Pursuing an academic minor provides students with the opportunity to focus their free electives, general education and upper-level requirement courses. Some academic minors are complementary to a student’s major. For some students, an academic minor is a way to explore a different area of interest which is not covered in their academic major. For most, it is means to build specific career related preparation which adds to and/or diversifies their portfolio.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) developed a list of eight competencies related to career readiness. We have listed career readiness competencies which can be practiced in each academic minor. For more information, please see the NACE Career Readiness for the New College Graduate handout.
To declare and pursue an academic minor, degree-seeking students must have the ability to complete the academic minor in alignment with the USF Policy 10-505 - Degree Progression and Completion Deadlines for Undergraduate Students.
If eligible to pursue a minor at USF, students must meet the following criteria in order to have the academic minor certification recorded on their USF transcript
Meet all the requirements for the USF academic minor with min GPA required
Complete a minimum of two courses of 3000+level USF courses (six credit hours) which are not used to meet requirements in their academic major or other declared minors.
Confirm that you are eligible to add a minor by meeting with your academic advisor to discuss your declared major, what graduation requirements you have left, and learn how much room you have to add an academic minor. Then explore the different academic minors to see what is a good fit for your interests and goals.
The sooner you make plans, the more likely you will be eligible to declare and have the ability to complete the minor on time and get the most out of the experience.
Connect with advising and submit your declaration before registration begins
During Add/Drop Week (first week of the term) and during Priority Registration (11th-15th weeks of the term), most students are seeking advising support to ensure they can register for the correct classes as soon as possible. Because of the high volume of urgent needs, declaration processes are delayed. If you submit a minor declaration request during registration, please be patient and expect a longer response time.
Our College has a variety of interesting and meaningful Academic Minors students can select to pursue. Here is an overview of the minors offered by the College of Arts and Sciences.