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Double Major Petitions


We strongly suggest that you meet with an advisor from each department, school, or program (listed below as “department”) before submitting your double major petition. You can find the Double Major Petition form and Academic Planning form on TritionLink.

A sample Double Major petition filled out for a Public Health major only can be found here.

Instructions for filling out the forms are as follows:

Personal Information

  1. If this is your first time going through the Double Major Petition process, click the “Original Form” box at the very top of the page on the right side. If you have previously had approved a Double Major Petition for majors in these same departments, click “Revised” and fill in the date.
  2. Fill out your personal information, especially PID and name. You should include your college and e-mail address as well. Your phone number is optional.

Lower Division Requirements

  1. You will fill out one side of your form for each of your intended majors. Remember, you may not double major within the same department. All Public Health majors are BS majors.
  2. Include the name and code of your intended major. Public Health major names can be very long so it is okay to shorten a concentration. For example “Public Health: Epidemiology” will work rather than the full name. Your Major Code can be found in red at the top of your major page.
  3. CAREFULLY fill out your major’s Lower Division requirements, including every class required for your major but no additional classes. 
    • For the Lower Division requirements ONLY, you’ll need to group similar classes together. For example, you’ll include all Biology classes on the same line, or all SBEs. 
    • If you are unsure of the class numbers you’ll be taking, write the class type. For any class that is required, put the class number. For example, if you are majoring in Public Health with no concentration and can therefore choose from the list of Biology classes, you will write “BILD 3, 2 LD Biology” on the line. You can similarly write “1 Statistics” or “1 Quantitative Methods” on another line. 
    • Use one line per course type. This means that for some majors, like the Concentration in Medicine Sciences, you’ll need to add an additional fifth (or even sixth) line below the four already listed, to fit everything in. 
    • You will need to demonstrate in this petition that you understand everything required of you to complete the major; even if you have already completed all your Lower Division courses, you’ll need to list them as they can be seen on your major’s page on our website.
    • You may overlap Lower Division courses between your two majors, without restriction. However, you must list the courses in the Lower Division sections of both majors. Therefore, if you will be double majoring in Psychology and will be using PSYC 60 for both majors, you must list it in both sections. Similarly, if you will be double majoring with Biology and need both BILD 1-3 and CHEM 6A-C and 7L for both majors, be sure to list them in both sections. You do not need to list them in the “overlaps” section below.
    • If you are using AP or equivalent transfer credit for a requirement, write the course number equivalent to your credit (this can be found on your Academic History). If you must petition your coursework, please turn in your petition after your double major is approved and write the course type (ie: “1 Statistics course”) on your petition.

Upper Division Requirements

  1. Fill out your Upper Division requirements, as follows:
    • Each course should be listed on its own line. List all courses being used for your major on the form. 
    • You may overlap up to two Upper Division courses between Public Health and most majors. Each major must include at least 10 courses unique to the major. These are not listed in the “Upper Division” section, but below it in the “Overlaps” section. 
    • For required courses, such as our Core classes, list the course number. For example, “FMPH 101”.
    • For Elective courses you have already completed, list the course number and how the course counts for the major. For example, “BICD 100 (Concentration UDE)”.
    • For Elective/Capstone courses you have not yet completed, list how the course counts for your major. For example, “FMPH UDE”, “UDE”, “Concentration UDE”, or “Capstone”. If you do not intend to apply for the Honors Program you may list the Capstone as “FMPH 193” and “FMPH 194”.
    • Check your list to ensure that you have the correct number of courses and the correct types of courses listed for your major, and that each course is listed correctly. 

Upper Division Overlapping Classes

  1. Fill out your Upper Division Overlapping courses, as follows:
    • You may overlap up to two Upper Division courses between your two majors; however, even for majors with a lot of potentially overlapping courses, you may choose not to overlap any courses, or may choose only one.
    • It is recommended for you to choose overlapping courses in which you have done well, or in which you believe you will do well, to maximize the benefit to both your major GPAs.
    • You must list the course numbers for any overlapping courses. If you have not yet taken the course, and choose to overlap different courses in the future, you’ll fill out a Double Major Petition Revision to adjust your double major requirements.

Submitting Your Double Major Petition

  1. Complete steps 4-7 for your second major and check to ensure that both majors are correct and complete.
  2. Sign and date your Double Major Petition.
  3. Fill out your academic plan, including all classes still required for both majors. Check both majors’ websites to ensure that you are listing courses in the correct quarter and the correct order. For example, USP 143 is only ever offered in Winter quarter, and you must complete FMPH 101 before you take FMPH 130. Double check to ensure that you have not forgotten any courses and that you will be able to complete your coursework as listed (if you list that you will take 6 classes in a single quarter, for example, we will want to ensure that you have proven that you can be successful with 5).
  4. Save your Double Major Petition and Academic Plan, and send them to one of your major departments. This is important: do not send to both departments at the same time. Your advisors will need to sign the same paperwork. Ensure that you are following instructions to send your petition, as each department requires a different procedure. For Public Health, you must submit your Double Major Petition via our online petition submission form. Petitions sent in any other way will not be reviewed.
  5. Once your petition has been signed by one department, send it to the second. If one department has revisions, you will need to start the approval process over; this means that if you do not fill out your form correctly the first time, you may need to get approval from a department more than once. This is why we strongly suggest that you meet with your advisors from each department before submitting your form.
  6. Once you have obtained signatures on both your form and your academic plan from both departments, you can send your completed form, plan, and personal statement to your college for final approval. If your college has edits, you may need to restart the approval process again with your departments.

Revising Your Double Major Petition

If you have revisions to your plan after it is approved, including to your major concentration, you will need to fill out a Double Major Petition Revision (click the box at the top of the petition and fill out according to instructions on this page). Check with your college to see whether you will need to include a new statement of purpose for this revision.

Things to Remember about Declaring a Double Major

  • If you have classes to petition with Public Health, please wait to do so until your double major has been approved.
  • Check your degree audit regularly after your double major has been approved, especially if you have a second major with a lot of potential overlapping classes. Sometimes the degree audit will pull unintended courses from one major to another. If this happens, please send a Virtual Advising Center message to the major where the classes are showing (for example, if your Public Health major is showing too many Biology courses, message Public Health) and request that they adjust your audit. It helps if you can list exactly which courses you want to count for that major in which ways (for example, “BICD 100 is a Concentration UDE and BIBC 100 is a regular UDE; these are overlapping with my Biology major. But the other Biology classes should be rejected from my Public Health major. I’m going to use ANBI 130 as my other Concentration UDE and I’ll take my last UDE next quarter.”). This helps the advisor know exactly what classes to bring into your audit, and how.
  • If you include classes that are not required for your major, or do not include classes that are required for your major, you will be asked to review your major requirements and revise your petition before resubmitting it.