{"id":61022,"date":"2014-06-26T10:07:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/?page_id=61022"},"modified":"2026-04-30T10:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:46:13","slug":"definitions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/policies\/definitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Degree Definitions &#038; Units Overlap Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Approved by the University Council October 15, 2014; effective October 15, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Major<\/i><\/b><b>:<\/b> Coherent primary program within an academic discipline or interdisciplinary subject area, generally comprised of at least nine 4-unit courses. Individual schools and colleges establish the upper limit of courses required for a particular major. The major appears on both the diploma and the transcript.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Minor<\/i><\/b><b>:<\/b> Focused area of study not necessarily related to the major and may be completed in another school or college. Minors are generally comprised of five to seven 4-unit courses. Twelve units must be unique to the minor and may not count toward the fulfillment of majors or additional minors. The minor appears only on the transcript.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Concentration:<\/i><\/b><i>\u00a0<\/i>Focus within or complementary to an approved major field of study. Students may have more than one concentration. The concentration does not appear on the diploma; it appears only on the transcript. A concentration differs from a specialization in that it can reside within one or across several major fields of study. The term\u00a0<b>subconcentration\u00a0<\/b>will no longer be used.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Specialization<\/i><\/b><strong>:<\/strong> A formally recognized group of interrelated courses within a major field. A specialization differs from a concentration in that it is embedded within one specific major, providing students with a more in-depth exploration of a focused topic than can be covered in a few individually selected courses. The specialization appears as part of the major field and so is reflected on the diploma and transcript.<b><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Track:<\/i><\/b> A variation of degree requirements pertaining to an academic pathway, e.g., licensure tracks within the Wheelock College of Education &amp; Human Development. This is used heavily in Degree Progress Report but is not represented on either the transcript or diploma.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Joint Major: <\/i><\/b>A joint major is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary curriculum offered by two departments. These departments may be in the same academic unit or across schools and colleges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Approved by the University Council October 15, 2014; effective October 15, 2014 Major: Coherent primary program within an academic discipline or interdisciplinary subject area, generally comprised of at least nine 4-unit courses. Individual schools and colleges establish the upper limit of courses required for a particular major. The major appears on both the diploma and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4502,"featured_media":0,"parent":36244,"menu_order":40,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61022"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95680,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61022\/revisions\/95680"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/academics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}