It has been a year since the Minors program was introduced in NITK. Minors are offered in CS, IT, ECE, EEE, Mechanical Engg., Chemical Engg., Metallurgical and Materials Engg., Mining Engg., Management, Maths, Physics, and Chemistry. A first year is free to choose any course offered by the Minors program irrespective of the department, except CS students can’t choose IT minors and vice versa, and ECE students can’t choose EEE minors and vice versa.

Here are the criteria for application and completion of a Minor program:

  • Students who have cleared all the courses of B.Tech. first and the second semester in a first attempt and have secured a CGPA of 7.0 and above, as well GPA (only considering performance in common courses) of 7.0 and above are eligible to apply for the minor program. 
  • Minor program allocation will be in the order of merit based on performance in terms of GPA (secured for a set of common courses at B.Tech- First-year) only.  
  • Students have to earn additional credit points (in the range of 15 to 20, corresponding to five courses), as specified for the minor program, over and above the minimum credit requirements of the parent B.Tech. program. 
  • A student must secure a GPA of 7.0 and above for the courses of a chosen Minor Program. 

We spoke to those who completed two semesters of the Minors program, the students who dropped and, to the batch who recently passed out, to get all their perspectives and views about the recently introduced program.  

Students who completed one year of Minor courses:

CS:

We spoke to Karthik Menon, currently in 3rd year Mining who took up minors in Computer Science,

“I felt the need to have a balance between my major and another area that can be utilized within it effectively. Since the future depends on CS, it was an easy decision. I think courses that impact more branches like data analysis etc., should be taught. I feel the minor programs shouldn’t be a miniature version of the major. Courses that enable students of all branches to utilise what they learnt should certainly be included in the minors.”

Advice for juniors:

“Do not take minors half-heartedly and certainly don’t take it just for the sake of getting a job.”

IT:

We reached out to Suraj Kulkarni, a 3rd-year E.E.E student who took IT minors,

“The courses in IT like DSA, DBMS etc, are essential in placements and interviews. I was looking to develop skills in IT core courses and was particularly looking forward to the labs. I am pretty satisfied with the courses but the content taught could be updated.”

Advice for juniors:

“I  feel if you have a choice of opting between CS and IT minors, I would suggest selecting IT. The labs were where I actually understood the concepts. And also competition is lighter in IT minors.”

ECE:

Shubham Chakroborty, a 3rd-year Mechanical student had this to say about his ECE minors,

“I wanted to be an all-rounder. With a Mechanical engg., large number of online courses for CS already present and my interest in electric vehicles, I thought ECE would be the ideal choice. Personally, I thought that I would have enough skills to build drones or something like that, but the pace isn’t fast enough. We need more depth in the concepts taught to us, and there needs to be practical use. I also feel the teachers should change their mindsets, we are unfamiliar with the subject, so even if we put in the same hours as them, we won’t be on the same level as the ECE major students.”

Advice for juniors:

“Follow your passion. If you picture yourself doing it, go for it! No matter who the professor is, you’ll still do great. But don’t treat this as just another subject. Think of it as a gate to escape your monotonous parent branch.”

EEE:

We spoke to a student pursuing EEE minors and got her views on about the courses,

“I wanted to get the basic knowledge of electrical and electronic components and I feel this Minors program is really helping me a lot, though I think we need a bit more depth in the courses.”

Advice for juniors:

“In my opinion, if you take the minor just because you got the chance or it is an extra degree, your interest will burn out and it will be hard to continue”

Mechanical:

“I took mechanical because I like machines, I didn’t want to take CS. The courses pretty much met my expectations though we should have more visits to the lab, where we get some practical experience.”

Advice for juniors:

“My advice would be to not take the courses lightly and treat them like your Major courses.”

Physics:

“I want to pursue Physics after college, and since grad school needs proof for your physics background, this minor suits me well. The courses are fairly theoretical which is good for me. It is no joke, it can get pretty hectic if you are doing Mechanical especially.”
-Samarth Prabhu, 3rd-year Mechanical student

Advice for juniors:

“ If you do have a true love for the subject, what are you waiting for? Go. Register yourself now. Even if you don’t get in, it shouldn’t impede your desire to learn the subject as the advent of the Internet has given us access to all the knowledge in the world.”

Management:

“Since I had no background experience in IT and I wanted to try out a second branch. Finance fascinated me so I took up Management. I wanted management-101 courses like Finance, HR, Marketing etc., and I got just that. I think we need more case studies as they teach in other grad schools.”
-Mohit R, 3rd year currently pursuing IT.

Advice for juniors:

“Minors are a great way to explore different branches and topics that are complementary to your core field of interest. Since you are allowed to drop them at your will, I don’t see the harm in taking up minors in a branch you are interested in. If it does not match your expectation,  you always have the choice to opt out.”

Maths:

These were the views of a  3rd year CS student about his maths minors,

“I was interested in the courses offered. From a pure math point of view, I wanted to understand the subjects deeply, but this has been difficult because of the breadth of the topics covered, so now I have a basic understanding of many topics.”

Advice for juniors:

“The increase in the amount of work is significant. This can sometimes result in damaging either your minor GPA or your major GPA, so if you choose to take it up, then be prepared for extra work, as many of the people who initially took the minor courses in most branches have chosen to opt-out of it after a semester.”

Students who dropped the minors:

Quite a few dropped their minor courses, and they shared their views about what went wrong.

“Firstly, I realised I was not interested in CS. Secondly, the course wasn’t taught well at all and I didn’t want to waste an hour every day for it. It was a hard decision, but I utilized my time taking other courses online. Please don’t take a minor just for placements.”
-Majji Soma Varun, 3rd year EEE student who took the CS minor courses

“I didn’t like ECE and I didn’t particularly like the timings. 8-9 a.m and 1-2 p.m are not the best times for classes. I realised that if I don’t like it and I am not going to use it, it would be better to drop. Many people pick minors for placements/jobs, but if you don’t like it, it could become a big mistake.”
-Meghana Kashyap, currently pursuing IT who opted for a minor in ECE

“There was a lot of hype around minors, and many were applying and the selection criteria were lenient, so I thought why not. Also, I had plans to do an MBA so having a management minor would add weight to my application. However, soon after I realised that my interest was in my major, and management did not interest me enough. I realised giving 4 hrs of my time was not worth it, and also it gave me time for my hectic IT courses. My advice for juniors would be, make sure you talk to your seniors about every aspect of minors because we had to reach out to professors and it was hard to get information. Dropping out before the semester starts is the best time because a few weeks in, it becomes a hassle to approach profs and collect signatures and you could waste a lot of time.”
-Mansi Saxena, 3rd year IT who took minors in Management

“I had been advised by my professors that a maths minor would give me an edge because I was interested in research-oriented ML. However, the courses were too theoretical. If the courses could be of some practical use with our majors then it would have been great. It is quite a hefty commitment, so be sure you like the subject.”
-A 3rd year CSE student who took a maths minor

Seniors:

We reached out to the recently passed out Batch of 2020, to know about their perspective about minors.

“Given the opportunity, I certainly would have taken minors, because I wasn’t interested in my primary branch. It would have been a great supplement for the whole engineering package. If it hadn’t directly helped with my higher education prospects, I think at least I would know the field that I am transitioning to because of minors. It would have been a great plus to my resume. There are many people in college who do not know where their interests lie and this could be a boon to them. I hope the minor structure adapts to the needs of the students over the next few years.”
-Tharfeed Ahmed

“I think adding interdisciplinary breadth is important and the electives were quite restricting within the department. It would be a great plus when applying to higher degrees, for example CS students who take a maths minor can prove that they can do rigorous math coursework which would be a part of graduate programs. Also for placements, they can break the barriers and help in applying to jobs in other fields. I think having the flexibility of switching minors would be good. “
-Moksh Jain

“A minor course gives one the opportunity to expand their knowledge base and enables a multi-disciplinary approach towards problem solving. Working on interdisciplinary projects and having a wider outlook on problems that we see around is obviously what universities are looking for and one’s chances of getting an admit at a top university increase multifold with the backing of a minor degree. Also, for those looking into getting into start-ups or their own ventures, having courses across varied subjects will enable enhancement of critical thinking and big picture analysis. The key differentiator would however be the impact of the minor’s degree on graduation outcomes and once the initial few batches graduate, the available data and trends can be studied to make the necessary changes in the structure of the program.”
-Nihal Shetty