In addition to the major, information systems doctoral students are required to choose a minor field (normally 3 to 4 courses, or 9 to 12 credit hours). Most students in this area choose minors such as organizational behavior, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and management. Students without prior teaching experience also take one short course (X630) on teaching, prior to teaching their first course, which may be before or after the comprehensive exam.
All information systems doctoral students are required to take S600 in the first semester of the program. S600 is a prerequisite for the topics-based courses and provides the fundamental background in information systems. The topics-based courses are organized around major research topic areas in information systems research. The elective course could be another information systems major course, an independent study course, an IS-related course in another discipline, or a research methods course.