Minors
No minor is required for the bachelor's degree.
A minor is a formal aggregate of classes in a specific subject area designed to give a student documented competency in a secondary course of study. In contrast to options and concentrations it stands alone and is distinct from and outside the student's degree major. It is intended that the minor will be completed along with the. requirements for the bachelor’s degree. The student’s transcript will certify completion of the minor.
The minor consists of 24 to 30 quarter units, of which at least half must be upper division. Twelve or more of the units in the minor must be specified courses with the remainder, if any, to be chosen from an appropriate list. Minors require the same academic review process and justification in terms of purpose, resources, need, etc., as do options and concentrations.
The University criteria for evaluating proposed minors are the following:
1. Clarification and specification of the competencies to be achieved in the minor.
2. Specification of the methods by which competencies are to be documented.
3. Review of the needed and available resources (staff, library, equipment) required to offer the minor.
4. If the unit proposing a minor is not an academic department, there must be specification of the composition of the group or committee that is sponsoring the minor. (This item is particularly important for interdisciplinary minors.)
5. External validation of minors where appropriate. (This item is important for any proposed minors which lack a qualified reviewing body on campus.)
6. The extent of student interest in the proposed minor.
7. Projected enrollment in the minor for the first, third, and fifth years of its existence.
8. Specification of possible negative impacts the proposed minor could have on existing programs in the curriculum.
Source:
Academic Senate Resolution: AS-73-79/Ad Hoc "Resolution on Academic Minors" (PDF). Approved 4 December 1979.
Policy on Unit Range and Related Requirements for Minors for the Semester Catalog
A minor will consist of 15-24 semester units. Completion of the minor will require that at least 5 courses be taken.
At least 6 units of coursework will develop foundational competencies in the discipline that all students in the minor should achieve, which must be demonstrated by the course-to-PLO mapping in the minor proposal.
At least half of the minor units will be upper-division, comprising at least three courses.
At least half of the units in the minor will be completed in residence at Cal Poly. For the Chinese, French, German, Italian Studies, Japanese, and Spanish minors, the requirement for students studying abroad is that at least one third of the units must be taken at Cal Poly.
No more than 1/3 of the units will be taken with credit-no credit grading (CR/NC), not counting courses with mandatory CR/NC. Departments may further limit CR/NC grading if desired.
A GPA of 2.0 or better in the minor courses is required to complete the minor.
No other aspects of the current policies on academic minors are impacted or changed. This resolution does not pertain to Cross-Disciplinary Studies Minors as established by AS-775-14.
Source:
Academic Senate Resolution: AS-951-22 "Resolution on Minors and Semesters" (PDF). Approved 21 November 2022.
Updated: 7/3/25