Why I Decided to Drop my Minor in Digital Studies
photo credit: USC SCA
by Lauren Liang ‘23
Last semester, I wrote an article titled “Why I Decided to Minor in Digital Studies.” Meet her older, slighter wiser sister article, “Why I Decided to Drop my Minor in Digital Studies.” I recommend reading the prior article before this one for extra context, but if you enjoy a good TLDR: I am a cognitive science major interested in working in product design. I declared a minor in Digital Studies because I thought it would include courses that would help develop skills for a career in product design, while also allowing me the benefits of being a SCA student.
Because I transferred to USC as a junior in terms of credits (I technically began at USC during what would’ve been my sophomore year), I didn’t have much time to explore elective courses. Essentially, if I wanted to minor, I would’ve had to declare it almost immediately after matriculating. Feeling like I had no time to waste, I declared my minor and began coursework.
Over the course of two semesters, I completed nearly all of the Digital Studies minor requirements, needing only 8 more units (or two 4-unit classes) to complete the minor.
As I progressed through the minor, I noticed that while I found the coursework interesting, most of it didn’t excite me. It was intriguing and mentally stimulating, definitely, but the material was rarely something that I was truly, genuinely passionate about. By the time I had gotten to the point where I only needed 8 more units to complete the minor, there were no more required courses that I was interested in or felt would build technical skills I could use in my career. I would’ve also had to complete those 8 units during my last semester at USC, a semester I wanted to use to take courses that I’d always been interested in but never was able to fit into my schedule.
When I was younger, I tended to buy into the sunk-cost fallacy – I would always finish what I started. Surprisingly, deciding to drop Digital Studies was an easier decision than I thought it would be. A major reason I decided to declare a minor in Digital Studies (rather than something like theatre, which I’ve always done for the sake of doing) was to demonstrate to potential employers that I had more technical skills than the average liberal arts major, as product design is a largely technical field.
But, by the time it came to register for my last semester (aka decide if I wanted to register for the courses that would enable me to finish the minor), I already had two internships at major companies under my belt. I no longer needed the minor to justify my skills or ability to employers – I could speak on my experience working in a professional setting, rather than skills learned in academia. Additionally, the skills I used during my internship I learned either in an extracurricular setting (I built my foundational Figma skills as a member of InnoD, USC’s chapter of Innovative Design), or on the job (working in a corporate setting, communicating with stakeholders, learning from full-time product designers, etc).
This isn’t to say that I’ve never been asked or talked about the minor during interviews when I still had it declared. There are skills I’ve learned during the minor, such as using Adobe Creative Suite or front-end web development, that I am able to list on my resume and relate back to the role I’m interviewing for. Ultimately, it would be impossible for me to determine if these skills are what got me hired. When it came to evaluating the utility of graduating with the minor, I determined that while the skills I developed as a Digital Studies minor made for interesting talking points during interviews, the skills I’ve taken the time to develop outside of academia were more relevant in getting hired.
While it would have been nice to say that I completed a minor during college, I don’t regret dropping my minor at all. Dropping Digital Studies allowed me to take courses that I’ve always wanted to take during my last semester, some of which have become my favorite courses I’ve taken at USC. If anything, I regret not dropping the minor sooner, or perhaps minoring in something I was more passionate about, as the skills I thought I was going to build for my career in the minor were less relevant than I expected. As I discussed in another article, “How Unconventional Electives Can Benefit Your Career In Unexpected Ways”, “taking breaks from your career development is an important part of preventing burnout: your mental and physical health is worth so much more than whatever opportunity you might gain from taking a class related to your career goals.”
All that being said – Digital Studies could be a great minor for someone interested in new and emerging media. New courses get added almost every semester, and the professors I’ve had are so talented and supportive. One of my favorite courses I’ve taken at USC, IML 300, was a part of the Digital Studies minor, and I might not have taken it if I didn’t see it under the minor in the course catalog. Dropping my Digital Studies minor was a personal decision and in no way a comment on the quality of the program.
If you’re thinking about choosing a minor and have the time/space to study something you truly enjoy (that you might not be able to dedicate as much time to post-grad), I highly recommend doing so! You’ll have all the time in the world to build your career and professional skills outside of academia.
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