.
It could lead to something ifRight.
And you and so you're you'rereally sampling in a way.
(24:43):
Um it's like, okay, I've lookedat all these minors and I've
committed that this is going tobe the minor I'm going to do.
Yeah, well, this one and thisone both look interesting to me.
Okay, take a course in bothareas.
Yep.
And then see what speaks to youand and see where you go from
there.
SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
Exactly.
And it's it's just sointeresting because, and it and
it's a great point too, becauseso many students come to college
and they say, you know, that I'mgonna be a you know, criminal
justice major or a businessmajor, and then they want to
know, well, why why am I nottaking five business courses?
And I say five because that'sthe typical load, five three
credit courses.
Typically, that's you know, 15credits a semester is typically
(25:23):
about um what most um semestersin college entail, depending on
each school, of course.
But um, and the reason for that,of course, is there's many
reasons, but um you know,colleges know that as much as
you kind of think you know whatyou want to do, they know that
for you to be a well-roundededucated individual, you have to
(25:44):
know about more than just onething.
And so they want you to startwith taking your writing and
maybe a language and maybe amath, depending on what you know
kind of options are there.
Um, but also leaving room forwhat you're saying for taking
some general electives in thefirst semester, in addition to
maybe one, maybe two, buttypically one major course,
because that gives you theoutlet to try new things before
(26:08):
you get so focused without evenrealizing all the things that
are available to you.
So we always encourage studentsto, you know, certainly maybe
writing is great because ityou're gonna need that in most
of your classes anyway.
So kind of taking that soonerrather than later.
Yeah, you really kind of needthat as soon as possible.
But and then your intro to yourmajor course, um, and then see
(26:30):
what else speaks to you becausethe sooner you look into things,
the more you can be like, oh,this is really interesting.
Or the opposite and say, Oh,that's not really what I thought
it was going to be.
What else you got?
But that's great because thenyou open yourself up to
different paths and other paths.
So exploring is really the kindof the name of the game, and
(26:50):
doing so from the very beginningand having an open mind as much
as possible is you know, willonly typically only helps you in
the long run.
SPEAKER_04 (26:58):
And you know, I think it's it's especially uh
helpful for undecided studentsbecause they're they're
sometimes they're almostparalyzed.
I don't I'm afraid to startanything because it might not be
what I really want.
Um but so you start it and yousee, and then if it isn't what
you really want, maybe youabandon it entirely, or else
(27:21):
maybe it becomes a minor.
And it takes some of that stressaway of of being an undecided
student in the world.
No, I think so.
SPEAKER_02 (27:30):
And it's it's so interesting because I think that
undecided students bring a um adifferent component, like you're
saying, of a little bit ofstress because they think that
everybody else knows what theywant to do because they've
declared a major, which theydon't realize that half of them
are probably gonna change it atleast once.
Um but I think a unique kind ofwonderful trait that many
(27:51):
undecided students bring to thetable is that once they try
something, you know, they takean intro course on something and
they're like, oh, okay, maybeyou know, maybe they'll take the
next one, or maybe that isn'treally what I thought it was
gonna be, and then they goright, you know, they're oh,
here's my list of things I'minterested in.
So they're very open to tryingnew things.
And I think that's a wonderfultrait that if all students could
(28:13):
have that, um, because I thinksome students come in so focused
that when something isn't whatthey thought it was gonna be,
they kind of get paralyzed with,oh my gosh, what am I doing
here?
This isn't I can't oh yeah andkind of go down a little bit of
a spiral.
Yes, yes, without realizingthat's okay.
Like you came here to to growand learn and you know develop,
(28:36):
and it might not be in the waysthat you automatically assumed.
So that's okay to try newthings.
And I think minors end up being,if not intentional, a great
byproduct of a lot of that.
SPEAKER_04 (28:47):
Right, right.
They can use them for all kindsof all kinds of reasons.
You know, I think one of thefears, I think we've really
talked about this, but I I Ijust want to make sure it's
clear that uh a lot of parentsmight have, because parents are
many times paying the tuition,is um will doing this minor,
(29:08):
will adding a minor, um, meanextra time?
Does it mean you're going tohave, you know, you're on the
five-year plan now instead offour?
Right.
And I think I yeah, you know, itshouldn't.
It shouldn't.
And and the fact that it isusually a very limited number of
of courses and um and thatstudents really do have room for
(29:31):
all these electives.
I think your description of thethe pie chart is really helpful
that you have a a good chunk ofthe pie that's your major
because you're digging deep inthat area.
And then you have the generaleducation, the liberal arts, the
all college requirements, that'sanother part.
But then there is this part thatare those general electives, and
(29:55):
that's where the minor can go.
And those are the areas thatyou're a little shallower in.
So you're You're deep in themajor and shallow in this this
other.
Um so there should be plenty ofroom in terms of credits uh that
it shouldn't take extra timeunless it's senior year and you
suddenly decide, you know, nowI've just discovered that I love
(30:17):
sociology and I want a sociologyminor, and that's when you say,
How much is it really worth itto you?
Um and and because the minor isnot required, if a student can't
complete the minor, they justdrop it.
Right, right.
There's no harm you can't dothat with a major.
(30:40):
You have to finish a major.
But a minor is optional.
Yeah.
You you can't finish it, okay.
That's fine.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
That's and and that's fine too.
And you know that it's somethingyou're interested in, so you can
explore that outside of collegeand other ways.
And um certainly, but yes,there's no pressure to that.
And sometimes I you know willtell students if they're kind of
on the fence, well, go ahead anddeclare it because then it'll
show on your audit and you cansee what courses there are.
And you know, you can of courseevery place is different, but
(31:09):
you can kind of click on it andsee what the different options
are, and if those interest you,great.
And it's a little more umhelpful to be able to see what
your options are versus justkind of looking in the general
catalog or whatever.
Right.
But you certainly don't, asyou're saying, you don't have to
finish it.
Right.
And if you know, students kindof change things or drop things
all the time, and that's fine,but at least kind of thinking
(31:32):
about it and m looking into itahead of time always minimizes
the risk of kind of running outof time for something.
Right.
Um, but again, like even if youended up just taking two or
three courses and knew that itwas something you're interested
in, didn't have time to finishit because he came upon that a
bit late, that's okay becauseit's you know another avenue for
(31:53):
you to pursue in other ways.
SPEAKER_04 (31:55):
And you can still talk about it when you have that
interview or or not so much onyour resume, but in the
conversation.
Well, you know, I uh I mean youdon't have to say I started a
minor and I couldn't finish it,but but you can say, well, I
have I you know I focused someof my studies on and I really
enjoyed learning about you knowso you can still talk about it,
(32:16):
and there is absolutely no shamein dropping a minor.
I think again, students feellike, oh, I'm a failure if I
didn't don't finish what Istarted.
And and you just do it all thetime.
Yes.
Um hopefully that helps you knoweverybody understand uh a little
(32:38):
bit more about minors.
And I think maybe a thought toend with is um for parents,
having these conversations withyour student is really
fascinating because it's anotherway to get to know your student
in a way you didn't before.
And so you can, you know, youyou be the mom advisor, you
(33:01):
still send them to theiracademic advisor.
Yes, definitely.
But um, but you get to know yourstudent.
You oh really, why do you likethat?
What do you think?
Well, how are you going to talkabout that?
And what what what's involved?
What courses will you be taking?
Right.
And you really can learn.
SPEAKER_02 (33:21):
No, it's so true.
And I think just giving thisyour student permission to ask
more about this, you know, totheir visor, because I think
most, you know, we we know whatwe know, and we don't really
know when our students pick upon certain things or certain
terms, or we assume they'regetting information about it,
which they probably are, andthey probably aren't necessarily
(33:41):
opening every email that they'regetting or reading all the
things.
Yes.
So, so kind of mentioning thingsjust to give them some food for
thought and then encouragingthem to reach out to their
advisor or to the people againin their world, whether it's
career services or whatever thedepartment, because and I went
through this with both my boys,and they were, oh well, I don't
want to bother them.
(34:02):
Oh my goodness, you're notbothering them.
That's what they're there for.
And they want you to come, theywant to hear from you, they want
to know what you're interestedin, they want to know how they
they can help you.
You're absolutely not botheringthem.
They can't help you if you don'topen up about what you're kind
of thinking, and you know, evenif you don't even feel like you
have any direction, that's fine.
(34:23):
You go talk about yourinterests, talk about things you
maybe you saw a flyer on andyou're like, I don't even know
what I don't even know what toask about that because I don't
know what that means.
That's great.
I can tell you more about that.
You know, and and even someminors too, which folks aren't
always aware of areinterdisciplinary.
So they might have, you know, acouple sociology courses with a
psych course in there and ahumanities course, you know,
(34:45):
just very interesting that aremuch more um, you know, outside
the box that students wouldn'teven know about.
So really just opening up andsharing with you know your
advisor, and you can learn somuch that you didn't even
realize you didn't know.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (35:01):
So if parents can, you know, get that conversation
started about minors andthinking about it and
understanding, you know, whatwhat it can do for you and how
you go about it, um, I thinkthat'd be great conversation
with that.
SPEAKER_02 (35:16):
Definitely, because anything you can say that can
spark some thought and possiblefurther conversation from your
student is is wonderful.
Right.
Good.
SPEAKER_04 (35:27):
Well, we hope this helped.
We hope people you know have alittle bit of understanding now.
And uh we want to say thank youfor joining us and being here
with us.
And if you know someone whomight appreciate learning a
little bit more about college,uh word of mouth is sometimes
the best best way to pass passon uh information about our
(35:51):
podcast, and we appreciate that.
So thanks for being here and forsharing, and we'll see you next
time.
Thank you so much.
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