Penn State students seeking to build an academic program that includes courses in information sciences and technology can choose from several minors available through the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The college offers minors hosted both within IST and jointly with other Penn State colleges.

Students can explore all minors offered at Penn State on the Undergraduate Bulletin.

Minors

Information Sciences and Technology

The IST minor is structured to provide students with the theoretical frameworks and skill sets necessary to compete and be productive in the information technology-intensive global context that defines the new Information Age.

Security and Risk Analysis

The SRA minor is intended to familiarize students with the general framework and multidisciplinary theories that define security and related risk analysis. Students will engage in the challenges and problems of assuring information confidentiality and integrity, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of various methods for assessing and mitigating associated risk in the student’s major field.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Digital Entrepreneurship & Innovation Cluster)

The Digital Entrepreneurship & Innovation cluster in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor prepares a student to harness digital technologies and digital business models to develop their own concepts into commercial concerns or to contribute to the innovation activities of existing organizations.

Joint Minors

In collaboration with other colleges at Penn State, the College of IST offers several joint minors in a variety of subjects.

Declaring a Minor

Students wishing to declare a minor must use “Update Academics” through LionPATH. Intent to pursue a minor may be declared after the student has achieved at least third-semester classification (29.1 credits) or has been accepted into their major but prior to the end of the late drop deadline of the student's final semester. The major and minor codes must be unique and cannot match. Additional requirements include

• earning a grade of C or better for all courses in the minor, and 
• earning at least six credits of the minor that are unique from any other degree or minor earned by the student.

Earning a Minor

Requirements for a minor may be completed at any campus location offering the specified courses for the minor. Students may not change their campus for the sole purpose of accessing courses for a minor. Declaring a minor does not guarantee

• enrollment in those courses,
• future availability of those courses, or
• completion of the minor.

If you declare a minor, but then terminate your degree enrollment, your minor declaration becomes void. You must submit a new minor declaration after receiving degree status through the re-enrollment process.

Refer to the Minors Entrance and Certification policy for additional information and consult with your adviser if you are considering declaring a minor.