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Majors and Minors

What Drives You?

Majors and minors help undergraduates customize their academic careers. Typically, students choose a major based on their career goals. Minors, on the other hand, can be selected to support career goals or simply to show education in an area of personal interest.

Available Majors

In the School of Natural Sciences, majors follow a "core and emphasis" model that provides students the time and flexibility to explore multiple options and opportunities in science and mathematics before making a decision about a major or a specialty emphasis.

The core classes are common to several majors. The emphasis classes in each major are designed to provide students the opportunity to apply their foundational knowledge to specialty areas that interest them. These specialty areas might be individual majors at other universities, but we offer them as emphases to allow you to create the program of study best suited to achieving your goals. Students are encouraged to take the foundational courses before selecting an emphasis to ensure the best personal fit.

Available Minors

A minor is a way to officially declare your competency in an academic area that may or may not be related to your major. Some students choose a minor that complements their major; other students prefer a minor that's independent of their primary course of study. Our minors are open to students with majors in any of UC Merced's three academic schools.

To declare a minor, students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. Students should consult a School of Natural Sciences advisor to officially declare a minor and plan their courses. The following guidelines apply to all academic minors at UC Merced:

» At least five courses, four of which must be upper division, must be taken for a letter grade.
» At least three of the required courses must be taken at UC Merced.
» Only one course may be used to satisfy two minor programs' requirements.
» Only one course may be used to satisfy both a minor and a major requirement.
» Work for the minor must be completed within the 150-unit maximum limit for graduation.
» If the student's major and minor are in different schools, the higher unit maximum will apply.
» Students must consult the UC Merced General Catalog for prerequisites to required courses.
» The minor will appear on the student's transcript.