Declaration of a minor in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences is open to any student enrolled at CU-Boulder. Coursework applied to the Astronomy minor may be applied to another major or towards General Education requirements.
Requirements
Coursework applied to the minor may be applied toward General Education requirements or to a major offered by another department. Minimum requirements for a minor include:
- A minimum of six ASTR courses (18 credits), including at least three advanced courses (numbered above 3500; 9 credits).
- All coursework applied to a minor must be completed with a grade of C- or better; no pass/fail work may be applied. The GPA for all coursework completed in the minor department must be equal to 2.00 (C) or higher.
- Students pursuing an individually structured major or a major in distributed studies are not eligible to earn a minor.
- Students are allowed to apply no more than three courses (9 credits), including two advanced courses (6 credits), of transfer work toward a minor.
- Many of the classes listed below have co-requisite or prerequisite mathematics and/or physics courses. Students are responsible to check and meet these requisites.
Required Courses and Credits
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
Elementary | ||
Select a maximum of three courses from the following: | 9 | |
Accelerated Introductory Astronomy 1 and Accelerated Introductory Astronomy 2 1 | ||
Ancient Astronomies of the World | ||
Modern Cosmology-Origin and Structure of the Universe | ||
Space Astronomy and Exploration | ||
Black Holes | ||
The Search for Life in the Universe | ||
Gateway to Space | ||
Introduction to Scientific Programming | ||
Extraterrestrial Life | ||
Advanced | ||
Select one of the following upper-division course sequences: | 6 | |
Planetary Sequence: | ||
Planets and Their Atmospheres and Planets, Moons, and Rings | ||
Astrophysics Sequence: | ||
Astrophysics 1 - Stellar and Interstellar and Astrophysics 2 - Galactic and Extragalactic | ||
Select a minimum of one of the following: | 3-4 | |
Research Methods in Astronomy | ||
Observations and Instrumentation 1 | ||
Observations and Instrumentation 2 | ||
Formation & Dynamics of Planetary Systems | ||
Planets and Their Atmospheres | ||
Astrophysics 1 - Stellar and Interstellar | ||
Cosmology and Relativity | ||
Planets, Moons, and Rings | ||
Solar and Space Physics | ||
Astrophysics 2 - Galactic and Extragalactic | ||
Cosmochemistry | ||
Independent Study | ||
Atmospheric Dynamics | ||
Total Credit Hours | 18-19 |
1 |
Additional information is available from any faculty mentor. See the department's Undergraduate Studies webpage.