What Do Majoring and Minoring in College Really Mean?

[CrimpJiggler]

Probably seems like a stupid question for a 3rd chemistry student to be asking but what is a major? Online I read people say "I'm majoring in this and minoring in that" all the time but I have no idea what this means. I'm in a chemistry course, does that mean I'm majoring in chemistry? What am I minoring in then?

 

[Vanadium 50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_major

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_minor

 

[nonequilibrium]

In your country a major would probably be called a bachelor, can that be?
A minor represents a certain collection of interrelated courses that let's you learn more about a certain topic that isn't your major, but not as detailed as your major.
In my country a minor is called a minor (and a major a bachelor).

 

[Cuauhtemoc]

In my country I don't even think there are minors...and majors are called bachelor's degree.(translating)
And since there are no minors people don't even make that difference, you just graduate in one field. And undergraduate would be graduate in free translation and graduate would be post graduation.

 

[CrimpJiggler]

Yeah the degree I get will be a BSc (bachelors in science). If that's my major then where does the minor come into the picture? I didn't have the option of taking any additional classes. The workload of this course is pretty heavy, I don't think I'd be able to handle additional classes.

 

[Mépris]

Yeah the degree I get will be a BSc (bachelors in science). If that's my major then where does the minor come into the picture? I didn't have the option of taking any additional classes. The workload of this course is pretty heavy, I don't think I'd be able to handle additional classes.

Which country are you from?

In the UK, they have a lot of variants of their degrees. Say, Chemistry with Molecular Physics or Chemistry with Management, where the subject that "accompanies" the major subject, is the minor.