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Minors, Certificates, and Elective Clusters for Students in the College of Liberal Arts

Why You Should Supplement Your Major with a Minor, Certificate or Cluster. How You Can Find Minors and Certificates. When You Should Begin. What to Do if the Minor or Certificate Does Not Exist!

 

1. Why should I bother with these programs if they're not required in my major or GE?
Whether you intend to pursue graduate education or to enter the work world immediately following graduation, you may wish to customize your undergraduate education to achieve expertise in two or more areas of interest to you and to potential employers and/or graduate and professional schools.

Neither the intellectual nor the work universe is cleanly defined by traditional disciplinary boundaries. For example, philosophers working in applied ethics must know something about the environment, medicine, business, cyberspace, jurisprudence, or other areas of application.

Writers—whether journalists, technical writers, or other sorts of nonfiction writers—must be informed about the areas in which they write. Indeed, many journalists specialize in a particular area of interest—science, education, religion, ethnic relations, economics, state politics, etc. Similarly, many technical and professional writers also specialize—working, say, with software engineers on user-friendly help for clients or with corporate leaders on annual reports for shareholders.

In addition to analytical tools and methods, policy analysts need expertise in a field such as the environment, education, healthcare, economic development, etc. Artists in the entertainment industry are better off with business savvy, and managers in the same industry must understand the creative side.

If you desire to create and grow your own business or nonprofit agency of any sort, you will need some background in business and communication.

The importance of second and third languages is self-evident to the foreign service diplomat, the missionary, the businessperson and the relief worker who wishes to work outside the U.S. or for a U.S. organization with global reach.

Almost regardless of your major, secondary and tertiary expertise will distinguish you as someone particularly prepared for the 21st century. It will help you stand out from all the other graduates in your major who do not share the same advantage.

2. How do I develop expertise outside the major?
Cal Poly offers a number of official minor programs that will appear on your transcript if you complete the requirements for them. All of these are laid out in the catalog. Here are several routes to explore:

• The options in agriculture run from agricultural business or agricultural communication to plant protection science, water science, and food or nutritional science.
• The options in business include minors in business, economics, integrative technology (for majors in non-technical fields), and packaging.
• Engineering offers a minor in computer science.
• Science and mathematics offers minors in math, statistics, and biotechnology.
• Within liberal arts, students may choose among minors in art, communication studies, english, linguistics, ethnic studies, graphic communication, history, French, German, Spanish, philosophy, international affairs, public administration, psychology, gerontology, music, anthropology and geography, sociology, theatre, dance, women's studies, and values, technology, and society. The requirements for and the options within each of these minors are clearly spelled out in the catalog.

In addition to minors, Cal Poly also offers official certificate programs in a variety of areas. Certificate programs, which are very similar to minor programs within the College of Liberal Arts, include one in Teaching English as a Second Language (see below) and another in Technical Communication (see below). The latter is designed for students who desire careers in technical writing, information development, or business communication.

3. Won't a minor or certificate program slow my progress to graduation?
Most liberal arts major programs (not all!) offer students a good number of free electives and/or advisor-approved electives that will accommodate some or all of the units for a minor. If you transferred in with plenty of elective units or if you've already spent elective units exploring your interests, consider targeting selected courses that will help you most without completing an entire minor. In this case the credential is not as important as the expertise that you develop in key documented courses on your transcript.

4. What should I do if the minor or certificate that might interest me does not exist?
Create your own unofficial minor or elective cluster with the courses that seem most valuable to your purposes. There are an infinite number of desirable, though unofficial, elective clusters at Cal Poly depending on your interests and potential plans. Add to, subtract from, or mix what you see below to suit your needs. All of the following clusters require few, if any, prerequisites beyond GE requirements:

Basic Business Background:
BUS 178 Introduction to Human Relations in Business (3)
BUS 201 Business Law Survey (3)
BUS 212 Financial Accounting for Non-business Majors (4)
ECON 201 Survey of Economics (4) or ECON 221 Microeconomics (4)
BUS 245 Elements of Marketing (4)
BUS 271 Principles of Management (3)
Total = 21 units

Human Resources Background:
BUS 383 Industrial Relations (3)
BUS 384 Human Resources Management (4)
BUS 471 Compensation (4)
BUS 472 Labor Relations (4)
BUS 475 Staffing (4)
BUS 476 Employee Training and Development (4)
Total = 23 units

For the Public Sector:
POLS 351 Public Administration (requires POLS 112) (4)
POLS 454 Public Personnel Policy (4)
PSY 201 or 202 General Psychology (4)(GE)
STAT 211 Elementary Probability and Statistics (3) or STAT 217 Introduction to Statistical Concepts and Methods (4) (GE)
BUS 178 Introduction to Human Relations in Business (3)
PSY 252 Social Psychology (4)
PSY 302 Behavior in Organizations (4) or BUS 387 Organizational Behavior (4) (STAT 252 recommended)
PSY 351 Group Dynamics (4)
PSY 360 Applied Social Psychology (4)
PSY 465 Cross-Cultural Issues in Psychology (4) and/or PSY 494 Psychology of Technological Change (4)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 30 units

Advertising and Public Relations Background:
JOUR 312 Introduction to Public Relations (4)
JOUR 331 Contemporary Advertising (4)
JOUR 342 Public Relations Media and Methods (4)
JOUR 413 Public Relations Campaigns (4)
GRC 377 Desktop Publishing for Print and the World Wide Web (4) (GE)
CSC 270 Computer Graphics Applications (4)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 20 units

Ethics Background:
PHIL 332 History of Ethics (4)
PHIL 333 Political Philosophy (4) (GE) or POLS 334 Jurisprudence (4) (GE)
PHIL 335 Social Ethics (4) (GE and USCP) or PHIL 338 Ethics and Education (4) (GE)
PHIL 337 Business Ethics (4) (GE)
PHIL 340 Environmental Ethics (4) (GE)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 4 units

Computer Science Background:
CSC 101 Fundamentals of Computer Science I (4)
CSC 102 Fundamentals of Computer Science II (4)
CSC 103 Fundamentals of Computer Science III (4)
CSC 141 Discrete Structures I (4)
CSC 270 Computer Graphics Applications (4)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 20 units

General Engineering Background:
CSC 101 Fundamentals of Computer Science I (4)
ENGR 110 Engineering Science I (3)
ENGR 111 Engineering Science II (3)
ENGR 112 Engineering Science III (3)
ENGR 302 Transportation and Manufacturing in the 21st Century (4) (GE)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 13 units

General Biology/Ecology Background:
BIO 151 Introduction to Biology (5) (GE)
BIO 152 Biology of Plants and Fungi (5)
BIO 153 Biology of Animals (5)
BIO 301 Conservation and Environmental Biology (4)
BIO 325 General Ecology (4)
BIO 302 Human Genetics (4)(GE) or BIO 303 Survey of Genetics (3)
CHEM 110 World of Chemistry (4) (GE)
Total, exclusive of GE courses = 20 units

Current course requirements for the certificate programs in English as a Second Language and Technical Communication also appear below because they aren't listed in the catalog:
Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate:
ENGL 290 Introduction to Linguistics (4)
ENGL 390 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English or ENGL 503 Graduate Introduction to Linguistics (4)
ENGL 391 Topics in Applied Linguistics or ENGL 504 Seminar in English Linguistics (4)
SCOM 416 Intercultural Communication (4)
ANT 433 Language and Culture (4)
ENGL 497 Theories of Language Learning and Teaching (4)
ENGL 498 Approaches to Teaching English as a Second Language/Dialect (4)
ENGL 499 Practicum in Teaching English as a Second Language/Dialect (2)
Total = 30 units

Technical Communication Certificate:
CORE COURSES (16 units)
ENGL 318 Advanced Professional Writing (4)
ENGL 518 Technical Communication Theory (4)
ENGL 319 Document Design for Technical Communicators (4)
ENGL 317 Technical Editing (4)
WORK EXPERIENCE (two terms)
ENGL 408 Internship (2-12) or ENGL 418 Technical Communication Practicum (2-4) or ENGL 485 Cooperative Education Experience (6) or ENGL 486 Cooperative Education Experience (12)
ELECTIVES (8 units)
SCOM 301 Business and Professional Communication (4)
ENGL 310 Corporate Communication (4)
ENGL 411 Writing Interactive Documents (4)
ENGL 416 New Media Study
ENGL 419 Multimedia Projects (2)
ENGL 519 Web Authoring (4)
PERSPECTIVES (4 units)
PHIL 337 Business Ethics (3)
HUM 303 Values and Technology (4)(GE)
HUM 320 Values, Media, and Culture (4)(GE)
Total = 30 - 40 units