Minor Programs

A number of fields in architecture, engineering, management, science, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) offer minor programs. The minors are cohesive programs providing significant experience in their disciplines. The general guidelines for a minor program are as follows:

  • Minor programs consist of five to seven subjects, generally six. These subjects may count toward General Institute Requirements and departmental program requirements.
  • Subjects taken under the junior-senior P/D/F grading option cannot be used for a minor program.
  • At the discretion of the minor advisor, transfer credit may be used to fulfill a portion of the minor program. MIT subjects, including those taken through cross-registration, must comprise at least half of the minor program.
  • A student may not take a minor in the area of his or her major, except that students doing Course 4 degrees in Architectural Design or Building Technology may minor in the HASS field of History of Art and Architecture. Minors are not allowed in either field of composite degrees combining two different fields, for example, the SB in Mathematics with Computer Science, SB in Humanities and Science, or the SB in Humanities and Engineering.
  • A student may earn no more than two minors, which are awarded only when the student receives the SB degree, and which must be associated with a specific degree. This two-minor maximum applies even if the student receives two SB degrees.
  • The student should designate the minor program by the end of the sophomore year, but no later than Add Date one full term preceding the one in which the SB degree is awarded. The student must complete an application form for a minor in consultation with the appropriate minor advisor. Note that the application and completion forms for Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) minors are different from those used in other fields.

Detailed information on minor programs in Architecture, Engineering, Management, and Science fields appears in the MIT Bulletin. For additional information, instructions, and applications, students should contact the undergraduate offices in their fields of interest.

Detailed information on all minor programs in HASS may be found in the MIT Bulletin or the HASS Education Office . Of the six subjects required for the HASS minor, at most five will count toward satisfaction of the eight-subject Institute HASS Requirement. Of these five, at most one will count toward the satisfaction of the HASS Distribution (HASS-D) Requirement.

Undergraduate Research and Special Studies

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Many students augment their scheduled classes with individually planned academic activities. These activities include undergraduate research, special projects, internships, fieldwork, and co-op programs.

MIT offers a variety of subject numbers for these activities. Specific registration details and other relevant information are available from the appropriate department. Visit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for highlights about many of these opportunities, instructions on participation, and listings of specific research projects. Staff in the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP) are available to answer questions and assist with paperwork.

All UROP projects must have guidance from a faculty member or a departmentally approved UROP supervisor. A student's proposed research should generally be in the area of the UROP supervisor's research expertise. 

UROP credit is awarded only under specific UROP numbers in each department. Credit can be given on either a P/D/F or graded basis depending on department policies. A student should understand what type of grading is available in his or her UROP department and which type applies to the subject for which he or she has registered (e.g., in Biology 7.UR is graded on a P/D/F basis while 7.URG uses regular grades). A student doing a UROP project for pay or as a volunteer can receive transcript notation via "URN" credit (one unit of non-degree credit); registration is not necessary for URN credit. URN credit is not available for summer or IAP programs; it is only awarded for fall and spring projects.

Undergraduate Seminars Program

Undergraduate seminars, offered in fall and spring terms, provide opportunities to interact closely with faculty on topics of current interest. Seminars vary both in style and topic. Some are oriented around small group discussion, others have speakers, or engage in hands-on learning. All seminars carry six (6) units of credit, and the class size is restricted to a small group. All seminars are graded P, D, or F (with no record of D or F performance by freshmen in the first term).

For information, including titles and descriptions, see Undergraduate Seminars.

Freshman Advising Seminars are a special subset of seminars open only to first-semester freshmen, in which the seminar leader is also the freshman advisor to the seminar participants. Because the Freshman Advising Seminars involve academic advising, any freshman wishing to drop or change his/her seminar must consult first with the Assistant Dean for Freshman Advising in the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming (UAAP).

Information about Freshman Advising Seminars, including titles, descriptions, and application information for incoming freshmen, can be found at First Year.

These sites are maintained by the UAAP.

Cross-Registration

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MIT students may cross-register during the fall and spring terms for regular subjects at Harvard University, Wellesley College, the Massachusetts College of Art, or the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with no additional tuition fees. Wellesley also offers a Wintersession during January. Cross-registration is not available during the summer, nor does Harvard cross-registration include subjects in the Harvard Extension School.

Cross-registration information is available from the Registrar's Office.

Regular letter grades from Harvard (with some exceptions for subjects at the School of Design) and Wellesley subjects will appear on the MIT grade report and transcript, and will be computed as part of the term and cumulative grade point averages. First-semester freshman grades will be recorded on a Pass/No Record basis, and second-semester freshman grades will be reported on an ABC/No Record basis. Sophomores may designate cross-registered subjects as Exploratory. Juniors and seniors may opt to take the cross-registered subjects under the P/D/F option. Wellesley subjects that are designated as mandatory “credit/non-credit” will be converted to MIT P/D/F grading.

Subjects taken at Harvard or Wellesley are counted as unrestricted general electives, unless the student gains approval for a subject to count as a GIR or as part of the departmental program.

Subjects at the Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts are graded P/D/F. They are counted only as unrestricted electives. They cannot be used to fulfill Institute, departmental or minor requirements.

All of these schools operate on schedules different from MIT's. Students should take care to meet cross-registration deadlines, keeping in mind that they must still follow MIT's add and drop deadlines. Cross-registering students should make sure that they will be available at the different class and examination periods. Students cross-registering during their final term should also take care that their grades will be available prior to graduation.

Harvard Cross-Registration

Full-time MIT undergraduate students may take one intensive or two regular subjects per semester (up to 27 units) at Harvard provided that they are enrolled in at least as many units at MIT. The program is normally limited to upperclass students; exceptions are sometimes made for freshmen, usually to take a foreign language not offered at MIT.

MIT undergraduates may enroll in undergraduate and graduate courses in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in any of the professional schools except the Business School. Enrollment is not always guaranteed; if permission of the instructor is required, or if there is a prerequisite listed, the student must check with the instructor in advance. In addition, Harvard requires that any student wishing to enroll in a foreign language class beyond first semester take a placement exam.

Instructions and forms for cross-registration may be obtained from the HASS Education Office.

Wellesley-MIT Exchange Program

With the approval of their advisors, MIT students may take any Wellesley subject. The Student Services Center (SSC), provides Wellesley catalogues and class schedules as well as details about cross-registration procedures and deadlines.

MCA and SMFA

MIT undergraduate students may cross-register at the Massachusetts College of Art or the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Information is available from the Visual Arts Program.

Study Abroad and Domestic Study Away

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Undergraduate students who wish to spend a year, a term or a summer abroad or away at another US College have many exciting options, including MIT-managed programs.

Undergraduates from a number of departments may study at Cambridge University in England in their junior year as part of the Cambridge-MIT Undergraduate Student Exchange (CME). The newly established MIT-Madrid Program gives students the opportunity to study in Madrid in Spanish for the spring semester. Depending upon major and interests, students can choose courses at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and/or the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. MIT is one of ten US institutions in the Killam Fellowships Program, which offers one MIT undergraduate a year the opportunity to study for one or two semesters at one of eleven Canadian universities, including McGill, Queen's and the University of Toronto.

In addition to the Institute-wide programs, three MIT departments currently offer departmental exchange programs. The Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics has exchange arrangements with several European schools, the Department of Architecture has an exchange program with Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and the Materials Science and Engineering Department recently restarted an exchange program with Oxford University.

Under the CME Program, the Killam Program and the departmental programs, students continue to pay tuition to MIT, and they are advised by their MIT departments about which subjects to take to fulfill departmental requirements. For more information about the MIT-Madrid Program and the Killam Fellowships Program students should visit the the Study Abroad Office. For more information about the CME Program and the departmental programs, students should visit the CME website and the departmental websites, and they should contact their departments.

In addition to the MIT-managed programs, students can select from a wide variety of programs offered through other US universities, through study abroad providers, or available through direct enrollment into a foreign university. Students interested in these options should contact the Study Abroad Office, as early as possible. Under these options students do not pay tuition to MIT.

Students approved for study abroad retain student status which allows them to apply for MIT financial aid to cover the study abroad and to defer student loans. Students are also entitled to return to undergraduate housing. Although the MIT Housing Office cannot guarantee that students will be able to return to the same residence hall that they had before leaving, except for participants in the CME program, so far students returning from study abroad have not had any problems getting back into the same dorms from which they had left.

A student who designated a subject as Exploratory in the semester prior to spending time away from MIT has until the Registration Day of his or her next semester at MIT to change the status of the Exploratory subject from credit to Listener.

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Because of important differences in academic practices and levels among foreign universities, there are no general rules for obtaining academic credit for study abroad. Each student must discuss in advance and work out upon return transfer credit for courses taken abroad. Arrangements may also have to be made with transfer credit examiners outside the department for fulfillment of General Institute Requirements. Additional information is given in the MIT Bulletin.

Similarly, a student interested in spending one or two terms of study at another institution in the United States must prepare a proposal that meets the conditions of the Domestic Study Away Program as outlined in the MIT Bulletin. A student on such a program retains, without payment of MIT tuition, student status as a student "away... studying at another US institution."

Students should meet with student account and student loan counselors at the Student Services Center (SSC) in anticipation of participating in one of these programs. Financial aid recipients should also discuss aid available.

Students who wish to have transfer credit posted to their MIT record from any of these programs must submit confirmation of approved credit (with necessary signatures of approval) to the Registrar's Office. Students who are part of the Cambridge-MIT Exchange program (CME) should check with the Study Abroad office about transfer credit procedures.

A student planning to participate in one of these programs in his or her senior year should, prior to leaving the Institute, consult the Registrar's Office about his or her audit for graduation.