Undergraduate Minors

Undergraduate Minor Guidelines

An undergraduate minor is a defined program of study outside the student's major field. Minors are intended to broaden the student's education by encouraging and officially recognizing knowledge obtained by the student in fields other than their major.

Minors are typically offered by Schools which also offer a major. A program of study for the minor is outlined and it may include more than one option or "track". Tracks allow students to focus on an aspect of the academic field that is of particular interest to them. It is expected that there will be depth of the program of study and that specific educational objectives will be met upon completion of the minor.

Other minors are offered where there is no undergraduate degree granting program at Georgia Tech. These minors cover fields which are inherently multidisciplinary; i.e., ones that are covered in part by multiple degree granting academic programs. Multidisciplinary minors require particularly broad Programs of Study which include courses from multiple Schools and/or Colleges.

Undergraduate Minors Offered

Click here for a list of minors offered at Georgia Tech. All undergraduate minor requirements are also available in DegreeWorks.

Program of Study

The program of study for each minor must satisfy the curricular requirements listed below. However, some minors, at the discretion of the offering academic unit(s) and approval from the Institute Curriculum Committee, may be exempt from some of these requirements, may exceed some requirements, and/or add additional requirements. Consult the advisor for the minor program for the specific requirements of that minor.

Requirements for the Program of Study

  1. A minor program of study must have at least 15 credit hours of coursework.
  2. A minor program of study must include at least 9 credit hours of courses numbered 3000 or above.
  3. Courses used to satisfy Core Areas A through E in a student's major degree program cannot also be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor.
  4. Any free elective course used to satisfy the course requirements of the student's major degree program may also be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor.
  5. All academic units may designate a block/blocks of courses outside of the student's major field of study in which the same course can be used to satisfy the course requirements in the student's major degree program and also be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor.
  6. A multidisciplinary or other minor may contain courses in a student's major field of study. A maximum of 6 credit hours of such courses may be used to satisfy the course requirements for the minor, provided these courses are not also used to satisfy any course requirement in the student's major degree program.
  7. A maximum of 6 credit hours of Special Topics courses may be included in a minor program or the student may complete 3 credit hours of Special Topics and 3 credit hours of either Special Problems or Undergraduate Research. Students may not use 6 credit hours of either Special Problems or Undergraduate Research for a minor.
  8. A maximum of 3 credit hours of transfer credit may be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor. This includes courses taken at another institution or credit earned through the AP or IB program, assuming the scores meet Georgia Tech minimum standards.
  9. A course may not be used to satisfy the requirements of more than one minor or certificate.
  10. All courses counting toward the minor must be taken on a letter-grade basis.
  11. All courses used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor must be completed with a grade of C (2.00) or better.

Other Guidelines

  1. A student should select a minor in consultation with an advisor in their major field of study. The minor selected must be:
    1. outside of the student's major, or
    2. a multidisciplinary minor that may include some courses in the student's major field of study. (See requirement #6 above.)
  2. The student should also consult with an advisor in the minor field of study who can inform and advise the student about the specific requirements of the minor. Some of these may be different than the requirements listed above.
  3. Students can declare a minor at any time. However, it is recommended that students declare the minor as soon as they have made the decision so that they can monitor their progress using the online degree audit and with their advisor. Declaration of the minor also provides information to the relevant academic units that is helpful in planning courses. The minor declaration form is on the Registrar's Office website at: http://www.registrar.gatech.edu/students/formlanding/changeminor.php.
  4. The student must complete a minor program of study form at the same time the online application for graduation is completed, generally during the semester before the terminal one. Program of study forms for all minors can be found here.
  5. The minor is conferred at the same time the major degree is conferred. The major degree and minor will be recorded on the student's transcript. The minor will not appear on the student's diploma.
  6. Minors will not be conferred retroactively upon students who have graduated.

Administrative Guidelines

  1. All proposals for a minor must originate from the faculty of the academic unit(s) offering the minor. Minors may originate in several ways, such as:
    1. a minor in a field in which Georgia Tech offers a degree program through a single academic unit (College/School),
    2. a multidisciplinary minor, in which the subject matter is covered by multiple degree granting academic programs in multiple academic units (Colleges/Schools),
    3. a minor in a field in which there is no undergraduate degree-granting program at Georgia Tech. In this case, the proposed minor must be in a recognized academic field or discipline and the offering academic unit(s) must have in place sufficient courses, faculty, and facilities.
  2. All proposals for a minor must include a statement of the educational objectives of the minor and how the program of study is used to satisfy these objectives.
  3. The academic unit(s) offering the minor may choose to require an admission process, set admission standards, and/or set enrollment limits.
  4. The academic units(s) offering the minor may request to be exempted from some of the curricular requirements applied to the program of study or add additional requirements if this is justified as essential to meeting the stated educational objectives of the minor.
  5. For a multidisciplinary or other minor, a maximum of 6 semester hours of courses in the student's major field of study may be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor when their inclusion is justified as essential to meeting the stated educational objectives of the minor. However, these courses cannot also be used to satisfy any course requirement in the student's major degree program unless they belong to the special block of courses described in requirement #5 of the Requirements for the Program of Study of the minor.
  6. All proposals for a minor must include a plan for advising students pursuing the minor and for approving a student's completion of the required program of study.
  7. All proposals for a minor must be endorsed by the appropriate College Dean(s) and by the Provost.
  8. All undergraduate minors must be approved by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and by the Academic Senate.
  9. Information and relevant documents for proposing a new minor can be found at http://www.icc.gatech.edu/submit/requirements.php?type=101