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Declaring a Minor or Certificate Program

Students frequently ask, “What’s the difference between declaring a minor or adding a certificate program?”

The answer is: certificates can be pursued concurrently with a degree, or independently from a degree, while minors must be concurrent with a bachelor’s degree. A minor cannot be declared by a graduate student.

To declare a minor or add a certificate:

  1. Log into the ecampus.
  2. Under the Academic Plan & Forms/My Program menu select the Change Academic Program link.
  3. Complete and submit the form.

Note: If you are admitted to the university as a Non-Degree-Seeking student and you want to add a certificate program, you will need to submit the New Program Enrollment Form, not the change form.

Change in Catalog Year

As with any program change, when you add a minor or certificate, you will be moved to the most recent catalog year, which could impact your academic plan or possibly cause loss of existing credit. If you are unsure how adding a certificate or minor may affect your program, please contact your academic advisor.

Limitations

You should not pursue a minor and/or certificate that is too closely related to your degree program:

  • Minor: no more than 3 courses may overlap with the degree requirements.
  • Certificate: 3 courses in the certificate cannot also be in the degree requirements.

Note: The university does not offer the option of double majoring. If you decide to pursue a second degree at the same level, all of your prior program credits will be evaluated as transfer credit.

Electives and Semester Hours

The semester hours required for a certificate and/or minor take the place of electives on your academic plan. This reduces your flexibility in elective choices, which may impact transfer credit requests. (The majority of transfer credits are generally awarded as electives.)

If the semester hours required for the certificate and/or minor are greater than the semester hours required for electives, adding a certificate and/or minor will increase the total number of semester hours required to graduate.