Is it possible for a student to develop his/her own minor?
Yes, a motivated student can develop a unique program of studies for a minor through the Distributed Minor plan. In the Biology Department we have had several students create their own individualized Distributed Minor involving a selection of courses from the Departments of Psychology, Nutrition, Biochemistry, and Anthropology. Another student with an interest in paleoecology created a Distributed minor with a selection of courses from the Departments of Anthropology, Geology, and Geography. However, not many students choose this option since Distributed Minors require 30 credit hours of course work in contrast to the 20 credit hours for most 'regular' minors, and there are other significant restrictions.
The short version of the the requirements that must be satisfied when developing a Distributed Minor is as follows (see the UNM catalog for details):
· The student, in consultation with a departmental advisor, chooses 30-36 credits of courses outside his/her major.
· Classes should come from more than one department.
· One half of the course work in the DM needs to be 300-400 level.
· The DM plan has to be filed with A&S at least two semester before graduation.
· Students need to list courses, the course grade (if completed), or the semester they plan to take the class, and have a paragraph describing why they chose those particular classes to define the Distributed Minor.
· Classes required for a student's major cannot count towards a DM. For example, the chemistry, math, and physics courses required for a Biology major cannot be used as part of a DM.
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