Majors

The major provides students the opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge in one academic discipline while developing and refining skills that will serve them in a wide array of academic and non-academic endeavors.

All majors and minors are listed on the official transcript once the student graduates and the degree is posted. Majors and minors are not listed, however, on the diploma unless a student receives Honors in a major through the Honors Program. 

General Guidelines

1. Students normally declare a major during the second term of their sophomore year. 
2. To declare a major, a student should contact the appropriate department and make an appointment with a department advisor. 
3. After developing a plan for the major with the student, the department advisor has the major entered on the student's record.
4. Requirements for majors are those applicable at the time the student declares the major.
5. A student may change the plan for the major with the approval of the department advisor.
6. Students may change majors after meeting with a department advisor in a different department.
7. Honors students with academic interests outside existing majors may propose their own major and, on approval, elect an Individualized Major Program within Honors.
   

Current Policies

Effective Winter 2019 | Prior Policies

1. Each A.B. or B.S. student must develop a major plan in consultation with a major advisor, who must also approve it.
2. Course requirements for the various majors range from 24 to 48 credits at the 200-level and above.
3. No more than 60 credits in a major (including courses in one department and the required cognates) may be counted toward the 120 for the degree. When an academic department has two or more SUBJECTs (e.g., Anthropology, Romance Languages and Literatures), a student may count a total of 60 credits from that department, not from each SUBJECT.
4. No more than 60 credits in one language (other than English) may be counted in the 120 required for a degree. However, the 60 credit limit on courses elected in one major may be exceeded when the excess credits have been used to meet the language requirement.
5. Students electing an area, interdepartmental, or special major may count no more than 60 credits in any one department.
6. Students may not elect courses in a major, including required cognates, using the Pass/Fail grading option.
7. A department or program may include courses that are graded on a Credit/No Credit basis in its major, but all other courses in the major must be taken for a grade.
8. A maximum of one course may be shared between the requirements of a minor and a major.
9. No course may be shared between the requirements a major and a supplemental studies program.
10. No course from the department of a major or a required course in a major may be part of a distribution plan.  However, when pursuing more than one major, courses from one of the majors may be used toward distribution.
11. A student must earn an overall GPA of at least 2.0 in courses taken in the major. This includes all courses taken in the department of the major (prerequisites, required courses, and electives) and any required cognates. Exceptions for specific majors are listed in the Academics and Requirements section of the LSA website.
12. Courses that are part of the student's major may also meet the Upper-Level Writing Requirement, the Race & Ethnicity Requirement, or the Quantitative Reasoning Requirement.
13. Effective in Fall 2004, students graduating with an Honors major are required to earn an overall GPA of 3.4. Individual departments may have higher GPA requirements for courses in their majors. Check Honors major guidelines in individual departments listed in the Academics and Requirements section of the LSA website.
14. Test credits may not be used to meet the requirements of a major, but may be used to meet prerequisites. Departmental exceptions to this policy may be granted by the LSA Curriculum Committee.