Major Qualification & Declaration

Students must complete a certain set of coursework and achieve a certain GPA in order to qualify for a Chemistry major.

Qualification courses and GPA requirements for the Chemistry B.A.
Qualification courses and GPA requirements for the Chemistry B.S.

Qualification courses and GPA requirements for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) B.S.

Major Declaration Timeline

The major declaration deadlines for each quarter can be found in the academic calendar.

Students who entered UC Santa Cruz as first-year students are required to formally declare a major by the deadline in their sixth quarter on campus.

Students who transfer to UC Santa Cruz are required to declare a major by the deadline in their second quarter on campus.

Major Declaration Process

Students should petition to declare a Chemistry or Biochemistry major once they’ve…

1. completed all qualification courses and met the GPA requirements;

2. have an official, signed, department-approved academic plan on file;

3. met or communicated with Chemistry & Biochemistry Advising regarding their academic plan.

Students may log into MyUCSC and submit the Petition for Major/Minor via MyUCSC to petition to declare a Chemistry or Biochemistry major as soon as they have met major qualification requirements and/or reach their declaration deadline quarter, whichever comes first. The Petition for Major/Minor declaration form can be accessed by going to MyUCSC and navigating to the Student Homepage and selecting the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor.

For assistance, please contact Chemistry & Biochemistry Advising at chemistryadvising@ucsc.edu.

Appeals

Students may appeal to the major either prior to or after submitting a petition to declare and being denied (in the latter case, appeals must be submitted within 15 days from the date the denial notification was sent). Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal being submitted, the department will notify the student and their affiliated college of the decision.

To appeal to declare a Chemistry major (Chemistry B.A., Chemistry B.S., or Chemistry B.S. with Biochemistry Concentration), complete the Chemistry Major Appeal form via DocuSign.

To appeal to declare the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (BMB) B.S. major, complete the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Major Appeal form via DocuSign.

To complete the major appeal form, you will need:

• An official Academic Plan (signed by the Chemistry/Biochemistry major advisor)

• Unofficial Transcripts 

• An Appeal Letter 

Additional instructions can be found in the appropriate form.

Please note that the information you share in your appeal or with your advisors will be kept confidential and shared only with campus officials as required to serve you in an advising capacity or to process your appeal, except in cases related to potential harm to yourself or others, or sexual assault or abuse. In those cases, we may be required by law to report incidents you disclose to other need-to-know offices on campus such as the Title IX Office and/or University of California Police Department. If you are in need of support for any issues, please consult this list of confidential and/or support resources.