Which minor to accompany my major?

[mind.is.everything]

Hello forum,

 

I am in the process of appyling for university and I have reached a bit of a dilemma.

 

I am going to be majoring in psychology but I am not such what minor I want to complete. Out of my options, I have narrowed it down to minoring in either Psychology, Computer Science (which I think might be a little diffcult for me), gender studies, or religious studies.

 

Basically, I just wanted to get some feedback on which minor you guys think would be best suited for a psychology major.

 

 

Adittional information: I want to pursue a career in research psychology.

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

Research psych is incredibly vague. What do you want to research? 

 

If you already have a major in psychology, I don't understand why you would minor in it as well. Would it add to your understanding of the field? 

 

Without knowing anything about what you want to research, I would suggest the minor in CS. My programming classes were essential for running R and you will most likely need some programming knowledge regardless of your interest.

[RubyBright]

I would also recommend minoring in CS. My lab mentor told me that they generally have one programmer in the program at a time, and he/she is very valuable. It would really help both a.) your grad school prospects and b.) your future job prospects.

[stereopticons]

Wait, you're applying to undergrad? Do you have to declare a minor right away? That's odd. My suggestion would be take a class in each. See which appeals to you more, and then decide.

[Linelei]

CS is a really good idea. I minored in Religious Studies, which was a blast, but not particularly helpful for getting into grad school. However, it aligned with my research interests, so I still feel it will be useful long-term. My advisor recommends minoring in CS/programming, math, or stats.

[gnomechomsky22]

Hi there! My advice to you is to speak with some professors and graduate students once you start your coursework. I would hold off on declaring a minor for now since you're just starting.

 

Minoring in psychology is pointless if you are already majoring in it (since they are usually the same foundational classes) and the college I attended would not let you minor/major in the same subjects. After taking a few psychology electives, you probably will have a good idea of what you are REALLY interested in and sometimes what you are originally interested in is not what you actually want to study/research.

 

The others are correct in saying CS is a really useful minor; however, CS classes can be extremely challenging. Its best to really take an inventory of what you like and apply that towards your minor. Minoring in CS just because you think it will help you get into graduate school is not a good idea. Plus, there are often a lot of pre-reqs you have to take in order to complete higher level courses so you would need to factor in the cost of an extra set of unrelated coursework to your major. I would suggest taking an introductory CS class first before you declare a minor in it.

 

Hope this helps! Good luck

Edited January 19, 2013 by gnomechomsky22