Online Extra: The Major Attraction of a Business Minor

This spring, Hashem Dabbas will graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in material science and engineering. Soon after, he will begin work at Morgan Stanley (MS ) as an investment banker. How does someone trained as an engineer get a job in banking? For Dabbas and thousands of other undergrads, the answer is simple: minor in business.

In Dabbas' case, the minor was in management, but the business courses he took at MIT's Sloan School of Management helped him convince recruiters that he had the skills necessary to succeed at their company. "I made a point to mention (the minor) in interviews," he says. "It eliminated the question about how a degree in engineering was going to help me as a banker." And Dabbas isn't alone. In the past few years, the number of students pursuing a minor in business has been climbing rapidly—as much as 20% at schools such as Indiana University, where 1,500 students are currently declared as business minors.