For students wanting to expand their knowledge in college, most schools offer a minor, which can complement a student’s major or be in a completely unrelated field.
Students who are passionate about several subject areas can double minor — which comes with its own set of challenges, including a significant time commitment.
However, “any minor should not distract from a major,” Nicole Maurantonio, director of advising and professor of rhetoric and communication studies at the University of Richmond in Virginia, wrote in an email. “The college experience typically presents students with an array of choices, which can be liberating and also overwhelming. As a result, sometimes students, in an effort not to make choices, try to do it all, which can derail their progress toward graduation.”
Here’s what students should know about whether a double minor is the right choice for them.
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Double Minor vs. Double Major
A double minor is a much smaller commitment than a double major, experts say.
While credit hours vary per program, minor requirements are typically only about half or less than half of what’s necessary to complete a major. An environmental studies major at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, for instance, must take 12 related courses while the minor requires only six. There’s also an “applied learning experience” requirement for both.
“Students would have more course responsibilities and more specific courses they would need to take in order to successfully double major than they would if they were to double minor,” says Jeffrey Shoulson, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis. “Because of that, it’s not as much of an in-depth exploration of the field if you do it as a minor, as opposed to a major.”
Pros and Cons of Double Minoring
Double minors allow students to explore topics outside of their major. For instance, students may choose a major in the humanities or arts and pair it with minors in the natural sciences, such as biology and music, or computer science and philosophy, says John McKnight, dean of the college at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
A student’s double minor appears on their grade transcript. Whether “you are out there on the job market or you are doing other things, it will be clear from your transcript and from your academic record that you have this area of secondary specialization,” Shoulson says.
Problems arise, however, when a student takes on an oversized course load to meet the requirements for a double minor. “If you want to take five or six courses a semester in order to accomplish this, that is when we would start to advise against it because we’d rather the students perform well in their required coursework,” McKnight says.
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Additionally, minor requirements may limit the range of elective courses students can take.
“One of the real strengths of a liberal arts undergraduate program is the opportunity that students have to experiment, to take classes outside of their main areas of focus and to learn a bit more about an area that they might not otherwise have known very much about,” Shoulson says. “And I’m always a little bit wary of students narrowing their options too quickly and too completely before they get out of college.”
He adds that “the demands to narrow your focus become much more intensive” after college. “So I would hope that students would try to get the most out of their four years in college in terms of the opportunities it offers for experimentation and breadth of study.”
When Should a Double Minor Be Declared?
Some students end up meeting minor requirements accidentally, as there may be some course overlap between multiple academic programs — otherwise known as double counting. However, there are often restrictions on how many courses can be double counted.
Taking classes without a double minor goal in mind “feels ideal,” McKnight says. “Then you’ve not had to carve out all the extra time and energy to do it. You’ve just sort of been doing it along the way.”
For students who are intentional about double minoring, some experts suggest declaring between sophomore and junior year. But most minors can be added up until senior year, “so it doesn’t hurt a student to wait,” Maurantonio says.
“Declaring has a sense of finality that students often feel commits them to a particular course or pathway,” she says. “We encourage students to begin with a major, to take courses in other areas of interest (while ensuring they’re completing their requisite foundational courses) and then add from there.”
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Is a Double Minor Worth the Effort?
Before students choose to double minor, they should ask themselves, “why,” Maurantonio says. “If the answer is ‘to fill space,’ ‘ensure I don’t waste any classes,’ or ‘because I want a job in X field,’ then it’s probably not a great idea.”
While a double minor appears on a student’s transcript, experts say it’s not the standout point on a resume to an employer.
“If a student is looking to land a job in a particular field, a minor typically won’t help significantly,” Maurantonio says. “If, however, a student is passionate about a field, a minor could be a way to signal this interest to future employers. It can communicate greater intentionality than a collection of courses that just happen to add up to a minor.”
It’s unlikely that “a major, minor or double minor is going to dramatically impact a student’s long-term job prospects,” she adds. “Most important is that the student succeeds in their program of study and can ultimately articulate the skills they’ve developed throughout their college experience.”
Double minors aren’t necessary, McKnight says, so every student needs to “carve out their own educational path” and be “clear about their own goals and intentions before deciding to take on this set of additional responsibilities.”
“It may make a lot of sense for one person based on their experience, individual circumstances or goals that they have,” he says. “But for others, it may not make a lot of sense at all, like if you are headed to law school or med school. This may or may not matter a whole lot to those admissions committees. But if it’s a personal goal, hey, go for it.”
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Can You Double Minor in College? originally appeared on usnews.com
