Minoring at USC

Feb 13, 2025

One of the strengths of a USC undergraduate education is its multidisciplinary nature. This is evident not only in our General Education curriculum and cross-school degree programs, but also a student’s ability to pursue more than one area of study—and across schools at the university. For some, this may mean double majoring. But, depending upon the two programs of interest, a student might take more than four years to complete coursework for a double major. That’s why minors are a great option for many. And we have over 250 of them, from Consumer Behavior to Cybersecurity to Education Policy to Mind Body Studies! They allow students to pursue a secondary interest—sometimes a very focused interest—in an efficient but still meaningful way.

You’ll find a full list of minors in our USC Catalogue, under the list of majors and in alphabetical order. Click on the minor to see a list of course requirements and other details. We’ve also included the list below.

Types of Minors

There are essentially two types of minors. The first are “mini majors”. For example, there is an English major and an English minor. The English minor is just a condensed version of the major. The second are minors focused on more specific topics. You can pursue a Business minor, which is the “mini major” equivalent of the Business Administration major. Or, you can pursue a more specialized area of study, such as Marketing or Entrepreneurship.

Fitting In A Minor

Except for a few degree programs—notably, the Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Music, and a few other unique offerings—it’s pretty easy to fit in a minor (sometimes two!) and still graduate on time. A typical undergraduate degree requires between 128 and 132 units. Minor programs can require as few as 16 units, making it easy to complete them in eight semesters. It’s important to note that some minors might require only a few units, but also have pre-requisite courses. For example, engineering minors, such as Astronautical Engineering, will generally require math and/or science courses before students can take the actual courses required for the minor. Then again, for such minor programs, students may have already completed those pre-requisites through a related major, AP/IB/A-Level scores or General Education courses.

Minors can also be more or less flexible. For example, the Fashion and Food and Society minors have lots of options to choose from under both lower-division and upper-division elective courses, with the Food and Society minor only requiring one specific course. The Artificial Intelligence Applications minor requires that you complete five of six courses, plus one elective; so, over the course of your time at USC, you have to fit those five courses into your schedule—which provides less wiggle room (but is still doable).

There’s bonus flexibility for those pursuing programs with 2-unit courses—such as Hip-Hop, Street and Social Dance Forms and Comedy (Performance). This is because tuition covers 18 units per semester. Students typically take 16 units, so they often have 2 units to fit in an extra 2-unit course. Students who qualify for the Academic Achievement Award—which allows students to register for 21 units at the standard 18-unit tuition rate—have even more units with which to take minor courses.

Don’t worry if this is a lot to take in! Your academic advisor(s) will help you sort through all these details!

Applying for Minors

Students interested in a minor can schedule a meeting with that program’s academic advisor to discuss course requirements and special perks (such as access to the school’s career services offerings). Of course, they should also talk with their major academic advisor to make sure everything will fit together nicely.

Only currently-enrolled students can apply for a minor at USC. Students sometimes have to wait until they’ve completed a semester or year of work to add a minor—simply because some programs want students to focus on their major and General Education requirements before adding a secondary option.

In many instances, students interested in a minor will meet with the program’s academic advisor. Assuming that they are doing well academically, they might be added to the minor on the spot. In other instances, there might be a simple application process. Departments often turn around admission decisions in a couple of weeks and on a rolling basis. In a few cases, as with many music minors, there may be a single deadline and an audition requirement. Any admission requirements or restrictions will be listed in the USC Catalogue alongside course requirements.

Some Concluding Thoughts

Minoring is a fabulous option for so many students, especially given the breadth of offerings at USC. Again, there are currently over 250 minors—with new ones added each year!

They give students the opportunity to dive into a specific interest, but in a very focused way. Plus, pursuing a minor often comes with access to additional resources—from career services to fun perks (like free tickets to shows for some performance-based programs). And, while minors don’t show up on your diploma, you have the opportunity to list them on your professional resume or talk about them in interviews with employers. Just as importantly, you can find another community of individuals who share your interests. With so many advantages, who knows? You might even choose to pursue more than one.

List of Minors at USC for 2024-2025

(click on the link for more information)

Written by: Anne Aubert-Santelli, Associate Director, USC Office of Admission

USC Undergraduate Admission Blog

Minoring at USC