Every student in Weinberg College must complete a major in order to graduate. You must also complete your general degree requirements, including freshman seminars, distribution requirements, foreign language proficiency, and writing proficiency. However, unless you transferred late to Weinberg College or took a long time to settle on you major (or you're doing an adjunct major that requires completion of another major too), you will probably have several slots left over for elective courses.
You should make good use of your elective courses. One possibility is to use some of these electives to complete a minor, certificate, or concentration. Options for Weinberg College students are available within Weinberg College and in several other schools at Northwestern.
- Minors in Weinberg College are offered through many of the College's departments and programs. Some important rules and policies apply to minors; an important one is that Weinberg College students can earn at most one minor.
- The School of Communication offers minors in Dance, in Film and Media Studies, in Human Communication, and in Theater.
- The McCormick School of Engineering offers a Certificate in Engineering Design through its Institute for Design Engineering and Applications (IDEA).
- The Kellogg School of Management offers two certificate programs for undergraduates with strong analytic skills, one in Financial Economics and one in Managerial Analytics.
- The Medill School of Journalism offers an undergraduate certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications.
- The School of Music offers minors in Commercial Music, in Jazz Studies, in Music Cognition, in Music Composition, and in Music Technology, as well as a concentration in Musical Studies.
- Interschool minors are available in Sound Design and in Transportation and Logistic, and Northwestern also offers certificates for undergraduates through the Service Learning Certificate Program and the Undergraduate Leadership Program.
- In addition, Weinberg College students interested in becoming teachers can earn state teaching certification through the Secondary Teaching Program in the School of Education and Social Policy.
Each of these minors, certificates, and concentrations is an excellent choice for some Weinberg students. Before you decide to complete a minor, certificate, or concentration, however, you should carefully consider other options, including independent study, field studies, and individual courses that just pique your curiosity. You may also want to use your electives to take courses in multiple fields -- more than one but less than a full minor -- so that you can go deeper into more areas of interest. Discussing the possibilities with your College Adviser, Freshman Adviser, or an adviser for the particular program you are considering may also be very helpful.
