Students in the College of Letters and Science must complete the General Education requirements appropriate to their degree (B.A., B.S., B.F.A., or B.M.) in order to qualify for graduation.

The General Education Program is the common intellectual experience of all College of Letters and Science students whatever their majors. Through the General Education Program, students receive an orientation to a broad range of intellectual disciplines: the kinds of questions that are addressed, the methods for solving problems, and the strategies for communicating findings and conclusions. 

The General Education Program is multidisciplinary. It requires study of the humanities and the fine arts, the natural and social sciences, and the cultural traditions and diversity of the modern world. It requires at least one course in a world culture and at least one course that focuses on the history and cultural, intellectual, and social experience of designated U.S. ethnic groups. For students pursuing the Bachelor of Arts, a course that focuses on European traditions is also required.

The General Education Program also provides opportunities to acquire university-level skills in writing, critical thinking, quantitative analysis, and foreign languages. Courses devoted to these topics are embedded in the study of other subjects.

There are two categories of General Education Requirements:

1. General Subject Requirements (Areas A-G listed below)
2. Special Subject Area Requirements (Writing, Quantitative Relationships, World Cultures, European Traditions, Ethnicity listed below)

General Provisions Governing All Degree Candidates

  1. Courses in the student’s major can also be used to fulfill General Education requirements. 
  2. Courses taken to satisfy the General Education requirements may also be applied simultaneously to the American History and Institutions requirement.
  3. One course may count for a General Subject Area Requirement as well as one or more Special Subjects Requirement.
  4. A course listed in more than one general subject area can be applied to only one of these areas. (Example: Art History 6A cannot be applied to both E and F.)

Visit our Degree Requirements page for more information, including a list of courses approved to fulfill Areas D-G, and the Special Subject Area Requirements. Students with questions about the General Education requirements should meet with an advisor in the College of Letters and Science Academic Advising Office in-person at 1117 Cheadle Hall, or via phone or Zoom. Click here to connect with an advisor. 

 

General Subject Area Requirements

Objective: To learn to analyze purposes, audiences, and contexts for writing through study of and practice with writing. 

The Area A Requirement consists of two parts, Area A1 and A2, and may be fulfilled in one of three ways:    

  1. By credit received from Advanced Placement Exams or International Baccalaureate Exams. See the Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate Custom Lists for details. Please note that AP or IB credit may prevent you from earning units for Writing 2, 2E, or 2LK and Writing 50, 50E. 
  2. By credit from appropriate courses transferred from another institution—see a College of Letters and Science advisor or the Writing Program advisor for details. 
  3. By successfully completing two approved UCSB courses: 
  • Courses that fulfill Area A1: Writing 2, 2E, 2LK
  • Courses that fulfill Area A2: English 10, 10AC, 10EM, 10LC; Writing 50, 105 AA-ZZ, 107AA-ZZ, 109AA-ZZ. 

Note: Students must complete the General University Entry Level Writing requirement before enrolling in courses that fulfill the Area A requirement of the General Education Program. See General University Requirements for details. 
 

Objective: To display basic familiarity with a written and/or spoken foreign language appropriate to the discipline. 

The foreign language requirement may be satisfied in one of the following four ways: 

  1. By completing Language 3 (third quarter) at UCSB or its equivalent at another college or university. Students fulfilling Area B with this method will need 184 overall units to graduate. 
  2. By achieving a score of 3 or higher on the College Board Advanced Placement Examination in a foreign language or by earning one of the following minimum scores on the Foreign Language SAT Subject Test: Chinese with Listening–570; French/French with Listening–590; German/German with Listening–570; Modern Hebrew–500; Italian–570; Japanese with Listening–570; Korean with Listening–550; Latin–580; Spanish/Spanish with Listening–570.
  3. By completing the third year of one language in high school with a grade-point average for third-year language of at least C.
  4. By passing a UCSB foreign language placement examination at the appropriate level.
     

Objective: To understand methods and applications of science and mathematics, apply them to problems, and describe solutions using language appropriate to the discipline. Courses should be in a single discipline and should be sufficiently broad to provide a base of knowledge about the discipline. Courses may be designated for majors or non-majors.

Transfer students identifying courses to complete a Partial IGETC should refer to the Area C courses list available on the Degree Planning webpage to determine whether the course may fulfill the Biological or Physical Science category.
 

Objective: To apply perspectives, theories, and methods of social science research to understand what motivates, influences, and/or determines the behaviors of individuals, groups, and societies. Area D courses are based upon systematic studies of human behavior, which may include observation, experimentation, deductive reasoning, and quantitative analysis.

Objective: To use specific methods and frameworks to develop perspectives and abilities that enable the study of culture and thought within specific contexts, and to recognize the role of human agency in defining, maintaining, and adapting cultures.

Objective: To develop an appreciation of fine and performing arts, popular arts, and visual culture and to express relationships between arts and historical or cultural contexts.

Objective: To learn to analyze texts using methods appropriate to literary study and to situate analysis within contexts where texts circulate.

Special Subject Area Requirements

Objective: At least six designated General Education courses that meet the following criteria:

  1. Study and practice with writing, reading, and critical analysis within specific disciplines.
  2. Students will demonstrate writing ability by producing written work totaling at least 1800 words that is independent of or in addition to written examinations.
  3. Assessment of written work must be a significant consideration in total assessment of student performance in the course.

Students may, by petition, request that up to two other UC or UC EAP courses be considered applicable toward this requirement. Special instructions for such petitions are available on the Petitions page of the Letters & Science Advising website. Once a student has matriculated at UCSB, the writing requirement may be met only with designated UCSB courses.  

 

Objective: To develop and apply basic quantitative methods to relevant questions or areas of study. At least one course from Area C emphasizing quantitative relationships. One course required.

Objective: To learn to identify, understand, and appreciate the history, thought, and practices of one or more cultures outside of the European tradition. One course required.

Objective: To learn to analyze early and/or modern European cultures and their significance in world affairs. One course required for a BA degree only.

Objective: To learn to identify and understand the philosophical, intellectual, historical, and/or cultural experiences of historically oppressed and excluded racial minorities in the United States--that is, Native Americans, African Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, and Multiracial Americans--or a course that provides a comparative and integrative context for understanding the experiences of oppressed and excluded racial groups in the United States. One course required.