Undergraduate Program Major Minor Declaring Physics as your Minor Worksheet for Physics Minor requirements Advanced Placement Research Other

MINORS

• A Worksheet for Physics Minor Requirements is available

Minor in Physics
Students who take the 20 or 40 series at Stanford in support of their major may count those units towards the minor.  Those who have fulfilled Physics requirements at the 20 or 40 series level by enrollment at another accredited university, or through advanced placement credits, may count credits towards 21/22/ and 23/24,  or 41 and 43/44, respectively.  25/26, or 45/46 for technical minor, must be taken at Stanford even if similar material has been covered elsewhere.  With the 21/22/23/24 or 41/43/44 exception noted above, all courses for the minor must be taken at Stanford University for a letter grade, and a grade of 'C' or better must be received for all units applied toward the minor.  The minor declaration deadline is three quarters before graduation, i.e., beginning of Autumn Quarter if the student is graduating at the end of Spring Quarter.

An undergraduate minor in Physics requires a minimum of 27 units with the followoing course work:

• Non-Technical - For students whose majors do not require the Physics 40 or 60 series
  
  • PHYSICS 21/22, 23/24, 25/26
    and
  • Any combination of Physics courses totaling 15 units or greater.
• Technical - For students whose majors require the Physics 40 or 60 series
  
  • PHYSICS 41, 43/44, 45/46 and PHYSICS 70
    or
    
  • PHYSICS 61, 63/64, 65/67 and at least three Physics courses numbered 100 or above.
    

Minor in Astronomy
Students wishing to pursue advanced work in astrophysical sciences should major in physics and concentrate in astrophysics.  However, students outside of physics with a general interest in astronomy may organize their studies by completing one of the following minor programs.

To be accepted to the minor program, students need to obtain an adviser selected from the faculty in the Astronomy Program. The minor declaration deadline is three quarters before graduation (that is, beginning Autumn Quarter if the student is graduating at the end of Spring Quarter). All courses for the minor must be taken at Stanford University, and a letter grade of ‘C’ or better must be received for all units applied toward the minor.

An undergraduate minor in Astronomy requires the following course work:

• Non-Technical - For students whose majors do not require the Physics 40 series
  
  • PHYSICS 21, 23^, 25/26
    and
  • PHYSICS 50 or 100
    and choose two courses from the following:
  • PHYSICS 15, 16, 17
    
• Technical - For students whose majors require the Physics 40 series
  
  • PHYSICS 41, 43^, 45/46
  • PHYSICS 70
  • PHYSICS 100 (Observatory Lab)
    and choose two courses from the following:
    
  • EE 106*
  • GES 122*
  • PHYSICS 160*, 161*

*With approval of the minor advisor and the chair of the Astronomy program, 3 units of PHYSICS 169 (Independent Study in Astrophysics) may be substituted for one of these courses.  This independent study can either be constituted as a directed reading program or participation in a research project.  

^Students are strongly encouraged to take the electricity and magnetism/optics lab of the appropriate Physics series (24, 44) for 1 additional unit.