| Adviser Information File |
| Undergraduate Policies and Procedures |
| CONTENTS |
Requirement University requirement Arts and Sciences requirement Other colleges VLPA, I&S, and NW Transfer courses X credits "Coordinated Studies" programs Semester half-credits Bothell and Tacoma courses Grades required Overlaps Overlap between Areas English composition Foreign language Q/SR and W courses Major department Double majors and double degrees Multiple-major departments The Direct Transfer Agreement Postbaccalaureate students Changes in the Areas of Knowledge list Courses added to or deleted from the Areas Courses transferred from one Area to another Special-category courses First-year foreign language courses American Sign Language Fieldwork, research, and independent study projects Special-topics courses Honors core course sequences Duplicate credit Lower-level courses taken after a higher-level course in a sequence 999 extension credits Non-credit courses Courses taken to remove a high school deficiency Uncompleted hyphenated sequences |
Requirement |
University requirement1994 TO PRESENTAll schools and colleges of the University must require freshmen who start in autumn 1994 or later, and transfer students who enter the UW in autumn 1996 or later, to complete at least 40 credits of Areas of Knowledge courses, with no fewer than 10 credits in each Area.
The University requirement does not restrict overlap between Areas of Knowledge and any other requirement, including the additional writing requirement, the quantitative/symbolic reasoning requirement, and the student's major and/or minor. (Note that none of the courses that satisfy the English composition requirement are approved for the Areas of Knowledge requirement.) No courses used to meet graduation requirements, including Areas of Knowledge, may be taken Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory (S/NS). Areas of Knowledge courses are indicated in the online Course Catalog and quarterly time schedules with the designations VLPA, I&S, and NW.
1985 TO 1994
Also required under this plan were at least 18 credits total of two or more linked sets. The linked-set requirement has been dropped retroactively, meaning that no student is any longer required to complete linked sets. Before autumn 1985 there was no University-wide general education requirement; each school and college set its own requirements.
Arts and Sciences requirementEach student graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences must complete 75 credits of Areas of Knowledge courses, with no fewer than 20 credits in each Area. Up to 15 credits from the student's major department may be counted. This 75 credits of Areas of Knowledge courses must include:
General-education courses designated with a "G" in the online Course Catalog, if any, may also count toward the 15 credits additional. (At present there are no courses with the G designation.) This requirement applies to students who started college anywhere in autumn 1985 or later. For students who started college before autumn 1985, see Pre-1985 General Education and Basic Skills Requirements. See Determining quarter of entry if the date when the student started college isn't clear. Students in the Honors Program earning College Honors follow a different general education plan.
Other collegesEach college has structured its requirements to meet or exceed the University Areas of Knowledge requirement. Some colleges require specific courses to meet the requirement. See General Education and Basic Skills Requirements of UW Schools and Colleges. In some UW schools and colleges, students who started college before 1994 (and students who transferred to the UW before 1996) are eligible for the pre-1994 general education requirements of that school or college. In many instances, however, the previous requirements of colleges meet or exceed the current requirements, and there is no advantage to claiming eligibility for earlier requirements. Each school or college of the University decides for itself to what extent it will follow the policy of Arts and Sciences in applying requirements to students who began college before 1985. | |||||||||||||||||||
VLPA, I&S, and NW |
VLPA courses focus on the history, interpretation, criticism, and practice of the arts. The requirement is meant to help the student develop a personal appreciation of the creative process and how it promotes a willingness to investigate the unknown as well as the commonplace, and thus a willingness to constantly debate and refine its modes of expression. Examples of departments that offer such courses include art history, classics, dance, drama, English, music, and foreign languages. Most rhetoric (speech, now part of the communication department) courses also count in this Area.
English composition at the freshman and sophomore levels is considered a skill rather than a literary art, and all the composition courses were deliberately excluded from the VLPA list. Creative writing, verse writing, and advanced composition courses in which prose style is treated as an art form do count toward VLPA, and do not count toward the English composition or additional writing requirements. For information about counting foreign language courses toward VLPA see Special-category courses. I&S courses include a wide variety of options for the study of human beings and societies. Courses focus on the history, development, and dynamics of human behavior, as well as social and cultural institutions and practices. Departments that offer such courses include American ethnic studies, anthropology, economics, geography, international studies, political science, psychology, sociology, and women studies. I&S includes, from departments such as history, philosophy, and religion, courses traditionally grouped with "humanities" at other colleges. NW courses focus on the disciplined, scientific study of the natural world. The intent of this requirement is to teach students the current status of our understanding of the major concepts in the physical, biological, and mathematical sciences, and the methods by which we have arrived at that understanding. The Area can be divided into three broad categories: the mathematical sciences, the physical sciences, and the biological sciences. Departments that offer such courses include astronomy, biology, chemistry, fisheries, forest resources, mathematics, and oceanography. | |||||||||||||||||||
Transfer courses |
X creditsThe Admissions Office uses 1XX, 2XX, etc. to designate courses that do not have an exact UW equivalent. Some transfer courses are designated as departmental X credit (for example, POL S 2XX). Transfer courses that don't fit into an existing UW department, such as Behavioral Sciences or Liberal Studies, are transferred as UW 1XX, UW 2XX, etc. The UW-X designation is also applied to "restricted-credit" (RC) courses, often vocational or technical, transferred on a limited basis from community colleges for students who enter the UW with a transfer associate degree. Restricted-credit courses (formerly called "grey-area" courses) are distinguishable from other UW-X courses by the fact that grades for restricted-credit courses don't count in the transfer GPA and are not shown on the transfer evaluation.Many departmental X credit courses automatically count toward Areas of Knowledge. For example, all political science courses count toward I&S, so all POL S X courses count toward I&S. There is a list in the current Adviser's Guide of departments in which all transfer courses automatically count toward Areas of Knowledge. Other departmental X credit and UW-X credits may be counted toward Areas of Knowledge if appropriate, at the discretion of the adviser. Grey-area credits, however, will almost never be appropriate for Areas of Knowledge. If an adviser decides that X credit can apply toward Areas of Knowledge, the adviser should add the appropriate designation to the course in the Student Data Base, on screen SRF330, so that the course will be counted appropriately whenever a DARS audit is run. It is not necessary to post the AoK designation for courses, like the POL S X credit mentioned above, where the AoK designation is automatic. In addition, some X-credit courses from Washington community colleges have already been assigned to an Area and the AoK designation will be posted by the admissions specialist who prepares the evaluation of transfer credits.
Coordinated Studies programsA number of community colleges offer one-quarter programs, often called coordinated or integrated studies, in which students take an integrated set of courses for the quarter. The courses taken in these programs are given special consideration toward fulfillment of requirements; the UW counts them toward Areas of Knowledge in the same way that the community college counted them, whether or not the student has completed a transfer associate degree. For example, a coordinated studies program might include a 5-credit biology course and a 3-credit BIOL 299, independent study. The latter would not normally count toward NW (all independent study courses are excluded from AoK, unless approved on a case-by-case basis), but if it is part of a coordinated studies program it can be counted toward NW without petition.
Semester half-creditsIn the College of Arts and Sciences (and most other colleges), 3-credit semester courses, which transfer as 4-1/2 quarter credits, may be counted as if they were 5-credit courses for purposes of fulfilling the Areas of Knowledge requirement. For example, if a student has completed four VLPA semester courses transferring as 4-1/2 credits each, we round up each course to 5 credits and calculate the total not as 4 x 4-1/2 = 18 credits, but as 4 x 5 = 20 credits. Note that any such courses will count as only 4-1/2 credits toward the 180 credits required for the degree. All other half-credit amounts (e.g., 1-1/2 or 7-1/2) may also be rounded up. | |||||||||||||||||||
Bothell and Tacoma courses | Most Bothell- and Tacoma-campus courses have not been assigned to Areas of Knowledge categories for use at the Seattle campus. They may be evaluated by the adviser as if they were transfer X credits. The AoK designation should be entered into the DARS exception screen by the adviser, or email the information to the DARS office at dars@u.washington.edu, and they will post the exception. | |||||||||||||||||||
Grades required |
Any passing grade is acceptable in Areas of Knowledge courses, including 0.7. Beginning autumn 1985, no UW course taken on the Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory (S/NS) student option may count toward a graduation requirement, including Areas of Knowledge.
Transfer courses taken on a pass/fail basis, if they were taken before the student first matriculated at the UW, may be counted toward Areas of Knowledge. A UW course taken as a nonmatriculated student may be counted toward Areas of Knowledge even if taken S/NS, if the course was successfully completed before the student matriculated at the UW. | |||||||||||||||||||
Overlaps |
Overlap between Areas of KnowledgeBecause of the interdisciplinary nature of many general education courses, many UW courses have more than one Area designation. PHIL 120, for example, may be counted as either I&S or NW. A student is allowed to count such a course toward only one Area. It is the student's choice how to count the course. If the course is not assigned to the area the student wants by DARS, send a message to dars@u.washington.edu and they will assign the course to that Area. (Because of the large number of these requests that turn out to be unnecessary as the student completes additional courses, the DARS office asks that advisers not submit these requests for freshmen and sophomores. If you want to make the DARS exception yourself, that's fine.Although a course cannot be counted toward more than one Area of Knowledge at the same time, a course may be split such that some of the credits count toward one area, while the other credits count toward another. For example, if a student needed 3 credits of VLPA and 2 credits of I&S, COM 220, a 5-credit class that is VLPA/I&S, would fulfill both. DARS should do this splitting automatically in a way that best advantages the student.
English compositionOverlap between Areas of Knowledge and the English composition requirement is not allowed. English composition courses do not count toward the Areas of Knowledge requirement, so there is no possible overlap.
Foreign languageAll courses through the third quarter of the language taken to meet the foreign language requirement cannot also count toward Areas of Knowledge. For information about other foreign language courses, see Special-category courses, below.
Q/SR and W coursesThere are no restrictions on overlap between the Areas of Knowledge requirement and the quantitative/symbolic reasoning and additional-writing requirements. In fact, if so designated, it is conceivable that a single course could count toward all three requirements and the student's major as well. | |||||||||||||||||||
The Direct Transfer Agreement |
The Direct Transfer Agreement (DTA) is a statewide policy about transfer credit. The purpose of this voluntary statewide agreement is to facilitate the transfer of credit; it is not an admissions agreement. A qualifying DTA associate degree is generally defined as that degree awarded by a community college to students who have completed a transfer curriculum designed to fulfill most general education requirements for a baccalaureate degree program in Washington State. The approved DTA degree programs follow specific guidelines established by the Intercollege Relations Commission (ICRC), a commission of the Washington Council. Because of the DTA, a student entering the UW College of Arts and Sciences (or one of the other colleges listed in #8 below) in autumn 1985 or later with an approved academic transfer (i.e., not vocational-technical) associate degree from a Washington community college receives the following benefit:
All Washington baccalaureate institutions, including the UW, have provisos that clarify how the DTA applies to students entering their institution. Please note the following:
Some community colleges assign courses to different Areas than the UW, particularly history and philosophy courses. See the chart Counting History, Philosophy, and Journalism Courses from Washington Community Colleges toward UW's Areas of Knowledge Requirement for specific information about each community college in Washington state. | |||||||||||||||||||
Postbaccalaureate students | Postbaccalaureate (fifth-year) students are not exempt from the Areas of Knowledge requirement. Eligibility for the pre-1985 general education requirements is determined in the same way as for any other student, and is unaffected by the fact that the student already has a degree. Since transcripts of postbaccalaureate students are not evaluated by the Office of Admissions, advisers must work directly from the original transcripts to determine how many credits the student has earned toward Areas of Knowledge. The criteria used to assign courses to Areas are the same as those used to evaluate X credits. It isn't necessary for the adviser to do a detailed evaluation of the student's credits; it is sufficient, for example, to list "History - 12 credits" or "Math - 9 credits." | |||||||||||||||||||
Changes in the Areas of Knowledge list |
Courses added to or deleted from the AreasTo check the designation of a particular course later dropped from the curriculum, check the Areas of Knowledge archive. When additions to or deletions from an Area are made, the following rules apply:
Courses transferred from one Area to anotherSuch courses may be counted in either Area if taken before the time of transfer, but only in the Area to which the course was transferred if taken after. For example, PHIL 160 was transferred from the old natural science category to Individuals and Societies when the current Areas of Knowledge requirement was adopted in autumn 1994. Any student who took PHIL 160 before autumn 1994 may count it toward either Individuals and Societies or Natural World. A student who took the course autumn 1994, or any time later, may count it toward Individuals and Societies only. The Areas of Knowledge archive lists courses transferred from one Area to another, and the dates of transfer.An adviser who feels that a student acted in good faith but took the wrong course to meet a requirement should assist the student in submitting a petition to the his or her College graduation committee. | |||||||||||||||||||
Special-category courses |
First-year foreign language courses
American Sign LanguageAmerican Sign Language counts toward VLPA in the same ways as other languages.
Internship, research, and independent study projectsAlmost all the undergraduate courses in the College of Arts and Sciences that don't count toward Areas of Knowledge are those that grant credit for internship, undergraduate research, or independent study projects, where the nature of the learning experience is highly unpredictable.If a student feels that such a course taken at the UW met the spirit of the Areas of Knowledge requirement, the student may petition his or her college graduation committee, providing a description of the work completed. For such courses transferred from other colleges, any adviser can discuss the content of the course with the student and make a determination. In the College of Arts and Sciences, the graduation committee asks that the student describe in as much detail as possible the scholarship (i.e., creative practice, original research contribution, etc.) involved: what they will be doing, what they will be reading, who will be supervising them, what will be produced, and how they think it meets the spirit of the Area in question. Faculty input is required. If at all possible, such petitions should be done before the quarter begins so the student can respond to feedback from the committee. Although independent study courses are rarely approved for AoK in the College of Arts and Sciences, this process gives students every chance to get their request heard in time to make changes if necessary. College of Arts and Sciences graduation committee has determined that internship credit is not eligible for AoK designations. Petitions to count internship credit toward AoK will invariably be denied.
Special-topics coursesSome special-topics courses are included in the Areas of Knowledge lists; others, where the content varies across AoK lines, are not. Also, the usual AoK designation may not be appropriate in some quarters. In advance of a course, departments may request an AoK designation, or a change in designation for a particular quarter, by sending the request and a syllabus to the Curriculum Office (uwcr@u.washington.edu). For individual students, any adviser may, after discussing the course content with the student, decide to count one of these courses toward Areas of Knowledge. The adviser should either make a DARS exception or send the information to dars@u.washington.edu
Honors core course sequencesCourses designed especially for the honors general education requirement may be counted toward Areas of Knowledge by students who leave the honors program. The natural science sequence counts toward NW, and the western civilization and world civilization sequences can usually be counted toward either VLPA or I&S, or split between the two Areas. The courses have already been identified for DARS and will be assigned to Areas of Knowledge in DARS audits.
Duplicate creditIf credit is not allowed for both of two courses because the content is judged too similar, a student may not count both toward Areas of Knowledge. Both grades will be calculated into the student's GPA. See Duplicate Courses for a list of these courses and more information.
Lower-level courses taken after a higher-level course in a sequenceIn math and foreign languages, students are not allowed credit toward graduation for a course that is part of a series if a higher-level course in the same series has already been completed. For example, a student who completes ITAL 203 and then completes ITAL 201 is not allowed to count ITAL 201 toward the 180 credits required for graduation or toward Areas of Knowledge. Both grades, however, will be calculated into the student's GPA.
999 extension creditsThe course-number fields in the Student Data Base screen for extension courses (SRF320) will not accept "1XX", "2XX", etc., as course numbers, so 999, 998, 997, etc. are used as substitutes. These credits (awarded for the International Baccalaureate program and for extension credit granted by other universities) may be evaluated by the adviser as if they were transfer X credits. Permission to count the courses toward requirements should be entered into the DARS exception screen by the adviser or the DARS office.
Non-credit coursesNon-credit courses such as MATH 098 may not be counted toward graduation, nor toward any general-education requirement including Areas of Knowledge.
Courses taken to remove a high school deficiencyThese may be counted toward Areas of Knowledge if (1) the UW grants credit for the course; (2) the course is not counted toward the English composition or foreign language requirement; (3) the course appears on the Areas of Knowledge list; and (4) the course, if taken at the UW autumn 1985 or later, was taken for a grade.
Uncompleted hyphenated sequencesIf credit and a grade are recorded on the student's transcript for the first quarter of a hyphenated sequence (e.g., BIOL 101-), the student is allowed credit toward both the 180 credits required for graduation and any appropriate graduation requirements. If a grade of "N" is recorded for the first quarter, the course may be counted toward requirements only if the student completes the sequence and receives a passing grade, or if terminal credit is formally granted by the department. See Hyphenated Course Sequences for a list of current hyphenated sequences and more information. |
