Exploring Academic Pathways: A Guide to Majors, Minors, and Certificates at the University of Pittsburgh

Choosing a major is perhaps the most exciting decision you’ll make in your college journey. Weighing your options? Haven’t decided on a major yet? At Pitt, first-year students are admitted through various schools, so there’s no need to declare a major right away. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the academic opportunities available at the University of Pittsburgh, including various campuses, such as Pitt-Greensburg, and explores the distinctions between majors, minors, and certificate programs, offering guidance for students to make informed decisions about their academic paths.

Understanding Majors at the University of Pittsburgh

Your major is your primary area of study and provides comprehensive knowledge in your field. Picking a major is an important decision.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Major

Consider Your Interests, Passions, Skills and Strengths: Your major should reflect not just what you're good at but what genuinely interests you. Choosing a major that stems from authentic curiosity and enthusiasm can set you up for success. Ask yourself questions like “Which classes have I found most engaging?” and “What topics do I naturally gravitate toward in my free time?” Additionally, reflect on subjects you’ve excelled in during high school to gauge your strengths.
What Are Your Career Goals? Considering long-term career goals can help you make better decisions. You may already have an idea of what your ideal career is-perhaps it’s teaching, nursing, medicine or engineering-and thus have a good idea of what your major will be. In this case, consider Pitt’s pre-professional tracks, such as pre-medicine or pre-law.

Declaring a Major

If you do not pick a major during your first year of study at Pitt, you should declare your major by the end of your sophomore year, though specific deadlines may vary by program. By declaring no later than the end of your fourth semester, you can ensure you’re on track for graduation.

Can I double major?

Absolutely! To double major, you must complete a minimum of 120 credits and all general and departmental requirements.

Minors: Complementing Your Major

Your minor is an optional secondary area of study that can complement your major and build connections across disciplines. Students at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg may choose from 19 minors. Students in any major can enhance their program of study and complement their department major with African Studies. Understand the complexities, struggles, and successes of people of African descent that exist throughout the world. Study international competencies in relation to themes of race, gender, class, equity, and inclusion throughout the Americas.

Certificate Programs: Specialized Knowledge

Certificate programs offer official recognition for students who complete a set of courses in specialized areas. Certificate programs are a concentrated area of study in addition to your major or minor. Pitt-Greensburg currently offers certificates in two areas.

Examples of Certificate Programs

Among other benefits, this certificate provides a high degree of proficiency in ASL.
This certificate provides a focused area of study for students interested in careers providing technology to individuals with disabilities.
The Certificate in German Studies offers students a significant level of language and cultural competence.
This graduate certificate recognizes sustained, advanced study in composition, literacy, and pedagogy.
Graduate certificate supporting the acquisition of a proactive engagement with digital methods in the humanities and allied social sciences.
This certificate is designed to provide students with tools to engage with complex challenges of global sustainable development.
Further your degree and skills with this 12 credit certificate in Health Data Analytics.
Designed to increase the cultural competency of public health, this program addresses the root causes of health disparities.
Further your degree and skills with this 12 credit certificate in Health Information Cybersecurity.
This program is intended to give students interested in health law a basic grounding in the field.
The certificate prepares students for employment in roles such as medical director, quality officer, and department chief.
This program provides students a foundation in database management, user-centered design, security, and other IT topics.

Specific Programs and Opportunities at Pitt-Greensburg

Students at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg may choose from 25 baccalaureate degree programs. In addition to its own baccalaureate programs, Pitt-Greensburg offers opportunities for students to complete one or two years of work on degrees in selected programs in the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, School of Pharmacy, and School of Social Work. Options for transfer to the College of Business Administration and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences on the Pittsburgh campus and other regional campuses are also available. The courses, number of credits, and grade point average (GPA) required for relocation vary by program.

Graduation Requirements at Pitt-Greensburg

To earn a Pitt-Greensburg degree, students must complete between 120 and 126 credits of college work with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0. As part of their 120-126 credits for graduation, students must include specific skills and general education courses and the courses required for their chosen majors.

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Cooperative Agreements

The Information Science major is offered at Pitt-Greensburg through a cooperative agreement with University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences in Pittsburgh.

Detailed Program Descriptions

Academic Programs and Their Focus

Accounting: Students will further their business skills while integrating new and emerging knowledge.
Applied Behavior Analysis: This program will provide you an opportunity to learn about the theories and practical applications of applied behavior analysis.
Applied Data Science: Develop the computational and data skills necessary to support the increasingly data-oriented nature of many careers.
Arabic: Prepare for jobs in government, teaching Arabic, business, translating/interpreting, immigration, and travel/tourism.
Architectural Studies: This program positions students to apply to graduate programs in architecture or historic preservation, as well as careers in those areas. The pre-professional major combines coursework in architecture history and theory, building science, design studios and digital media.
Asian Studies: Students in any major can explore a scholarly interest in Asian Studies and develop language proficiency. Students go on to Asia-related careers in government, business, politics, law and pre-collegiate teaching, as well as doctoral programs.
Athletic Training: Take what you learn in the classroom and apply it in a variety of clinical settings to become a certified athletic trainer.
Audiology: Learn key skills including the prevention, assessment and treatment of auditory and balance disorders across the lifespan.
Behavioral and Community Health Sciences: This program prepares students for an applied public health career.
Bioethics: Acquire translatable skills to analyze and resolve a wide breadth of ethical issues applicable to a variety of health care environments. Great for pre-health care students and any student interested in social and philosophical problems in biomedical sciences.
Bioinformatics: This program offers training for students who want to conduct innovative research at the intersection of biomedicine and computing. Learn to translate computational technologies to biomedicine and biotechnology. Students combine studies in biology and computer science in order to approach biological questions computationally.
Biomedical Science: This program uses an individualized approach to enable students interested in health and biomedical sciences to become lifelong learners.
Biostatistics: This program is an academic degree program for students with a background in calculus and a strong interest in public health. This program allows for students to prepare for a career in statistics, data sciences or a related field.
Business Analytics: Immerse yourself in quantitative methods and analytical tools, statistics, data mining, and data-driven decision-making. Develop an understanding of business analytics, diagnose problems, and envision solutions from an evidence-based perspective.
Business Information Systems: Learn how IT interacts with business strategies, organizations and customers.
Cellular and Molecular Pathology: The program combines basic and clinical research faculty who are dedicated to the training of students.
Cell Biology: The program combines basic science and clinical research to explore questions related to biology.
Chemical Engineering: Chemical Engineering prepares students for careers in academia & industries like food, pharma, petroleum, materials, and electronics.
Chemistry: This program prepares students for a career in business or industry or for advanced study in chemistry.
Child Development: Students often pursue careers in education, information science, childcare and social work, as well as a range of advanced degrees. This program builds the skills you’ll need to address the diverse needs of children, youth, and families across multiple settings. This program focuses on the education of young children in public and private schools and centers, homes, and more.
Chinese: Take courses in Chinese language, literature, and culture. Students earn top-ranked proficiency per national standards.
Clinical and Translational Science: Train to re-engineer the ways in which basic scientific discoveries are translated to improved health and health care. This program provides the skills essential to design and conduct high-quality clinical and translational research.
Clinical Exercise Physiology: This program is focused on training students to prepare for clinical and research careers related to exercise and physical activity.
Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling: Become a clinician promoting rehabilitation and recovery.
Communication: Develop your communication skills, improve your writing and gain an understanding of how mass media affects society. Learn to communicate strategically and effectively with internal and external audiences. Use the power of multimedia content to communicate with and persuade audiences.
Communication Science: Acquire a foundation in speech and hearing sciences to prepare for graduate-level academic work and clinical training.
Computational and Systems Biology: Become a scientific leader in research, teaching and service via individualized, interdisciplinary training.
Community Health Assessment: Examines how social, economic and environmental factors impact a community’s well-being.
Composition, Literacy, and Pedagogy: Provides advanced training in instructional methods that will allow you to keep pace with the changing educational landscape.
Computer Engineering: This program builds a strong foundation in computer systems, networks, security, embedded systems, and project engineering.
Computer Science: This program introduces students to a scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications.
Corporate and Community Relations: Learn to examine the world, communicate and persuade others.
Cyber Law, Policy, and Management: Study U.S legal compliance requirements as international trade and globalization continues to grow.
Dental Hygiene: This program provides the educational experiences to prepare our graduates for a career in dental hygiene.
Dentistry: The School of Dental Medicine prepares students to be practicing clinicians or researchers in the field of dentistry. Advance your dental education with programs that provide additional education and training in the dental specialties.
Dietitian Nutritionist Program: Personalize this program through rotations such as oncology nutrition, maternal and pediatric nutrition, and more.
Digital Media: Harness narrative, world-building and media studies while using coding, software and human-computer interfaces.
Disability Studies: This program focuses on people with disabilities and their experiences rather than representing disability as a problem to be solved.
East Asian Studies: Students examine fundamental questions of how species live and interact in nature and the evolutionary origins of species.
Economics: Studying economics fosters a logical and ordered way of thinking, as well as highly marketable concrete skills.
Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy: Pursue a course of studies that provides training and produces new knowledge in education policy.
Electrical Engineering: This program builds strong theory & practical skills in power systems, circuits, semiconductors, signal processing, and control theory. Broaden your engineering background by considering cybersecurity aspects in engineering systems.
Emergency Medicine: Train to become a paramedic after your junior year or prepare for graduate programs like physician assistant studies or medical school.
Engineering Science: For ambitious students in science, math & engineering, this program aligns with the core values of the David C. Fredrick Honors College.
English: The Department of English provides a rich environment for teaching, research, creative work, and service. Offers a wide range of opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students interested in teaching reading and writing. Commit to imaginative and theoretical engagement with Anglophone literatures in their historical, formal and generic forms. Prepare for a career in teaching or writing, or obtain skills and knowledge that are useful in numerous business and professional settings.
Environmental and Occupational Health: Highlights theoretical underpinnings of environmental health sciences and toxicology with laboratory-based research. This program provides concentrated graduate education in this well-defined area of environmental health.
Environmental Science: This program is popular with people who love nature and want to explore environmental issues. Graduates have gone on to careers in government, industry, advocacy, enforcement, education, law, and international policy.
Epidemiology: This program provides concentrated training in epidemiological concepts, skills, and methodology with a research focus.
European Studies: This program provides a selective, rigorous and forward-thinking investigation of the various languages, literatures and cultures of Europe.
Exercise Science: Learn about exercise and physical activity to promote health and wellness, prevent and treat health-related conditions, and more.
Film and Media Studies: This program offers rigorous courses concerning the history, aesthetics, theory, and production of cinema. This program provides students with an understanding of the financial principles and the practical implementation of these principles.
Finance: Provides students with an understanding of financial principles and the practical implementation of those principles. Prepare for advanced study in mathematical or quantitative finance and business administration, and careers in banking and insurance.
French: This program includes classes in elementary, intermediate and advanced language, conversation, composition, business French, and phonetics.
Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies: Offers foundations for the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality and supports students' work in other disciplines.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Provides students with the knowledge and skills needed for immediate success in GIS-related jobs.
Geology: Geology is a rigorous science blending physics, chemistry, and math with going into the field to see how nature actually works. Learn at a department internationally recognized for excellence in research and education.
German: Focuses primarily on coursework in German while also addressing communicative and cultural competence.
Global Health: This program will prepare students for leadership positions in development, implementation, evaluation, or policy of health initiatives.
Global Management: This program enables students to develop expertise in the management of people, processes, and policies in a global context.
Global Studies: Global Studies interrogates the waning importance of regional borders and disciplinary boundaries in the world today.
Global Sustainable Development: This certificate is designed to provide students with tools to engage with complex challenges of global sustainable development.
Health Administration: For students with academic training and experience desiring to advance to a management-level position. These two programs analyze the structure of the health care industry, provide students with communication and management skills, and more.
Health Care Compliance: A fully online, accelerated 10-month graduate certificate program for working professionals in the healthcare setting.
Health Informatics: Learn how IT interacts with business strategies, organizations and customers.
Health Services Research and Policy: This program prepares graduates for positions in health services research and policy.
Hispanic Languages & Literature: This program offers a top-rated PhD program in Hispanic Languages & Literature.
History: Learn to use methods, techniques and ideas from a wide range of humanistic and social scientific fields to examine history. Gain an appreciation of how identities and cultures were established, and how history has shaped current issues.
History and Philosophy of Science: A great choice for students wishing to combine coursework in the sciences with work in humanistically inclined disciplines.
History of Art and Architecture: Explores why and how humans have created images, objects and environments across the globe and throughout time.
Honors College: This program provides an enhanced academic experience, including opportunities for interdisciplinary study.
Human Genetics: This program prepares students for careers as contributing members of genetics and genomics research teams in academia or industry.
Human Resources Management: Our advanced, accelerated program will support you as you take on more advanced human resource roles. Involves effective management, development, and deployment of people, with a focus on analytics and diversification.
Infant Mental Health: This program addresses the social-emotional and mental health needs of young children and their families.
Information Science: This program provides students knowledge and skills necessary to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities in health care. ISB is an ideal choice for stud… The Information Science major is offered at Pitt-Greensburg through a cooperative agreement with University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences in Pittsburgh.
Instructional Design: Explore, examine, and discuss historical, contemporary, and emerging instructional design theories and models.
Interdisciplinary Studies: You may be interested in our interdisciplinary studies program, which allows you to explore topics across many disciplines.
International Social Work: Gain the advanced knowledge and skills required for contemporary macro social work practice. Work for the dignity of populations who are vulnerable to violence and deprivation. Offered in collab with the Network of Social Work Management under a university partnership initiative.
Micro-credentials: Micro-credentials offer immediate value to current employers and demonstrate mastery of programming skills to potential future employers.
Pediatric Environmental Health: Programs encourage cross-disciplinary research through cutting-edge methods and behavioral and community education.
Public and Nonprofit Management: Links Pitt and the community in practical applied evaluation initiatives at the community level.
Simulation Modeling: Build, compute, and improve theoretically-informed models of social processes, bridging domain and technical expertise.

Tools for Exploration

Degree Finder: Picking a major is an important decision, and it’s important to know that you have great tools to help make this big decision-even if you’re not ready right now. One of our new tools the Degree Finder is designed to help you determine what path to take during your time here at Pitt. Make Your Decision and ApplyReady to set the wheels in motion? Your future is only a click away.
me3®: me3® is a career inventory and assessment tool that helps students identify their interests and map those interests to careers and Pitt majors to encourage the career exploration process.

What if I’m undecided?

Being undecided is more common than you might think! You can still apply to and enroll at Pitt if you’re undecided. Our dedicated advisors can help you discover your interests while completing general education requirements that count toward most majors.

Can I take classes outside my major?

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