CS Minor Degree Requirements

CS Minor Intent List

The Minor Intent List is intended to provide students with some priority in our override process during enrollment for CS classes to finish minor requirements. Any student may pursue the minor, regardless of whether or not they are on the list; please reach out to askcsminor [at] cs [dot] umass [dot] edu (askcsminor[at]cs[dot]umass[dot]edu) to notify us when minor requirements are completed. We will review your course history in your final semester and add the minor in SPIRE if appropriate. It is highly recommended that students pursuing the CS Minor complete this form if they meet the minimum requirements; we use this for tracking and to aid us with graduation clearances when adding minors to student records.

Many of our courses are only open to CS majors, so being added to the CS Minors List via submission of the CS Minor Intent form will allow the best service to our minors through the override registration process. Please note submission of the form does not guarantee course enrollment, so students pursuing the minor must be flexible when planning schedules over several semesters in order to complete the minor requirements before graduation. CS Minor Intent forms are reviewed two times a year with deadlines preceding Spring and Fall registration periods.

Form availability: CS Minor Intent forms are available after add/drop ends through the stated deadlines (October 1 or March 1). Intent forms close at 5:00 p.m. EST/EDT on the stated deadline. 

Important trend: Given a trend in demand for CS courses by a steadily increasing population of CS Majors, we may not have seats for all interested students to complete the CS Minor—even for students on the CS Minor List.

Eligibility for the CS Minors List

1. The CS Minor is subject to the Academic Regulation governing the Application of Courses towards Multiple Credentials (Sen. Doc. No. 15-030). Effective September 1, 2019, the Multiple Credentials Policy will be strictly enforced by the Undergraduate Program to ensure that no more than two courses are used to fulfill the requirements of more than one credential. Due to significant overlap in coursework, we will no longer consider CS Engineering, Math Computing, or Computational Linguistics* majors for the CS Minor.
2. An overall GPA of at least 3.00 is required.
3. Must be enrolled in at least COMPSCI 187 or CICS 210 and preferably MATH 131 (or MATH 132) to submit a CS Minor Intent form.
4. Completion of both CICS 160 and CICS 210 (or COMPSCI 121 and COMPSCI 187) with grades meeting the current standard (B or better) is required to be added to the CS Minors List. 
5. MATH 131 and MATH 132 are highly recommended since they are required prerequisites for half the CS core (240, 250) and subsequent upper level CS electives (e.g., 311, 348, 370, 373, 383, 446, 513, 585).
6. Expectation that students reserve five semesters to complete the CS Minor if starting with COMPSCI 121 or CICS 110 at UMass Amherst. SPIRE EGD may impact eligibility.
7. No course for the minor may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis. (Note: this does not apply for these courses taken in Spring/Fall 2020 or Spring 2021.)
8. At least 2.00 overall Minor GPA required for courses used for minor requirements with no more than one of these having a grade of less than a C (see below for CS minor requirements).
9. The minor must be completed within the 10 semesters allowed for the completion of all graduation requirements, including the major.
10. Poor performance in CS courses impacts override eligibility for subsequent CS courses.

*Until Computational Linguistics is officially approved as a major, we will continue to accept Minor Intent applications from current Linguistics majors.

Submit a CS Minor Intent form

CS Minor Requirements

The CS minor requires five computer science courses, including:

• CICS 160: Object Oriented Programming* (or COMPSCI 121: Introduction to Problem Solving Using Computers**/equivalent)
• CICS 210: Data Structures (or COMPSCI 187: Programming with Data Structures**/equivalent)
• Three COMPSCI courses for majors (200-level or higher, not including CICS/COMPSCI 305) taken at the College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass-Amherst

*CICS 160 is the second course in the revised CICS introductory course sequence. Students must complete CICS 110, have an eligible AP CS exam score, or pass the CICS programming placement exam to be eligible to take CICS 160.

**As of fall 2023, introductory programming courses COMPSCI 121 and COMPSCI 187 are no longer being offered.

Of the five courses, students must take at least two computer science "core" courses from the following list:

• COMPSCI 220: Programming Methodology
• COMPSCI 230: Computer Systems Principles
• COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty
• COMPSCI 250: Introduction to Computation

There is no specific mathematics requirement for the computer science minor but all the above courses require R1 proficiency (such as MATH 104), and COMPSCI 240 and 250 require MATH 132 as a prerequisite.

A cumulative quality point average of at least 2.00 is required for all UMass Amherst courses used to satisfy the requirements for the CS minor. No courses used to satisfy the minor can be taken on a pass/fail basis. (Note: this does not apply for these courses taken in Spring/Fall 2020 or Spring 2021.)

No more than one course used to satisfy the requirements for the CS Minor may have a passing grade below a C.

Program Questions

If you would like more information about the CS Minor after reading the details about the requirements, please email askcsminor [at] cs [dot] umass [dot] edu (askcsminor[at]cs[dot]umass[dot]edu).

Registration/Overrides

Overrides are usually needed to register for CS courses that are restricted to majors, so if you meet prerequisites, make sure that you request an override via the on-line form for the upcoming semester (when link is available).

Note: students approved for the CS Minors List get some priority for seats in CS courses. Eligible students not on the CS Minors List may still be awarded the minor if they are able to enroll in required courses via the override process, but will have a lower priority for seats.

Minor Declaration

Undergraduate Program Staff will prepare the Declaration of an Academic Minor form for students on the CS Minors List completing requirements during each semester.  The CS Minor credential (MN-CS) is posted on SPIRE after all requirements are completed (see Student Services Center or transcript).  Students who are not on the CS Minors List who believe that they are eligible for this credential should email askCSMinor [at] cs [dot] umass [dot] edu for a transcript review.