New Transfer Student Guide: Declaring a Major/Minor

All students must select a major no later than four semesters before graduation. If you are a rising third-year student, you should declare your major when you arrive. Should you not feel ready to do so, please see Dean Papovich about a petition to defer your declaration until the end of your first semester here. If you are a rising second-year student, you do not have to declare until mid-way through your second semester here. Stating a major interest on your admissions application does not constitute declaring a major.

Majors can be departmental, interdepartmental (e.g., African-American Studies, East Asian Studies, American Studies), or interdisciplinary. Major programs require no fewer than 18 and no more than 35 credit-hours of work, which must be approved by the department concerned. In addition, some departments may require up to 12 credit-hours in related courses. Consult the Undergraduate Record and/or departmental pages for each department’s description of its major program. If you are interested in declaring Economics or one of the interdepartmental or interdisciplinary majors, you should contact the Undergrduate Director as soon as you have been offered admission to the College.

Please note that students interested in interdisplinary programs such as Political and Social Thought (PST) cannot enroll in program courses without receiving permission from the program director and the Dean’s Office in the College. Admission to these programs is competitive and some students who wish to select these majors are denied permssion to do so. Should you wish to declare one of the interdisciplinary majors, including Media Studies or PST, you should contact the program director as soon as you learn that you have been offered admission to the College.

You may choose to major in two subjects. However, third-year transfers interested in double-majoring will face very tight scheduling requirements, especially if any College area requirements remain unfulfilled. Additional full-time semesters are not granted to complete double majors.

All courses in the major must be completed at this University unless an exception is made by the Undergraduate Director of your major department or program and by Mr. Papovich, your Association Dean. Some departments allow you to count up to nine credits of transfer work toward the major, but until you have spoken with the Director of Undergraduate Programs in your major department, you should assume that you will do all major work here. You will not, however, be asked to repeat a course that you took for credit elsewhere.

You may not count courses for the major if you take them on a credit/no credit basis. If you take courses here in your major subject before you declare your major, you may count them toward the major, given departmental permission.

Mr. Papovich will explain the major declaration process in detail during orientation. You will print off your VISTAA form, go to your major department (you will receive specific contact information during orientation, and can find general contact information here), identify yourself as a new transfer student, and talk with an undergraduate advisor who will help you plan your major program for the next two years. After you have listed the courses you will submit for your major, you will be assigned an advisor in that major, and then you and your advisor will sign the declaration form. One of the copies should then be submitted to Garrett Hall. Don’t be afraid that you will be locked into the courses you select at this time. Major declarations can be altered with the approval of the major advisor. Changes of major are possible after the fifth semester but usually require Summer Session attendance. Again, Mr. Papovich will speak in detail about this process at both summer and fall orientation.

If you are a rising third-year student, do not delay the declaration of your major beyond the first week of classes in the fall unless you have filed a petition with Dean Papovich to do so

Minors

In addition to a major, students may choose a minor concentration in a second subject. Not all departments or interdepartmental programs offer a minor. A minor consists of no fewer than 15 and no more than 24 credit-hours in an approved program of study. If you wish to minor in a particular subject, consult the Director of the Undergraduate Program in that department.

Students in the College may minor in Architectural History or Planning in the School of Architecture, and Computer Science in the School of Engineering. Students interested in a Computer Science minor should consult the School of Engineering’s CS minor web page.

Next: Building a Schedule