Enhance your major with minors, certificates, experience, and leadership
Academically, you will graduate with a strong degree by achieving good grades and adding breadth to your degree. In college, you study in depth in your major, and you can add breadth to your degree with minors and certificates. By studying well and choosing a major that matches your interests, aptitudes and skills, you should get the best grades. Adding one or more minors or certificates to your major will enhance your degree and expand your career opportunities. In addition to achieving good grades, and building breadth in your degree with minors or certificates, you can further enhance your IU degree and career opportunities by adding leadership and experience to your resume.
Adding minors and certificates
With careful planning – and every student has an assigned academic advisor to help them – one to three minors or certificates can be added to many majors at IU, with graduation still achievable in four years. Most academic departments at IU that offer a major also offer a minor or certificate with the same name. In addition to these minors and certificates, there are nearly fifty other minors and certificates in related, and sometimes very unique, fields of study. Most minors require completion of five courses. There are a few minors that require six or seven courses, and some certificates require 21 – 25 credits. Adding minors and certificates to a major in a student’s academic program makes studying more interesting and enhances graduation credentials and career opportunities. Here are some ways to explore and choose minors and certificates for your degree program:
• Follow the steps on the Steps to choose or change your major page on this website. When you have narrowed your options down to 3-4 majors, and then choose your major from those 3-4, consider one or more of the remaining 2-3 major fields of study for minors or certificates.• Go to Search for majors by your interests on this website and see which minors or certificates match your interests. Click on those minors or certificates to get information about them.
• Look at this list of minors and certificates, and visit the websites for those that sound potentially interesting to you:
African Languages
African Studies
American Humanics
Animal Behavior
Aquatics
Arts Administration
Central Eurasian Studies
Coaching
Comparative Arts
Cultures of Science and Medicine
Dutch Studies
Ecotourism
Environmental Science and Health
Environmental Studies
European Union Studies
Fashion Design
Fitness Instructor
Fundraising & Resource Development
Game Studies
Gerontology
Global Human Diversity
Hebrew
History and Philosophy of Science
Human Resources
Human Sexuality
Information Systems
Information Technology
Kinesiology
Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Latino Studies
Leadership
Leadership, Ethics, and Social Action
Liberal Arts and Management Program
Martial Arts
Medieval Studies
Music
New Media & Interactive Storytelling
Russian & East European Studies
Safety Management
Security Informatics
Social Science and Medicine
Sociology of Work and Business
Underwater Resource Management
Urban Studies
West European Studies
Yiddish Studies
Youth Sport Management
Adding experience and leadership
There are many ways to gain experience and develop leadership while studying at IU. Students should consider overseas study, internships, volunteer work, involvement in campus activities and organizations, and leadership programs and minors. These are all excellent ways to add experience and leadership to your degree and your resume. You will find information about each one on these web sites:
InternshipsLeadership, Ethics, and Social Action Minor
Leadership Minor (HPER)
LEAD IU Program
Washington Leadership Program
Overseas Study
Student Activities and Organizations
Service Learning
Volunteer Work
