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What is a good minor to pair with a physics degree?

I am a senior in high school who wants to work in physics on a variety of projects. I'm thinking about having a engineering minor, but what opportunities could I get from other minors? #physics #college-major #college-minor #science

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Andrew’s Answer

The short answer to this question is that it depends on what your future career aspiration is.

If you are planning to attend graduate school in physics, a minor in mathematics would be beneficial. A solid background in mathematics is a door-opener for advanced degrees in physics.

On the other hand, if you are planning to seek employment right after a bachelor’s degree of science in physics, a minor in business administration (management, finance, etc.) or computer science would be helpful.

We should be mindful that there are probably not too many employment opportunities directly in physics for a holder of a bachelor’s degree of science in physics. Job opportunities will be concentrated in applied science and engineering areas, in which business management skill or computer programming skill, especially scientific programming skill, can add value to your basic science skill in physics.
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Ashlee’s Answer

Hi Aaron, I'm an Advisor and like everyone has recommended, I'd also recommend a Math minor. This is because it's a 'built-in' minor as well, since most Physics degrees require several math courses to satisfy the degree requirements anyway (usually 5 Math courses equaling 15 credit hours, and you need 18 for a minor). I hope this helps!
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RAVI’s Answer

Excellent choice to take on Physics major.

The natural fit would be mechanical engineering or Math, which might come in handy to augment your physics quite easily.
My recommendation would be to get a minor in Finance and/or business.

One of the major things I feel I lacked for good part of my 30 years of working is financial knowledge and business knowledge, as to how to manage my finances. With some decent background in finance, I would have been in at least 3 to 5 times better financial situation than I am now. I did major in Electronics engineering with a fairly strong content in physics, but with zero knowledge in finance.

Having some good financial background and business background would help you how to better position yourself and also get better returns of your knowledge in physics.
Hope This is not confusing. Of course, you still should follow your passion and should not be forgotten. You can learn lot about finance and other things on your own too. Earlier you learn about financial management, and use the knowledge, the better it will be in later part of life.

RAVI recommends the following next steps:

Take some basic courses in economics
take some basic courses in finance and investment
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Giovanni’s Answer

Math minor is helpful for a physics major, beyond other topics than one could obtain. Having a minor in math will be useful later on in your junior and senior year of college and be useful to you as the courses involved can give insights how the theory involved in that subject can be applied.

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