Courses of Study 2020-2021 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
Courses of Study 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Degree Programs


In the College of Arts and Sciences .

Undergraduate Degrees


The College of Arts and Sciences offers a liberal arts and sciences undergraduate education and awards a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree, no matter the student’s major.

An education in the liberal arts and sciences involves a broad spectrum of study, in a number of fields, in which students hone their critical and imaginative capacities, gain experience with views of the world radically unlike one’s own and learn to think in complex ways about information, experiences, and the challenges they will encounter throughout their lives.

How one pursues these goals is highly individual and the college relies on each student and their faculty advisor to design an appropriate course of study. The graduation requirements, referenced below, help students accomplish these educational goals through the development of: 

  • familiarity with the different ways of knowing that are reflected in the various disciplines and fields of study within the humanities,  social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences
  • cultural breadth (both geographical and temporal)
  • effective writing and quantitative skills
  • facility in a foreign language beyond the introductory level
  • imaginative and critical thinking
  • a depth of understanding, through pursuing a major, in at least disciplinary area.

The College of Arts & Sciences offers 40 undergraduate majors. In addition to the requirements for each major, all students must meet the college graduation requirements .

Undergraduate Majors


Africana Studies   German Studies  
American Studies   Government  
Anthropology   History  
Archaeology   History of Art  
Asian Studies   Independent Major  
Astronomy   Information Science  
Biological Sciences   Italian  
Biology & Society   Linguistics  
Chemistry   Mathematics  
China and Asia-Pacific Studies   Music  
Classics   Near Eastern Studies  
College Scholar   Performing and Media Arts  
Comparative Literature   Philosophy  
Computer Science   Physics  
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences   Psychology  
Economics   Religious Studies  
English   Science and Technology Studies  
Environment & Sustainability   Sociology  
Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies   Spanish  
French   Statistical Science  

Undergraduate Minors


An undergraduate student may pursue a minor in any department, in any college, subject to limitations placed by the department offering the minor or by the student’s major. Not all majors or departments offer minors.  Completed minors will appear on the official transcript. Students may complete as many minors as they wish and the requirements of minors may overlap unless otherwise specified.  Minors offered by Arts & Sciences are described along with the majors in the A&S section of this catalog.  All minors available at the university can be found on Cornell University’s academics website.

Graduate Fields of Study


Arts & Sciences offers research-centered (MA/PhD) advanced degrees in over 35 fields of study. Research-centered graduate degrees often lead to academic careers and scientific discovery.  Programs leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are administered by the Graduate School  at Cornell.  To learn more about graduate degree programs available at Cornell University, please reference the Graduate School’s website.