-- Minoring Marjorie

A: Excellent question, Marjorie. Your college may have some guidelines about minors, so take a look at your handy catalog before you go any further. For example, if you major in Biology you may be locked into a Chemistry minor, and majoring in Romance Languages may automatically sign you up for a minor in Linguistics... or maybe you're majoring in Psychology, and your college requires you to minor outside the social sciences. So Step One: Learn the rules. Step Two: See how far they'll stretch to accommodate your interests.

At its worst, a minor is like a bunch of socks: You end up with a collection of items that are all similar to one another, but won't really take you anywhere. With a little creativity, though, a minor can be like a perfectly tailored outfit...complete with accessories.

Here's an example. I know a student who loves theater, but is pretty sure she's not going to end up making a living as an actress. To complement her English major, she designed a minor in Theater Administration: an acting course, a costume design course, plus courses in marketing, accounting, and basic web design.

She was able to show the administration that these courses fit together as preparation for the kind of career she dreamed of - and she got her plan approved.

So best of luck putting together your minor ensemble. As Tim Gunn says on Project Runway, all you have to do is "Make it work!"