UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

Four Year Curriculum

The curriculum at Minerva University is intentionally designed to challenge you with a rigorous focus on developing the breadth of your understanding and cementing the depth of your expertise. Each semester builds on the previous one and every course cover subjects that interconnect and span across disciplines.

16

average number of students per class

Year 1 - Foundation

The first-year at Minerva University is devoted to the Cornerstone courses that are designed to help you develop foundational skills and habits that underlie four core competencies — thinking critically, thinking creatively, communicating effectively, and interacting effectively — that are a common foundation for every Minerva University student.

The Cornerstones are structured to teach you to apply all four core competencies across multiple disciplines. For example, in your Formal Analyses course, you learn inductive logic as part of the critical thinking core competency. You'll develop formal techniques to evaluate the strength and reliability of inductive arguments. Inductive reasoning may be introduced in the context of marketing in the media, then subsequently applied to topics in artificial intelligence, global pandemics, climate change, and whether money makes people happy. In this way, a single concept is explored across various fields, from business to biology. Further, the concept of inductive logic is integrated into all Cornerstone courses and other courses that you'll take in subsequent years.
No matter what major you decide to pursue, the Cornerstone courses instill foundational knowledge and abilities that will set you up for success down the road. You will obtain the essentials to learn effectively at the front end so that you are better able to understand specific subject content in your chosen major during years 2-4 and tackle complex interdisciplinary problems in whatever path you pursue beyond Minerva University.

Cornerstone courses

Formal Analyses

Focus on thinking critically through in-depth training in logic, statistics, and algorithmic thinking, using formal, computational, and quantitative approaches to formulate, analyze, and tackle problems.

Multimodal Communications

Learn to communicate effectively at a high-level and deeply analyze communications of various forms. You will form the skills and practical experience to speak publicly, communicate visually, design, debate, and express yourself artistically. 

Empirical Analyses

Develop your creative thinking skills and familiarize yourself with methods used in social and natural sciences that teach you to effectively frame problems, identify solutions, develop and test hypotheses, design research studies, and reach plausible conclusions.

Complex Systems

Explore how humans function as members of various systems, using concepts such as multiple causality and multi-factor integrations. This course will develop your ability to interact effectively by participating in group project collaboration, negotiation, leadership, and formal debate.

Year 2 - Direction

Year two is where you set the direction for your major, by taking the Core courses for your intended major.

Second year lets you find out where you’re going and gives you the tools you need to get there. Each of the five available majors delivers Core courses designed to teach you broad skills and concepts for your chosen field while opening up paths to gain expertise through dedicated concentrations for each major.
This approach provides a flexibility to your studies that you wouldn’t get to experience with more traditional majors, such as psychology or accounting.

Majors & Concentrations

Arts & Humanities

Become a better leader, thinker, innovator and an informed global citizen by applying the history of creative human thought and expression to understanding and contextualizing events, ideas, policies, and human relationships. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to better implement your ideas and communicate persuasively while using your fortified social conscience to make decisions.

Learn more

Business

Become an effective leader with a firm understanding of corporate and market dynamics, strategy, and business transactions that allow for global business success. You’ll be able to take ideas from proposal to profitability and prepare yourself for a career in leadership and innovation at top organizations.

Learn more

Computational Sciences

Learn how to harness data to reflect and make better decisions that are based on logic and data analysis. This major equips you with the skills and knowledge to better understand natural, human-mediated, and social phenomena through analytics, computational methods including AI tools, and modeling.

Learn more

Natural Sciences

Study the intricacies of the natural world and develop the fundamental skills, practical, and theoretical knowledge you’ll need to develop new technologies, conduct cutting-edge research, consult on policies

Learn more

Social Sciences

Harness the power of research to inform public policies on crime reduction, design effective political campaigns, help people overcome addictions, and convince people to conserve resources. With the knowledge you gain from this major, you’ll be able to go forth, analyze, and solve complex societal challenges faced by people across the globe.

Learn more

Year 3 - Focus

During your third year at Minerva University, you’ll continue to develop a disciplinary focus and choose a concentration within your major. The concentrations we offer let you take part in more directed work in your dedicated field of study.

Concentrations are subsets within a major, consisting of a designated set of concentration courses in addition to the full set of Core courses associated with that major.

Students also have the ability to drive their education by designing their own Custom Concentrations, with approval from our Provost.
In addition, your work on your Capstone Project – the culmination of your studies – begins in your third year with us. Within two, two-unit courses, you will explore and define your vision for this project, which helps prepare you to take on further studies, professional life after you graduate, or step into the world of research and academia.

Example

Computational Sciences

Learn the fundamentals of analytics and design, and how to use infrastructure and technologies to harness massive amounts of data. 

The knowledge and skills you’ll acquire within this concentration allow you to future-proof your career and become a vital member of any major global organization.

Year 4 - Synthesis

Your final year at Minerva University is centered around the completion of your Capstone project while completing your remaining courses for your degree. Through self-direction and planning, you’ll produce an integrated application of your knowledge, skills, and interests, creating something that’s personally compelling and valuable to your field of study.

The options available to you for the focus of your Capstone project are limited only by your imagination. You could write an original screenplay, create code for a disruptive technology, or even develop a business plan for a bold and exciting social venture. The choice is yours. 
Your efforts with the Capstone project are complemented by up to two Tutorial courses per major (except Business) and any elective courses you have yet to complete. Tutorial courses are designed to be collaborative, student-driven explorations into specific topics, which you’ll work with your professor to define. If you’re majoring in Business, Tutorial courses are replaced by a required business practicum you complete in the summer between your third and fourth year.

Manifest

After completing your Capstone project in the spring semester of your fourth year, you’ll present it during Manifest, a month-long-term that takes place in San Francisco. 

Opportunities during Manifest allow you to celebrate the fruits of four years of labor and marks the end of your undergraduate experience at Minerva University.