Minor Programs | Declaring a Minor | Additional Regulations | Exceptions to Minor Requirements | List of Minors
Minor Programs
The College offers a wide spectrum of minors across a number of subjects and divisions. These range from intensive explorations of a single field to highly interdisciplinary examinations of more broadly defined concepts. Minors are a way of focusing a student's general electives, demonstrating fluency in areas not reflected in a major, complementing a major, or simply allowing students the opportunity to widen the scope of their education in the College. Not every major offers a minor; some minors are unaffiliated with any major. Some majors offer minors to students in other fields of study, and a few programs offer minors only.
Students are not required to complete a minor. A minor generally requires five to seven courses (i.e., 500-700 units). Successful completion of a minor program of study will be noted on the student's official transcript, but not on their diploma.
Declaring a Minor
First-year students will see their major listed as 'Common Year' for the majority of their first year in the College. First-year students may begin declaring major and/or minor programs of study beginning on Monday of the eighth week of Spring Quarter, and may continue to add, modify, or remove programs during subsequent quarters. Transfer students are granted the ability to begin declaring any major and/or minor programs of study earlier at the start of Autumn Quarter. Any minors should be officially declared by the end of students' third year (i.e., ninth quarter of enrollment) and all programs of study should be confirmed and considered final prior to completing an application to graduate in their final quarter.
Minors require completion of a Minor Consent Form to officially declare. Students interested in officially declaring a minor should meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies or other appointed department contact to discuss their interest and, upon completion of the form with the contact's signature included, submit the form to their Academic Adviser. Please consult the Catalog page for the relevant minor below for additional details about the program. Students are also strongly encouraged to consult with their Academic Adviser and contacts in the department throughout the process of selecting a minor. Click here to review the process for declaring a major.
Please note that while a student may indicate their interest in a particular major or minor program of study in their My Planner account and utilize the resources there for academic planning purposes at any time, the program will be considered unofficial. Students should be sure to officially declare any majors and/or minors in a timely manner so that their records are up to date for academic advising appointments and graduation clearance.
Additional Regulations
All policies and procedures outlined on this page, or on the individual program's Catalog page, must be followed or the minor may be removed from the student's academic record. Please take note of the additional stipulations outlined below:
- If the student takes courses for the minor that do not match the courses on the Consent form, either a new form must be submitted to the College adviser or written approval must be sent by the department acknowledging the deviation.
- No course being used toward a minor may be counted toward a student's Core requirements (with the exception of Language Competence), any major requirements, or another set of minor requirements.
- A minimum of half of the units of credit required for the minor must be completed in residence (i.e., through University of Chicago course enrollments).
- The majority or all of the courses utilized to meet minor requirements must be taken for quality grades. See the specific program's Catalog page for more specific details about grading. If no details are given regarding the acceptance of Pass grades toward the minor, then the default is that quality grades are expected.
Exceptions to Minor Requirements
Students seeking a modification to a minor requirement in the form of a course substitution must submit a General Petition to the Director of Undergraduate Studies or other appointed department contact listed in the program's Catalog page. Course substitutions must consist of equivalent credit value (e.g., one 100 unit course replacing another 100 unit course). Students should be aware of other policies not listed on this page, such as degree requirements, examination credit, and transfer credit, prior to submitting their request as these policies will continue to apply and are not at the discretion of the department. Waivers to requirements will not be granted unless preapproved as part of the established minor curriculum outlined in the Catalog. Any approved course substitutions should be shared with the student's academic adviser in a timely manner for academic planning and degree auditing purposes.
List of Minors
American Sign Language and Deaf Studies
Anthropology
Architectural Studies
Art History
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Biological Sciences
Business German
Catalan
Chemistry
Cinema and Media Studies
Classical Studies
Climate and Sustainable Growth
Cognitive Science
Computational Linguistics
Computational Molecular Engineering
Computational Neuroscience
Computational Social Science
Computer Science
Data Science
Democracy Studies
Digital Studies of Language, Culture, and History
East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Education and Society
English and Creative Writing
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Environment, Geography, and Urbanization
French
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Geographic Information Science
Germanic Studies
Health and Society
Hellenic Studies
History
History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine
Human Rights
Immunoengineering
Inequality, Social Problems, and Change
Italian
Jewish Studies
Kreyòl and Haitian Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Law and Political Economy
Linguistics
Mathematics
Media Arts and Design
Medieval Studies
Middle Eastern Studies
Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering
Molecular Engineering
Molecular Engineering Technology and Innovation
Music
Neuroscience
Norwegian Studies
Philosophy
Physics
Polymers and Soft Materials
Portuguese
Quantitative Social Analysis
Quantum Information Science
Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity
Religious Studies
Renaissance Studies
Romance Languages and Literatures
Russian and East European Studies
Science Communication and Public Discourse
South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Spanish
Statistics
Sustainable Energy and Water Resources
Systems Bioengineering
Theater and Performance Studies
Visual Arts
Yiddish