Minors are optional additions to a University of Iowa bachelor's degree, requiring fewer semester hours than a major or a certificate. A minor usually consists of five courses (about 15 semester hours), with the majority of the coursework taken at the upper level (as defined by the unit offering the minor). 

Generally, minors are offered by a single department, but some are interdisciplinary and draw on courses from a number of departments and programs. In these cases, the minor may not duplicate other programs of study that already exist.

The complete academic policies for students earning a minor may be found in the Academic Policies Handbook.

Review CLAS minors Student handbook policies how to revise a minor

General Catalog

Detailed information on the requirements of each minor is published in the General Catalog. Always consult the catalog rather than a website for the official requirements for any major, minor, or certificate. The catalog is the authoritative source of this information, and it is used to create the degree audit and sample plan for each program of study.

Minor GPA and nongraded courses

A grade-point average (GPA) of at least 2.00 must be earned in all work attempted as part of the minor. The college does not allow P/N courses to count toward a minor. Courses graded S/F may be used at the discretion of the offering department or program.

Overlap between minor and General Education Program

In many cases, students may use courses approved for the GE CLAS Core to satisfy requirements for both their General Education Program (GEP) and their major, minor, or certificate. CLAS does not limit the number of courses that a student can "double count" in this way. However:

  • No course can be used to fulfill more than one requirement of the GE CLAS Core (with the exception of the Sustainability requirement).
  • Students may apply no more than three courses from the same course subject code to their GEP (with the exception of courses fulfilling World Language Pathways).
  • Courses approved in a GE CLAS Core area are generally required to be entry level, requiring little prior knowledge in the subject. Minors are generally designed with few introductory courses required before students move on to intermediate and advanced work. Even in departments with a large number of approved GE courses, therefore, students have limited opportunity for overlap between their minor and their GEP.

Allowed restrictions within a minor

Departments may restrict the use of transfer credit and credit by exam applied toward the requirements for a minor. Typically departments allow up to 3 semester hours of transfer credit to be applied to a minor.

The college specifies that no student may earn a degree with more than one program of study in the same area, generally understood to mean more than one program with the same name. This policy applies to any combination of majors, minors, and certificates. (For example, a student cannot earn both a BA and a BS in psychology, or complete a major and a minor in history, but a student can complete majors in both art and art history.)

The college does not approve selective admission minors.

Proposing a new minor

Please refer to the Modifying the Undergraduate Curriculum page for information about how to propose a new program of study or significantly revise an existing program of study. Please also note that creating a new minor requires a significant amount of time--typically at least 1.5 to 2 years. CLAS encourages departments to discuss ideas for new minors with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education early in the planning process.