Undergraduate Minor Guidelines

Minors are intended to encourage and officially acknowledge the attainment by students of a fair measure of expertise and knowledge in more than one academic field, with the goal of broadening their education.

  1. All undergraduate minor programs must be approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and by the Academic Senate.
  2. All proposals for a minor must originate from the faculty of the academic unit offering the minor or, in the case of a multidisciplinary minor, from the faculty of each participating academic unit. Proposals must be endorsed by the appropriate College dean(s) and by the Provost.
  3. Ordinarily a minor may be offered only in a field in which Georgia Tech offers a degree program. Exceptions, which also require approval by the University System Chancellor, may be made if (a) the proposed minor is in a recognized academic field or discipline, and (b) the school or department has in place sufficient courses, faculty, and facilities for offering the minor.
  4. A minor program must comprise at least eighteen semester hours, of which at least twelve semester hours are upper-division coursework (numbered 3000 or above). The depth of the program should ensure that upon completion the student will have attained a fair measure of expertise and knowledge in the minor field.
  5. No more than 6 semester hours of Special Topics courses may be included in a minor program. No more than a total of 4 semester hours of Special Problems and Undergraduate Research courses may be included in the minimum eighteen hours of a minor program.
  6. Courses required by name and number and/or used to satisfy Core Areas A through E in a student's major degree program may not be used in satisfying the course requirements for a minor. However, courses used in a minor also may be used to fulfill other elective requirements (free electives, technical electives, etc.) in the student's major degree program.
  7. A course may not be counted toward more than one minor and/or certificate.
  8. All courses counting toward the minor must be taken on a letter-grade basis and completed with an overall grade point average of at least 2.00.
  9. The minor(s) must be in field(s) outside the student's major field.
  10. The availability of a minor should be noted in the catalog along with the description of the corresponding major degree program. The academic unit offering the minor shall publish and make available to students the requirements for the minor - the courses and total number of hours required, along with the enumeration of any particular courses that are mandated or excluded, and any grade requirements that differ from the general grade requirements of this policy.
  11. A student may select a minor in consultation with the advisor in the major field. The student should then consult an advisor in the minor field, who can inform the student of any remaining requirements. When the student petitions for a degree, he/she should complete a petition for a minor and have it approved by the minor advisor. The petition for a minor will accompany the petition for the major degree when reviewed and approved by the major school. The two forms are then submitted to the Registrar. The minor will be conferred at the same time the degree is conferred and the degree and minor will be recorded on the student's transcript. The minor will not be on the diploma. Minors may not be conferred retroactively upon students who have graduated.
  12. All minor programs are to be reviewed at least once every six years, as part of the regular program review in the sponsoring unit(s).