How do I talk to faculty about PHD minors?

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

My school allows PHD minors. It is just 3-4 classes that you take and you get a minor.

 

My department usually has students take in-department minors rather than an external minor.

 

However, I already have a MS and so have a huge amount of transfer credits, making my courseload relatively light. I am also in good shape for comps because I already passed most of them before school started.

 

I would like to take a minor in a different but related field such as electrical engineering or materials science. How do I talk to the faculty about allowing this?

Edited August 15, 2014 by SymmetryOfImperfection

[fuzzylogician]

Maybe I'm missing something but why not simply talk to your advisor and say that you are interested in doing this? It's allowed and you're in good shape, so what exactly is the problem? 

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

Maybe I'm missing something but why not simply talk to your advisor and say that you are interested in doing this? It's allowed and you're in good shape, so what exactly is the problem? 

 

I don't have an advisor yet, and not many students have done this before. That is why I am nervous.

[Vene]

I don't have an advisor yet, and not many students have done this before. That is why I am nervous.

In that case talk to the admin assistant for the program or the director (probably the assistant, they tend to know more about the minutia of a program). You may have to follow up with another person afterwards, but you'll get going in the right direction.

 

Besides, even if it is unusual, EE and materials are at least pretty closely related to physics, so I'd imagine there is plenty of overlap as far as areas of study.

[bsharpe269]

I agree that you should talk to the admin assistant. They usually know a lot about minors, internships, classes, etc.

[fuzzylogician]

I'm with the others. If there is another student in your program who is doing a minor now, ask them how they got started with the process. Then ask your department's admin assistant about the procedure. They will know both the technicalities of what you have to do, and also if there is someone on the faculty you need to talk to in order to get this approved. 

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

Thank you all for the replies. I will do that on monday.

[rising_star]

I'm late to this party but, you should check to see whether the minor requires you to have a committee member from that department for your comps/quals or for the dissertation... That may be one reason people typically pick a major from inside the physics department in your program.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

I'm late to this party but, you should check to see whether the minor requires you to have a committee member from that department for your comps/quals or for the dissertation... That may be one reason people typically pick a major from inside the physics department in your program.

 

I actually would rather have an engineering faculty on the committee, since they understand the importance of applications; there are more than enough fundemental scientists in the department as is. I'm an applications driven person that wants to do applied research.

[rising_star]

Just because you would rather have it does not mean your chair/advisor would prefer it. For example, there was someone who, on paper, would have been the perfect committee member based on my project. However, when I asked my advisor about it, I found out that the two of them do not get along and prefer not to be on the same committees ever. I never would've known if I hadn't asked. You want to make sure you avoid similar landmines.

[juilletmercredi]

^Having people who play nice with each other on your committee will save you loads of headaches and mountains of stress.  This includes having people who won't use your dissertation process and defense as a platform upon which to hash out the fundamental theoretical disagreements of their sub-sub-fields.

 

In addition to the admin assistant (who knows everything), you could also talk to the director of graduate studies.  Your program website and/or student handbook should list who the current DGS is, and they are the perfect faculty substitute for an advisor until you get one.