FSC School of Business offers minors and certificates to expand student opportunities

By: Ayla Kugler

FARMINGDALE N.Y. - The School of Business at Farmingdale State College offers a wide variety of minors, and certificates to help enhance your degree and career options.

Jessica Bernadotte, a senior counselor at the School of Business, said adding another credential to your degree can help you really focus on “areas that might be of interest to you,” such as marketing or HR. These additional credentials, such as accounting, or ornamental horticulture, can help build up your resume for future job opportunities.

The School of Business offers the following degree programs:

According to Bernadotte, the number of credits for each program can vary between programs. With most of them being somewhere between 18 and 36 credits.

When asked if adding a minor or certificate would extend the time it takes to graduate, Bernadotte notes that it can depend on your major. However, she said the School of Business encourages students to declare these additions to your degree early, that way you don't have to extend your time as a student.

Bernadotte explained that for business students they can “double count” classes, meaning they count one class towards both your major and your minor or certificate. For non-business majors, adding a minor or certificate may be more difficult, but it is still manageable, especially if students take more than five classes in a semester.

Bernadotte says that the main difference between minors and certificates is that a minor must be completed at the same time as the major. You can't finish all your major classes and then declare a minor; they won't process it.

Certificates, however, can be completed after graduation. Students can earn their degree and come back to complete more classes to receive a certificate. So, minors can only be added while still pursuing your major, while certificates can be done at any time.

Adding a minor or certificate to your degree requires students to complete and submit the appropriate forms. This is the link to the form that allows you to add a certificate to your degree, and here is the link for the form that allows you to add a minor.

Students must first have their primary major chair to sign off on the form, followed by the minor or certificate program chair. This can be done through email.

After you have both signatures, the form must be submitted to the registrar's office at regoffice@farmingdale.edu to make the addition official. Once this is done, students can then meet their new academic advisor to plan their courses for the upcoming semesters.

When asked whether students should add a minor or certificate, Bernadotte encouraged them to do so.

“Absolutely do it,” Bernadotte said. “It's a great way to boost up your resume and also your knowledge base, and if you're looking to go into grad school, it just really gives you that component where you feel like you have a little bit more understanding in that area.”