College: General Information on how to establish a major and a minor?

Question

I'm getting ready to start going to a 2-year community college. I'm going to major in Criminal Justice (Police Science), but I am planning on possibly transferring to a 4-year college after I receive my associates, and would like to have a minor. I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS! How do you go about establishing a minor and getting one? How does it work? Please provide as much information possible about the subject. It will greatly be appreciated.

Answer 1

At most schools, establishing a minor is something you do after you get there (and you may even be able to do it after you transfer to a 4-year college). You will be assigned an advisor when you get to college, and might want to discuss this with him/her; they can tell you how to do this at your school. Usually it just means filling out some paperwork and getting some signatures (advisor, department head, dean).

Generally, you will be taking primarily general education courses during your first two years, so you may not be doing terribly much with your minor, but this depends upon what the minor is and what requirements it asks for. Some minors, for example, consist of classes you could take simultaneously, while others may require sequential courses, so even if each needed you to complete the same number of credits, you might have to start one earlier than another. For example, if you minored in history, you might be able to take several history classes at the same time, but if you minored in Spanish, and had not yet reached sufficient proficiency to take literature courses, you couldn't take Spanish 1, 2, and 3 during the same semester!

As to which minors might be useful, if you don't already have one in mind, some which come to mind would be psychology, biology (for forensic science), computer science, or a language like Spanish.

Answer 2

In community college you don't actually elect a major/minor. But you could go on a "pattern". This means that you take the courses in the pattern that would be like getting a minor.

Go to the counseling office. They will give you the list of courses for criminal justice pattern. Then you will get your associates in this if the school you are attending offers an associate in it. Otherwise you can get a AA or AS in general education. (General Education means you took enough qualifying units of any combination of subjects to get an associate degree).