|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2008
Posts: 139
Location: Ontario, Canada
|
Hey
I was accepted to York for BA in English. If I wanted to take a minor in, let's say, history would I have had to have applied to that before? Or do they ask you about it when you choose your courses?
Also, is having a minor with your major a lot more expensive than just the major?
Any info on the above would be extremely appreciated!
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12
Stong Rez
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 445
Location: Hamilton
|
Nope you don't have to apply for it. Usually you declare a minor at the end of your degree if you have satisfied all the of requirements. Also it isn't any more expensive. The way you go about getting a minor is using your electives to satisfy the requirements for the minor as outlined by your school. So you'll be paying the same amount, its just you'll use a fair amount of your electives taking history courses.
1 We are from Mac! 2 A little bit louder! 3 I still can't hear you! 4 more more more...
McMaster Class of 2011
Combined Honours Political Science and Philosophy
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2008
Posts: 139
Location: Ontario, Canada
|
Oh, excellent. That's a load off my mind! Thank you. I actually just got my enrolment package for york, so I can choose those courses now!
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12
Stong Rez
|
|
Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 994
Location: Ottawa
|
Many Arts degrees will actually require you to have a minor (or a second major). In your first year you will probably be encouraged to select from a wide variety of courses - with probably only one English per semester.
 
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 445
Location: Hamilton
|
Kaylya wrote:Most Arts degrees will actually require you to have a minor (or a second major). In your first year you will probably be encouraged to select from a wide variety of courses - with probably only one English per semester. Really? That kinda sucks to be forced to study something else if you're only interested in one thing. It isn't that way at Mac and I haven't heard of it that way at any other school.
1 We are from Mac! 2 A little bit louder! 3 I still can't hear you! 4 more more more... McMaster Class of 2011
Combined Honours Political Science and Philosophy
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2008
Posts: 139
Location: Ontario, Canada
|
Kaylya wrote:Most Arts degrees will actually require you to have a minor (or a second major). In your first year you will probably be encouraged to select from a wide variety of courses - with probably only one English per semester. Oh, really? Ya learn something new everyday! Well, that's okay, since I planned on taking a minor anyways 
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12Stong Rez
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 451
Location: London (UWO)
|
Something to keep in mind whenever you hear something from a university student talking about university: we can only tell what we know. Whatever I say is biased towards how Western conducts things; whatever Kaylya says will be biased towards how Acadia and Ottawa do things. Some schools probably do require general arts students to do both a major and minor; others (e.g. Western, and I guess Mac too) don't.
Honours BMSc Specialization in Medical Science UWO '09
Bachelor of Pharmacy Alberta '13 ???
|
|
Rank: Student Body President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 1,704
Location: Wilfrid Laurier University
|
mynameismattgotmlgo wrote:Something to keep in mind whenever you hear something from a university student talking about university: we can only tell what we know. Whatever I say is biased towards how Western conducts things; whatever Kaylya says will be biased towards how Acadia and Ottawa do things. Some schools probably do require general arts students to do both a major and minor; others (e.g. Western, and I guess Mac too) don't. I have never heard of a school requiring a minor. That seems a bit odd to me.
-Stringer
|
|
Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/7/2008
Posts: 552
Location: toronto
|
might eliminate overuse of bird courses
|
|
Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 994
Location: Ottawa
|
Ok, I'll rephrase that. I'll change "most" to "many" in my original post ;) I know Acadia's Arts and Science degrees require a minor or 2nd major (where a minor is definied differently by the two faculties and can be as little as 12h aka 4 half year courses in Science). Other degrees, like Computer Science, Business, etc. do not require the minor (and it may not even be possible). I actually have no idea what Ottawa requires. Quote:Really? That kinda sucks to be forced to study something else if you're only interested in one thing. It isn't that way at Mac and I haven't heard of it that way at any other school. Now, in response to that - regardless of whether you need a minor or not, I feel confident in saying that every school, for every first entry undergraduate program, requires people to take at least a couple electives from outside the program, with the exception of some programs that are already focused on more than one area. Mac accomplishes this through Humanities I - you can only take up to 12 units in any one discipline, leaving you with 18 units to fill with courses from other areas. For my CS degree, for example, they don't really do minors (it might be possible if you ask, but it's not listed in the calendar), but I needed to take 2 courses in English or another language, 4 courses in Science or Business, 2 from Arts, with 3 free electives. Oh, and my 2 math electives to go along with enough required math courses that I implicitly have a minor built into the degree. I would honestly say that if you went into an Arts program structured like Mac's, and other than that first year, not take a single course outside of your chosen field, you are doing yourself a disservice in that you are loosing one of the main advantages of an Arts degree - the fact that it is so broad and allows you to take a wide variety of courses. Even if your goal is to become a professor, you aren't doing yourself any good by ignoring the other disciplines. That doesn't neccesarily mean you should take a minor, but a little bit of depth in another discipline or two is always good.
|
|
Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 445
Location: Hamilton
|
Kaylya wrote:Ok, I'll rephrase that. I'll change "most" to "many" in my original post ;) Quote:Really? That kinda sucks to be forced to study something else if you're only interested in one thing. It isn't that way at Mac and I haven't heard of it that way at any other school. I would honestly say that if you went into an Arts program structured like Mac's, and other than that first year, not take a single course outside of your chosen field, you are doing yourself a disservice in that you are loosing one of the main advantages of an Arts degree - the fact that it is so broad and allows you to take a wide variety of courses. Even if your goal is to become a professor, you aren't doing yourself any good by ignoring the other disciplines. That doesn't neccesarily mean you should take a minor, but a little bit of depth in another discipline or two is always good. Obviously people have electives and they take courses outside of their discipline. What I meant was I don't think it's fair for the school to force students to have to complete all the requirements of a minor or another major because that would require most of your electives (here at Mac anyway) to be used up taking courses from that program. Someone who is doing a single major in an Honours program here at Mac only gets 3 electives a year. If they were required to have a minor in a subject on top of that they would have to use at least 2 of those electives every year fulfilling the requirements. I don't think that's fair because the person may want to take a wide array of different classes that might complement their major. So really forcing people to fulfill a minor or another major restricts them even more because a student cannot take a wide array of courses. They would have to concentrate almost all of their course load on those two areas of study.
1 We are from Mac! 2 A little bit louder! 3 I still can't hear you! 4 more more more... McMaster Class of 2011
Combined Honours Political Science and Philosophy
|
|
Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2008
Posts: 139
Location: Ontario, Canada
|
Yeah, I was looking through the Student's Handbook for york and a minor isn't required there.
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12
Stong Rez
|
|
