The College of Letters & Science awards the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree. To earn the B.A., you must successfully complete all requirements listed on this page. For help keeping track of your progress, view the Assess Degree Progress page.
All requirements are designed to ensure that you acquire the background and the breadth you need for further learning, as well as depth of knowledge in your field of interest.
Your degree requirements can be divided into four major categories outlined below:
UC, Campus, College & Major requirements are courses you're required to take. These are sometimes referred to as "subject" requirements.
Unit requirements and restrictions represent the minimum number of units needed in different areas to complete your degree.
Residence requirements represent units you must earn while you are a student in the College of Letters & Science at UC Berkeley.
GPA requirements represent the minimum GPA you must earn in your UC coursework and in your major.
Review major requirements through your major's website and by working with your Undergraduate Major Adviser. You may explore majors through the Academic Guide. For more support finding a major, see the Explore Majors & Minors page.
See the Seven-Course Breadth page for more information on all breadth requirements.
*UC IGETC Certification and UC Reciprocity satisfies both Essential Skills and Seven-Course Breadth.
You are required to earn:
No more than 16 units from courses numbered 97, 98, 99, 197, 198, or 199 may be applied to the degree.
No more than 4 units may be applied to the degree.
No more than 6 units from courses numbered 300-499 may be applied to the degree.
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus (excluding courses taken through UC Extension) as a student in the College of Letters and Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you go abroad for a semester or year or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet a College Adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your B.A. degree), you must complete:
*You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the two required for Senior Residence, provided that you successfully complete 6 units in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the College.
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, Berkeley Global Internships, UC Natural Resource System (NRS), the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC), or the UC Center in Sacramento program (UCCS) may meet the Modified Senior Residence Requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP or UC Extension) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
As an L&S student, you must also complete a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses in residence, 12 of which must be in your major program.
If you were in active service in the U.S. military in the year preceding your EGT, you can meet with an L&S adviser to learn more about senior residence exceptions that may apply to you.
For graduation, students must earn a 2.0 minimum GPA (C average or higher) in all courses undertaken at UC. This includes grades from:
Additionally, students must earn a 2.0 minimum GPA in all upper division courses required for the major.
It depends! Sometimes a course can satisfy multiple requirements. Sometimes there are limitations. See the overlap rules below:
One course can only apply to a single breadth requirement. If a course lists multiple breadths it may satisfy, this means you have options of which breadth it satisfies. Also, a maximum of two classes from a single department or department cluster may apply to Seven-Course Breadth. The Academic Progress Report will shuffle courses to different breadth requirements if needed, but if you would like to manually switch which breadth a course satisfies, you may fill out an APR Correction Form.
Aside from the exception noted above regarding Seven-Course Breadth, courses may apply to multiple general education areas. For example, a course can count for American History, American Cultures, and one breadth requirement.
It is rare to find Essential Skills classes that count toward multiple general education areas.
In L&S, you are allowed to apply a course to both a major requirement and general education requirements (ex: a course may count toward your major and a breadth requirement). This overlap is also allowed between an L&S minor requirement and general education requirements. This is not true of all undergraduate colleges at UC Berkeley, which is important to keep in mind if you plan to change colleges.
A maximum of two classes from a single department or department cluster may apply to Seven-Course Breadth. If your major includes courses from multiple departments, it may be possible to use more than two courses that count for your major toward Seven-Course Breadth as long as there are no more than two courses from a single department or department cluster.
You can overlap up to two upper division (#100-199) courses between two majors. If you declare more majors, as of Fall 2020, this limit applies overall. Make an appointment with an L&S College Adviser to get a clear understanding of how overlap rules work with more than two majors.
You can overlap up to one upper division (#100-199) course between a minor and a major. As of Fall 2020, no overlap is allowed between L&S minors. See our Minors page for more information.
Students admitted in Fall 2018 and beyond may not use high school exam scores (i.e. AP, IB, GCE) for breadth. Students must complete a college-level course.
For students admitted Spring 2018 and prior, a limited number of GCE A Level exams can be accepted for Seven-Course Breadth. See the Seven-Course Breadth page for more information.
Possibly! The following general education requirements have the potential to be satisfied by exam scores:
To explore which scores you would need to satisfy these requirements, please follow the links on this page to explore each individual requirement.
You may find more information about how exam scores may satisfy unit or major requirements on our High School Exam Scores page.
If it has not already been satisfied by the time you start taking courses at UC Berkeley as a new student, and if you do not pass the AWP Exam, Entry Level Writing must be satisfied by completing College Writing R1A at UC Berkeley.
See the Entry Level Writing page for more information.
R&C may not be taken at another institution until the Entry Level Writing (ELW) requirement is satisfied. If ELW is satisfied, then you may take R&C at a California Community College. However, make sure you fully understand the agreement you are reading, especially if you are attending a quarter school. We recommend meeting with an L&S College Adviser to make sure you are interpreting transfer agreements correctly.
Other general education requirements are able to be satisfied with transfer credit, though this is not a guarantee that you will be able to find transfer courses for every requirement. There are also other considerations, such as residence requirements. It may be helpful to discuss your plans for taking transfer coursework with an L&S College Adviser.
You should consult your intended or declared major/minor adviser to determine if major/minor requirements may be taken elsewhere.
For more information on transfer credit, please see our Transfer Credit page.
