Chemistry Minor

For assistance please contact chemistry advising at chemistryadvising@ucsc.edu or visit our department website.

How to Declare the Chemistry Minor

Students electing a chemistry minor may not use the online petition to declare. The steps to pursue a chemistry minor are as follows:

Create a major academic plan and have it signed by the UC Santa Cruz major advisor.
Make an appointment with the chemistry minor advisor and send the link for the signed major academic plan to chemistryadvising@ucsc.edu.
The chemistry minor advisor will review the major academic plan and will add the chemistry minor courses to the academic plan, if it is viable to do so per double credit counting, enrollment limitations, and time-to-degree guidelines.
The chemistry minor advisor will discuss the chemistry minor plan with the student during their scheduled appointment.
Once approved as a viable major/minor plan by both the major/department advisor and the Chemistry minor advisor, the Chemistry minor advisor will sign the academic planning form and they will process the minor declaration.

Note: Students need to declare a major before they can declare a minor. Students should prioritize major coursework over minor coursework when necessary.

General information on double majors and minors may be found here.

Course Requirements

All courses used to satisfy requirements of the minor must be taken for a letter grade and earn a grade of C or higher.

Lower-Division Courses

Chemistry

	Either these courses
CHEM 3A	General Chemistry	5
CHEM 3B	General Chemistry	3
CHEM 3C	General Chemistry	3
CHEM 3BL	General Chemistry Lab	2
CHEM 3CL	General Chemistry Lab	2
	or these courses
CHEM 4A	Advanced General Chemistry: Molecular Structure and Reactivity	5
CHEM 4B	Advanced General Chemistry: Molecular Structure and Reactivity	5
CHEM 4AL	Advanced General Chemistry Lab	2
CHEM 4BL	Advanced General Chemistry Lab	2

Note: This requirement may also be satisfied with prior completion of CHEM 1A, CHEM 1B, CHEM 1C, CHEM 1M, and CHEM 1N or equivalent.

Previous to July 1, 2023, the General Chemistry series, offered by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was listed in the General Catalog as CHEM 1A, CHEM 1B and CHEM 1C, with associated laboratories CHEM 1M and CHEM 1N. As of academic year 2023-24, this series was replaced with two distinct series: CHEM 3A, CHEM 3B and CHEM 3C, with labs CHEM 3BL and CHEM 3CL; or CHEM 4A and CHEM 4B with labs CHEM 4AL and CHEM 4BL. Descriptions of these two series are given here.

and these courses:

CHEM 8A	Organic Chemistry	5
CHEM 8B	Organic Chemistry	5
CHEM 8L	Organic Chemistry Laboratory	2
CHEM 8M	Organic Chemistry Laboratory	2

Calculus

One of the following options

	Either these courses
MATH 11A	Calculus with Applications	5
MATH 11B	Calculus with Applications	5
	or these courses
MATH 19A	Calculus for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics	5
MATH 19B	Calculus for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics	5

A student may combine the MATH 11 series with the MATH 19 series to complete this portion of the major requirement(s), (for example, a student can take and complete MATH 19A and then take and complete MATH 11B) but must follow the Mathematics Department’s Calculus Series Transition Policy.

Plus one of the following options

	Either this course
MATH 22	Introduction to Calculus of Several Variables	5
	or these courses
MATH 23A	Vector Calculus	5
MATH 23B	Vector Calculus	5
	OR
AM 30	Multivariate Calculus for Engineers	5

Physics

PHYS 6A	Introductory Physics I	5
PHYS 6B	Introductory Physics II	5
PHYS 6C	Introductory Physics III	5
PHYS 6L	Introductory Physics I Laboratory	1
PHYS 6M	Introductory Physics II Laboratory	1
PHYS 6N	Introductory Physics III Laboratory	1
	OR
PHYS 5A	Introduction to Physics I	5
PHYS 5B	Introduction to Physics II	5
PHYS 5C	Introduction to Physics III	5
PHYS 5L	Introduction to Physics I Laboratory	1
PHYS 5M	Introduction to Physics II Laboratory	1
PHYS 5N	Introduction to Physics Laboratory III	1

A student may combine the PHYS 5 series with the PHYS 6 series to complete this portion of the major requirement(s), while following the Physics Transition policies.

Upper-Division Courses

This course

CHEM 163A

Quantum Mechanics and Basic Spectroscopy

Students may substitute BIOC 163A for CHEM 163A.

Plus two of the following courses

CHEM 103	Biochemistry	5
CHEM 110	Intermediate Organic Chemistry with Emphasis on Synthesis and Analytical Methods	5
CHEM 151A	Chemistry of Metals	5

Electives

Plus two chemistry upper-division electives from the following:

BIOC 100A	Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	5
BIOC 100B	Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	5
BIOC 163B	Biochemical Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology	5
CHEM 143	Organic Chemical Structure and Reactions	5
CHEM 144	Catalysis In Organic Synthesis Using Metals and Metalloids Based Reagents	5
CHEM 151B	Chemistry of the Main Group Elements	5
CHEM 156C	Materials Chemistry	5
CHEM 163B	Chemical Thermodynamics	5
CHEM 163C	Statistical Thermodynamics and Kinetics	5
CHEM 169	Chemistry and Biology of Drug Design and Discovery	5
CHEM 171	Chemical Biology	5
METX 101	Sources and Fates of Pollutants	5
METX 102	Cell and Molecular Toxicology	5
OCEA 120	Aquatic Chemistry: Principles and Applications	5
OCEA 121	Aqueous Geochemistry	5
PHYS 180	Biophysics	5

Students cannot receive elective credit toward the minor for 1) both BIOC 100A and CHEM 103; 2) both BIOC 163B and CHEM 163B.

Students may also satisfy the elective requirements by completing a chemistry graduate course with the permission of the instructor and department. To do so, please consult with the department undergraduate adviser prior to enrolling.