Explain College Majors and Minors to me like I’m 5 please

Question

I’m going to college for the first time and I want to Major in Engineering, didn’t realize I had to choose a minor as well and was thinking about Political Science. Do these 2 pair well as far as long term career benefits go? I’m oblivious to this whole college world…

EDIT: Aerospace Engineering, the Astronautical Branch. Sorry for not including in the original post. I’m just a guy who loves space/spaceflight and finally decided I wanted to do something about it by going to school and try to make a difference in the field. My ultimate dreams/aspirations are to work at NASA.

In: 2

Answer 1

Some colleges don’t have the concept of a major / minor. There was my main degree and there were a list of approved electives – some of which were “technical” in that they were in the same general field as my major, and some weren’t… but had been deemed appropriate complimentary studies for that major. All a minor does is really a theme for your non-core electives (an elective is an optional course you get to choose as opposed to a mandatory “everyone getting this degree has to take it.” course.

So in my computer engineering degree, we had technical electives like biomedical instrumentation (which was super cool), but various non-engineering classes we could take as well. History of Popular Music was a popular one. Lots of business school classes, history. A few sociology and psych courses.

When you get a minor it just gives and official direction to the electives you pick, or in some schools predetermined the non-core (to your major) courses that you’re allowed to take.

I think political science is a great minor for engineering. A significant part of our jobs is to help determine legal and legislative impacts to the technology we develop – or the other way around, determine what impact legislation and laws have on our technology. Polisci would be perhaps a good background to have if you were to choose to follow up with a law degree (LOTS of opportunities to do IP and patent law, and your tech background gives you a huge leg up.)