Requirements for the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in the School of Continuing & Professional Studies represent both breadth and depth of study. Admission requirements for the BS degree include a high school diploma or its equivalent and at least 6 units of transferable college-level course work with a minimum grade-point average of 2.7 taken at another accredited institution or at least 6 units of course work taken at the School of Continuing & Professional Studies with a minimum grade-point average of 2.7.
The following Bachelor of Science degrees are offered:
The following Bachelor of Science in Integrated Studies degrees are offered:
For more specific information about BS degree requirements and policies as well as specific requirements for each major:
Bachelor of Science Degrees
To receive a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Continuing & Professional Studies, students must be admitted to degree candidacy; complete a minimum of 120 units of college-level work with a cumulative grade-point average of 2.0 or higher in all courses taken; and satisfy basic, distribution, major and residency requirements. Students must also complete a major with grades of C- or better in all major courses. For certain majors, students must satisfy specific prerequisites before declaring the major.
The total number of units required for each major varies according to the department. At least half of the units for the major must be completed at Washington University. At least 30 units of advanced courses overall must be completed at Washington University. No more than 9 units of approved study abroad credit may count toward the degree for students who earn more than 60 units at Washington University; no more than 6 units of study abroad credit may count toward the major. We encourage students to use their time at Washington University to augment the major with related course work and to explore many different areas of knowledge.
General Education Requirements*
Basic Requirements:
- EComp 111 Analytical Writing**
- EComp 203 Critical and Researched Writing**
- One additional 3-unit advanced writing course, which may be chosen from EComp 304 Exposition, EComp 3120 Argumentation, EComp 324 Writing for Public Speaking, or EComp 331 Technical Writing.*
- One 3-unit course in numerical applications with a minimum grade of C-. The following courses fulfill the numerical applications requirement:
- Any course from the School of Continuing & Professional Studies Math department (U20), including statistics and programming courses
- U03 GS 117 Quantitative Reasoning
- U09 Psych 300 Introductory Psychological Statistics
- U25 PolSci 323 Introduction to Quantitative Methods
- One course in moral reasoning
- One 3-unit course in cultural diversity: Courses that satisfy the cultural diversity requirement explore issues of global human diversity and the interactions among cultures.
Distribution Requirements: 27 units; 9 units in each area noted below. Major courses may also fulfill basic and distribution requirements, but each distribution area must include course work from at least two disciplines:
- Natural Sciences and Mathematics
- Social Sciences
- Humanities
Overlap Policies: If a student has two majors, each major's upper-level units of credit must be independent of the other (i.e., no double counting of the upper-level units required for the majors is permitted). Prerequisite courses at the 100 or 200 level may count for both majors.
Should the same upper-level course satisfy a requirement in more than one of a student's major programs, a departmentally sanctioned upper-level elective must be chosen to replace the course in one of the programs. If a student has a major and a minor, the minor must include at least 9 unique units. Major or minor course work may be applied to distribution requirements for general education. If a student is pursuing a bachelor's degree and a certificate, the certificate must include at least 9 unique units. (The exception to this restriction on certificates applies to sequential programs of the same name, in which case all certificate courses may apply to the next-level program.)
A single course can count without restriction toward any two of the following categories: (1) major requirements; (2) basic requirements for numerical applications or cultural diversity; or (3) distribution requirements.