Major/Minor, Declaring

Policy

The declaration of a major is a watershed moment in your academic career at Duke, for it marks the end of your premajor experience. With it comes the assignment of a new academic advisor on the faculty of your major department or program. Moreover, you may be served by a new academic dean's office. (If you declare a double major, the first major determines who your academic dean will be.)

As a Trinity College student, you must declare a major no later than the Friday before midsemester break during your fourth semester of enrollment. (Many premajors opt to declare a major as early as their third or even the end of their second semester.) If you fail to declare a major by this date, the Office of the Dean for Premajor Students will place a block on your registration, preventing you from registering for courses from that point on. This is to insure that students halfway through their studies have settled the question of their major before they choose courses for their fifth semester.

If you declare a major during the first three weeks of the fall or the spring semester, your declaration will take effect at the end of the fourth week of the semester and you will receive academic advice (and your registration PIN) through the department of your major. If you declare a major after the third week of the semester, your declaration will not go into effect until the beginning of the next semester and you will continue to be served through the Academic Advising Center until that time.

Procedure

To declare a major, you will need first to complete the "Long-Range Planning and Assessment" form, available on ACES, and meet with your academic advisor, who will need to review and approve your Plan before you submit it to the Office of the Dean for Premajor Students. The Dean's Office will give you information about who your new academic dean will be and whom to contact in the department of your major to discuss the assignment of a new departmental academic advisor. More information about declaring a major is available on the Academic Advising Web site.