Minors

Undergraduates can choose to complete a minor in addition to a major. Students in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences can declare one or more minors in conjunction with either a single or double major. You can find a complete list of minors on the academics page.

Students should read the department’s offerings online to get a rough idea of the courses needed to complete a minor. Students should then make an appointment with the departmental minor advisor to complete plans and gain acceptance. The names of departmental minor advisors can be found on the Authorized Approval List.

Students cannot elect the satisfactory/fail option for courses submitted for the minor, and must earn at least a 2.0 average for these courses. Courses used for the minor must follow the overlap policy.

Students must use the Major/Minor Declaration Form to declare their minor. Students cannot declare a minor until they have been accepted into a major. It is expected that students will declare the minor by the end of the first semester of the senior year.

A student cannot normally receive a minor in the department in which they receive a major. This rule has been waived for the following departments and majors:

  • English
  • Art and art history
  • Modern languages and cultures
  • BA and BS in biology can be paired with a minor in computational biology
    • Exception: students may not declare a BS in computational biology and a minor in computational biology
  • Earth and environmental sciences major and a minor in sustainability
    • BS in any Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences can be paired with the social science division of the sustainability minor
    • BA in Geological Sciences can be paired with the social science division of the sustainability minor
    • Natural science division of the sustainability minor cannot be paired with any EESC program
    • BA in environmental studies cannot be paired with any EESC program
  • BS in mechanical engineering and a minor in material science
  • Mechanical engineering majors may complete a minor in aerospace engineering

To determine the academic division in which a minor falls, for the purpose of fulfilling the Rochester Curriculum, see the table that follows.

Our Minors

Use our academic search tool to view a list of minors either alphabetically or by division.