The College of Arts & Sciences has a set of basic requirements all students must complete regardless of their major program(s). A student in the CAS must complete the following, and can perform a degree audit to review progress toward completion. Please refer to the online catalog for additional information about college and degree requirements.
Requirements for the first year:
- 2 semesters of First-Year Writing: WRT 001 & 002 (or WRT 003 & 005)
- Students who bring in credit for WRT 001 & 002 from AP or IB scores will take WRT 011 to fulfill this requirement
- a Big Questions Seminar (3-4 credits)
Distribution requirements that must be met prior to graduation:
- Mathematics (MA) - 3 credits
- Arts & Language (AL) - 7 credits
- Human Experience (HE) - 7 credits
- Social World (SW) - 7 credits
- Natural World (NW) + Lab Science (LS) - 7 credits
- 3 Encounters in each of the following areas:
- Contemporary Challenges (CC)
- Quantitative Reasoning (Q)
- Writing (W)
Other requirements:
- satisfy the University residency requirement
- earn a minimum 2.0 GPA both overall and in the major
- earn minimum of 120 credits
Courseload
Most courses in the College of Arts & Sciences are 3 or 4 credit courses, but may range from 1 to 4 credits. The typical term load is 14 to 17 credits. 12 credits are required for full-time status, and anything over 17 credits for a first semester, first year student is considered an overload. After the first semester, 18 credits is the maximum number of credits allowed, and students would need to fill out an Overload Request Form to request permission to register for more than 18 credits. Credits are assigned to a course on the basis of an estimate of 'normal' student effort, figuring 3 to 4 hours of effort per week for each credit, including the hours actually spent in class ('contact' hours). Accordingly, a typical term load of 16 credits would require something like 50 to 60 hours per week of effort, including contact hours. Naturally, there will be some variability from week to week and some variability from course to course.
A word about completing the requirements... Because the requirements are so flexible, we urge students to avoid the mistake of "getting required courses out of the way" early. That approach has two problems. For one, it defers an exploration of options, which is important for all students. It is possible, however, to use the requirements as a map to the broad, undiscovered territory of one's options, a healthy alternative to the notion of "getting the requirements done." Another problem with "getting the requirements out of the way" is that it sets up a self-defeating expectation about the nature of the requirements. Far from being drudgery, the required courses open up to the student the full range of human knowledge and develop cross-disciplinary understanding and communication skills that are among the hallmarks of a liberal arts education.
Students take two designated courses in their first year that focus on pre-disciplinary writing, including engaging thoughtfully with the writing process, practicing clear academic writing and argument, analyzing and practicing persuasive strategies and critical thinking, and developing information literacy skills. These courses are WRT 001: Academic & Anayltical Writing and WRT 002: Research & Argument. Students who earn credit for WRT 001 & 002 from AP or IB Exam scores will be required to take an honors path, which consists of one designated advanced first-year writing course, WRT 011: Advanced Writing: The Rhetorical Self. Multilingual learners who qualify based on testing conducted by the International Center for Academic and Professional English take two courses taught by language specialists and tailored specifically for multilingual learners, WRT 003 and 005.
Students take one Big Questions Seminar in the first semester. Big Questions Seminars are designated by course number '090' and focus on complex questions that have no simple or obvious answers. These can include, but are not limited to, the deep enduring questions that humanity has grappled with for ages or emerging questions of today. Big questions often transcend disciplinary boundaries. Thus, many Big Questions Seminars illustrate how multiple disciplines or multiple fields within a discipline approach the seminar's focal question, and some are co-taught by faculty from different fields. These seminars are designed to facilitate students' transition to the intellectual environment of a college classroom and to develop students' intellectual and practical skills (e.g., inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, information literacy, teamwork, problem solving).
Students take one course in mathematics that focuses on developing logical skills, problem solving, and/or computation. Example courses include logic, proof writing, discrete mathematics, calculus, linear algebra, and statistics. Courses for the Mathematics (MA) requirement can be found in the mathematics department (with the exception of MATH 000), as well as certain courses offered through Philosophy, such as PHIL 014: Symbolic Logic.
Courses designated for the Arts and Humanities (HU) requirement are found in Art, Architecture, Design, English (but not ENGL 001 or 002), the foreign languages, History, Music, Philosophy, Religion Studies, and Theatre. Many of the interdisciplinary programs, such as Africana Studies, Film, Latin American and Latino Studies, Jewish Studies, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, etc, also offer courses designated for the Arts and Humanities.
Social World (SW) courses are found in Anthropology, Economics, History, International Relations, Journalism, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Many of the interdisciplinary programs, such as Health, Medicine, & Society, Cognitive Science, Environmental Studies, etc, also offer Social Science courses.
Astronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Physics are the typical places to look for Natural World (NW) courses. One of the courses taken for the Natural World requirement must have a lab (LS). You may also find NW courses offered through Cognitive Science, Anthropology, and Psychology.
Students must earn a minimum of 120 credits to be eligible for a BA or BS in the College of Arts and Sciences. Many students will transfer credits from another institution to Lehigh. To be eligible to receive a Lehigh baccalaureate degree, the candidate must have completed either a minimum of 90 credit hours, or 60 of the last 75 credit hours at the University or in residency programs.
If you are a student pursuing a degree in the Class of 2027 or earlier, please click here to review your college requirements.
