Double-dipping means applying a given course to more than one requirement, such as a major, minor, or of the College itself. You can read a full description of the current policy here. The relevant portion for European Studies is the following:

“Minors and interdisciplinary minors: not less than 8 credit hours in the individual student’s transcript must be unique to each minor; that is, the courses in question are considered as actually fulfilling requirements of one minor, not of more than one minor or major.”

Since most courses at Loyola are worth 3-credit hours, this means that in all likelihood 3 of the 6 classes required for the minor must be unique to the minor.* The general rule is that a given course can only be applied (dipped) to a maximum of two requirements. The one exception to this rule involves courses applied to the Core Requirements of the college as such applications do not constitute a “dip”. For example, you could take HIST 102 and use it to satisfy a Tier One requirement for Historical Knowledge and Inquiry as well as meeting a requirement of both a major in History and a minor in European Studies. This would only constitute two dips (HIST + EURO) not three (HIST + EURO + CORE) as Core requirements do not count as dips. However, those 3 credits for HIST 102 could not then count as unique to either HIST or EURO because the class is being double-dipped. A student majoring in HIST and minoring in EURO would still need 7 courses (21 hrs) that are unique to HIST and 3 classes (“at least 8 credit hours") that are unique to EURO. In practice, this is easy as the EURO minor is interdisciplinary and draws on course offerings from over 18 departments and programs. Unless you somehow have 18 majors, finding three unique courses will not prove difficult 😊.

 

This ability to double-dip with the Core without limit makes completing the interdisciplinary minor in European Studies very easy. Twenty of the nearly 190 courses currently tagged for EURO are likewise tagged for various aspects of the Core. For example, while either THEO 100 or THEO 107 can satisfy the Tier One foundational course for Theological & Religious Knowledge and Inquiry, only THEO 100 is simultaneously tagged for EURO. So, while students should take classes that interest them the most, it is possible to “kill two birds with one stone” by taking THEO 100 and applying it to both the Core and the EURO minor. With only a modicum of strategic planning, its is possible to nearly complete the Core Requirements while simultaneously completing a minor in European Studies through the generous use of double-dipping. About the only thing you won’t find is a Euro-tagged course that also satisfies the Quantitative Knowledge and Inquiry requirement of the Core (i.e., there are currently no math or stats classes that can be applied to EURO).

 

* While it is possible to earn 4 or more credits from an internship class, such as PLSC 370 or GLST 370, only 3 credits of interning can be applied to the European Studies minor. While other departments and programs may have a different limit, the general rule at Loyola is that you cannot major or minor in interning, hence the 3-credit limit. If you do have two 4-credit courses, or even theoretically an 8-credit class, from a study abroad experience or transfer credits from another university that you would like to apply to the minor please contact me directly for approval (chasselmann@luc.edu). Barring something like that, it is safe to assume you will likely need six 3-credit courses to complete the minor and that three of them must be unique to EURO, meaning they cannot be applied to any other major or minor.