Recommended Minors.

[HopefulOfficer]

Hello,

I am Criminology major at Indiana State University. I am trying to pick out a minor that could help me in this particular field of work. I asked my advisor and she said, "You do not need to get a minor to become a cop." As you can see, not much help.

I was thinking political science, because I enjoy politics. But I am not sure if that would benefit me.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Nick

[Citicop]

Police Departments don't even care about your MAJOR... Criminology is no better or worse than biology, art history, or communications.

Minor in whatever interests you if you want a minor. It will not help or hurt you at all when applying.

-Citicop.

[icu650]

I would suggest a minor in English. As an Officer you will be required to write many reports for different reasons and different agencies. These reports need to be clear and accurate and written in a professional manner. A sloppy misspelled report says a lot about the author and his capabilities.

[retdetsgt]

I would suggest a minor in English. As an Officer you will be required to write many reports for different reasons and different agencies. These reports need to be clear and accurate and written in a professional manner. A sloppy misspelled report says a lot about the author and his capabilities.

+1

That's something I watched go downhill over the years even as we increased the basic educational requirement for officers. It's not just spelling, grammar and punctuation, but the ability to paint a word picture of what you heard, saw and concluded from something you witnessed. The ability to do that will get you an excellent reputation among detectives, prosecutors, judges and even defense attorneys.....

[ChesCopPodz]

Accounting, and switch criminology to your minor. Police departments don't care what your major is, as long as you went to college. A few years back, I remember that the FBI was only hiring people who were one of three things, pilots, accountants, or multi-lingual. If you weren't one of the three, you were told thanks but no thanks immediately.

If you really want to stay in criminology, and have no aspirations of going federal, minor in spanish, or another language with real world applications.

[DeltaV]

Spanish (or another useful foreign language).

Nobody will care anything about your minor, but becoming proficient in a foreign language will probably help you more than anything else you can do. You don't need to minor in the language or even take the courses through your college to do so, but if you're already there then you might as well get some credit for it too.