Courses of Study 2024-2025 
    
    Oct 03, 2024  
Courses of Study 2024-2025

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 one disciplinary area.

The College of Arts & Sciences offers 42 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    Jewish Studies  
Chemistry    Linguistics  
China and Asia-Pacific Studies    Mathematics  
Classics    Music  
Cognitive Science    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 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 the College of Arts & Sciences are listed below. All minors available at the university can be found on Cornell University’s academics website.

Africana Studies   Italian  
American Sign Language (ASL)/Deaf Studies   Jewish Studies  
American Studies   Latina/o Studies  
Anthropology   Law and Society  
Arabic   Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Studies  
Archaeology   Linguistics  
Asian American Studies   Mathematics  
Astrobiology   Media Studies  
Astronomy   Medieval Studies  
China and Asia-Pacific Studies   Minority, Indigenous, and Third World Studies  
Classical Civilization   Moral Psychology  
Classics   Music  
Cognitive Science   Near Eastern Studies  
Comparative Literature   Performing and Media Arts  
Computer Science   Philosophy  
Creative Writing   Physics  
Crime, Prisons, Education, and Justice   Portuguese and Brazilian Studies  
Dance   Psychology  
Data Science in Astronomy   Public History  
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences   Public Policy  
East Asian Studies   Public Service Studies  
English   Religious Studies  
Environment & Sustainability   Russian  
Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies   Sanskrit Studies  
Film   Science Communication and Public Engagement
French   Science & Technology Studies  
German Studies   South Asian Studies  
Global Asia Studies   Southeast Asian Studies  
History   Spanish  
History of Art   Theatre  
History of Capitalism   Viking Studies  
Inequality Studies    Visual Studies  
Information Science    

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.