Minor in Health & Medical Sciences (HMED)

Source: https://hmed.cos.gatech.edu Parent: https://biosciences.gatech.edu/undergrad/alumni

The Minor in Health & Medical Sciences is available to all Georgia Tech undergraduate students, and is ideal for students interested in the scientific questions underlying human health and medicine and students interested in all health-related careers. The Health & Medical Sciences Minor offers the flexibility to customize your coursework toward your intended field of study, including medical, dental, veterinary, pharmacy, optometry, physical therapy, physician assistant, or public health professional schools. The minor is also ideal for students interested in health-related research, industry, or the science underlying human function.

• To maximize your competitiveness for future jobs, professional school, or graduate school, your minor program of study should be designed around a cohesive set of courses that advances your knowledge and expertise toward your areas of interest
• If you are pre-health, it is extremely important that you consult with the Georgia Tech Pre-Health Advising office to ensure that you are taking necessary and appropriate coursework to fulfill pre-requisite coursework required for your individual professional school plans. Please note that completing the HMED minor will not, in and of itself, fulfill all pre-medical or other pre-health requirements.

Learn More About the HMED Minor

• HMED minor details
• Declare the HMED minor
• Double counting courses between your major and the HMED minor
• Special Topics/new course petition form
• Research Petition Form
• Does my list of classes fulfill the HMED minor?
• Errors in Degreeworks
• BIOS, BIOL, and APPH course combinations
• Courses approved for the HMED minor
• Previously-approved Special Topics courses

HMED Minor Details

• The HMED minor is available to all undergraduate students at Georgia Tech.
• The minor requires 15 credits in approved College of Science courses, listed in the table below. Note that non-CoS courses (eg, BMED courses) cannot count toward the HMED minor.
• A minimum of 9 credits must be from at least two HMED Minor fields outside of your major. Subject codes included in the HMED minor are BIOS, CHEM, NEUR, PHYS, and PSYC.
• A maximum of 6 credits can be from your major
• A minimum of 9 credits must be at the 3000/4000 level
• A maximum of 6 credits can be Special Topics courses or 3 credits of Research and 3 credits of Special Topics
• Note: Research credits must be within the College of Sciences and must be pre-approved as health-related and science-focused by the Health & Medical Sciences committee to count toward the minor
• A maximum of 3 credits may be Transfer coursework
• All courses must be taken on a letter-grade basis with a final grade of C or higher
• Courses used to satisfy Core Impacts and courses required by name and number for your major cannot also be used to satisfy the course requirements for the HMED minor.

Declare the HMED minor

1. Enroll in the HMED Minor Advising Canvas page(you can choose to unenroll if you decide not to declare the minor)
2. Complete 3 short modules:
3. Read About the HMED Minor
4. Tell us about you on the HMED Minor Information Form
5. Complete the HMED Minor Proposed Course Completion Plan module. Once approved, move forward. Otherwise, please revise your plan and resubmit in Canvas.
6. Complete a Change of Minor Form (via DocuSign). Specific instructions are included. Change of Minor forms (to add the HMED Minor) will not be signed until the course plan is approved.

*Most of your questions can be answered here and in the HMED Minor Advising Canvas page. Please check this website and the Canvas page first before contacting the HMED Minor Advisors using our NEW (Fall 2025) updated email address: hmed-advisor@groups.gatech.edu

Double-counting courses toward your major and the HMED minor

• Courses cannot be counted toward more than one minor or certificate
• Free electives can be counted toward the major program and the HMED minor
• A course may be allowed to double-count toward the major and the minor if it meets all three of the following criteria:
• The course is on the list of approved HMED courses
• The course is not fulfilling a “Core Impacts” degree requirement, as listed in DegreeWorks
• The course is not required by name and number for your major and is listed in the designated block of courses outside of your major field of study. These courses will typically fall in the student’s breadth, depth, technical, or otherwise broadening electives.

Students are encouraged to discuss your degree plan including the HMED minor with your major advisor.

Petitioning for new courses/research to be included in your HMED minor

• Petitions for new courses will only be accepted during Fall semesters and catalog changes will occur annually after approval by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and General Faculty.
• To submit a petition for research/new courses, you must be enrolled in the HMED Minor Advising Canvas page.
• Once enrolled in the Canvas page, you can fill out the Research Petition Form to petition for up to 3 credits of research to count toward your HMED minor. Research credits must be within the College of Sciences (i.e. only BIOS, CHEM, NEUR, PHYS, and PSYC research may count toward the HMED minor).
• Fill out the Special Topics/New Course Inclusion Petition Form to petition for a Special Topics or other new course to be considered for the HMED minor. Only BIOS, CHEM, NEUR, PHYS, and PSYC courses may be applied to the HMED minor.
• Submit new course petitions BEFORE your graduating academic year! We need the extra time for Institute-level processing.

DegreeWorks errors with the HMED minor

Does my list of classes fulfill the HMED minor?

• No courses will appear in the HMED Minor block in DegreeWorks. Please consult with your HMED minor advisor (hmed-advisor@lists.gatech.edu) to identify an approved set of courses that will satisfy the HMED minor. Your individual course plan will be indicated in the Notes section of DegreeWorks. The checkbox for this minor will be completed after the registration audit in your graduating semester.
• Once you have determined the list of classes that you plan to take toward the HMED minor, complete the HMED Course Completion Plan Form. To submit the HMED Course Completion Plan Form, you must be enrolled in the HMED Minor Advising Canvas page.
• Once you apply to graduate, your record will be audited by an HMED Minor advisor and a note will be added to your record in DegreeWorks specifying which courses will be used to fulfill the minor.

BIOS, BIOL, and APPH course combinations

Beginning Spring 2020, the School of Biological Sciences will offer courses under a new subject code, BIOS (Biological Sciences). This subject code will replace the APPH and BIOL subject codes for all undergraduate courses except APPH 1040 and APPH 1050. Because the BIOS subject code unifies APPH and BIOL into a single School, this new BIOS subject code will affect how course are counted toward the HMED minor.

Approved HMED Minor Courses

Beginning Spring 2020, the School of Biological Sciences will offer courses under a new subject code, BIOS (Biological Sciences). This subject code will replace APPH and BIOL for all undergraduate courses except APPH 1040 and APPH 1050.  Please refer to the conversion table for equivalency between APPH, BIOL, and BIOS courses. See above for an explanation of how combinations of BIOS, BIOL, and APPH coursework will be counted toward the HMED minor.

Special Topics Courses

The following special topics courses have been previously approved to count toward the HMED minor. Since special topics courses use generic course codes for all subjects, please include the name of the course when specifying a special topics course in your HMED Minor course completion plan.

*Credit not awarded for both BIOS 4238 and NEUR 4803 Ion Channels towards HMED Minor.