Minoring Strategically

Hi everyone!

FIT has so many great minors available for students to work towards during their time at school here. From Ethics and Sustainability, to Dance, and foreign languages, you can dive into topics of interest to you outside your major’s course requirements.

There are two main ways to work on a minor – one is choosing one that compliments the classes required for your major, and the second is picking something you are interested in and feel will better round out your education.

The first approach requires looking at the required classes for your major – for example, my program (Production Management) entails taking Macro and Micro economics. This is essentially 40% of a minor in Economics, built into the classes you already have to take anyways. Additionally, most degrees require two foreign language classes. This means by taking three more you can obtain the minor in the language of your choice.

The second approach might take more planning. I would recommend looking over the classes for your degree and the classes for the minor with your academic advisor. There may be some classes that fulfill the same SUNY requirement – for example, instead of taking Quantitative Mathematics I took Math Modeling. Both met the SUNY standards, which meant that I no longer needed to take Quantitative Mathematics. There may be some classes for a minor that you can swap in instead of the suggested class for your major. Again, working with your academic advisor and reviewing your DARs degree audit report can help you find these areas of overlap!

More than anything, I would suggest starting your minor early. I had started a minor in Japanese my Sophomore year but ended up running out of time in my schedule. With language classes they usually build upon each other, so sequencing and timing is very important!

What do you want to minor in?

Sam