Undergraduate Minor Admissions

Students who are interested in declaring a minor offered by the School of Architecture should meet with their academic advisor for their major/college to begin planning minor coursework and apply during the open application period.

SOA minors will be open on a cyclical basis throughout the year. These periods are August – October 1 at 11:45pm, January – March 1 at 11:45pm, and May – July 1 at 11:45pm. 

Students will be required to complete the following steps to submit a complete application to an SOA minor. Failure to complete all steps will result in an automatic rejection from the minor during that cycle. Applications will not be reviewed until after the closing date for each review period. Students may not pursue more than one SOA minor. Apply for your SOA minor of choice in UT Direct through the Minor/Certificate Inventory System. Students may only apply for one SOA minor. Multiple applications to our different minors will be rejected.

1. Complete the required survey after you have applied for a minor in the Minor/Certificate Suite. The Qualtrics survey will be accessible here: Required SOA Minor Survey.
   1. If the application window is open and you are experiencing problems accessing the survey, please contact soa-ug@austin.utexas.edu for support.
   2. If the survey is listed as closed and the application period has concluded, that means we are no longer accepting applications for that review cycle and you will need to try again once it reopens during one of the windows listed above. We do not accept late applications.
2. Beginning Fall 2026, students must possess and maintain at least a 3.0 GPA in order to qualify for an SOA minor. Students who do not maintain at least a 3.0 GPA are at risk for being removed from the minor. 
3. Please note, meeting the above criteria does not guarantee you a spot in an SOA minor. Our space is incredibly limited in upper division courses with seating preference awarded to SOA majors.
   1. Students who are in their final year at UT with no Architecture, Interior Design, or Landscape Architecture coursework completed are unlikely to complete the minor in full and are encouraged to consider alternative options; especially if you are required to complete a minor as part of your degree requirements.

If you are admitted into one of the School of Architecture minors, you will receive a standardized, automated message instructing you to contact the advisor for your major to request that the minor be added to your degree profile. Do not skip this step. 

Each minor listed below requires fifteen hours of coursework (five courses).

• Courses may be taken in any order, as long as prerequisites are met.
• There are no courses that are required for any of the minors; the student may just pick a collection of five courses that will count.
• Six hours must be upper-division; all courses can be upper-division.
• Some courses are only offered once per year.
• Some courses may be restricted, which may indicate that instructor permission is required. 

A minor is optional in the School of Architecture; therefore, a minor is not required to complete a bachelor's degree in the School of Architecture. However, if you choose to complete a minor you must complete it according to the requirements, policies, and procedures established by The University and in consultation with your School of Architecture academic advisor.

Students enrolled in the School of Architecture may pursue minors offered outside of the School of Architecture. 

Students interested in pursuing a minor or a certificate may search the University's minor/certificate inventory to see what minors and certificates are offered. From the inventory, you can access each minor or certificate's webpage to view the requirements of that program. Please read each program's application instructions and eligibility criteria carefully before completing the application.

Planned carefully, pursuing a minor will not extend the time to degree for students in the Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies degree plans. You may use your required electives in pursuit of a minor.

Students in the Bachelor of Science in Interior Design degree have only six hours of electives to fulfill, so for many students pursuing a minor may delay the graduation semester.