Degree Requirements for First Year Students
Major Requirements
All UC San Diego majors require the equivalent of at least twelve or more upper-division courses (forty-eight or more units). Consult department and program advisors regarding major requirements and opportunities - visit your major's website to see their requirements and how to connect with their advising staff.
General Education
The Eighth College GE curriculum is designed to be flexible and to complement any major.
- Students admitted to UC San Diego as freshmen are not eligible for IGETC. However, even without IGETC, applicable transfer courses will be applied toward your general education requirements as allowed by college policies.
Critical Community Engagement
The Critical Community Engagement (CCE) Academic Program is a four-course sequence designed to guide Eighth College students through a process of learning more about frameworks of ethical community partnership and methods of engagement, community care, structural inequities rooted in racism, and their own relationships to the communities that matter to them. The current plan is that each course in the CCE series emphasizes a different concept essential for collaborating with communities.
Critical Community Engagement courses must be taken at UC San Diego and must be taken for a letter grade.
Critical Community Engagement 1 - Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring
In this course, students reflect on their assets and gifts to understand asset-based community development, reflect on figures and collectives involved with social justice in specific contexts (such as student activists from UCSD’s history), and work in groups to develop ideas for action products that support the communities they care about. Students will reflect on their learning after each core assignment to consider how key terms like assets, social justice, and community are relevant to their lives.
Offered Fall*, Winter, and Spring Quarters
*Denotes the "off-cycle" quarter for the course. While offered in this quarter, there will be fewer sections taught and limited seats available. Most students will take the course in one of the other two quarters.
Critical Community Engagement 2 - Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring
In this writing-intensive course, students are encouraged to notice that certain kinds of knowledge are historically privileged and that we have ethical choices to make when we write and research about communities. Students learn to recognize and write from their positionalities, ask key questions informed by participatory action research (PAR) methods, and tell the stories of communities’ ongoing engagement with social justice. This course also emphasizes the writing process and guides students through drafting, giving and receiving peer feedback, and revising.
Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring* Quarters
*Denotes the "off-cycle" quarter for the course. While offered in this quarter, there will be fewer sections taught and limited seats available. Most students will take the course in one of the other two quarters.
Critical Community Engagement 3 - Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring
In this second writing-intensive course, students engage with ideas, research, and communities with greater depth. Students are positioned as members of a research collective tasked with researching and writing in response to a central question related to Pro-Blackness and antiracism. Students will develop their own research questions, employ Participatory Action Research (PAR) practices to amplify marginalized voices, and translate their findings for a public-facing audience.
Offered Fall, Winter*, and Spring Quarters
*Denotes the "off-cycle" quarter for the course. While offered in this quarter, there will be fewer sections taught and limited seats available. Most students will take the course in one of the other two quarters.
Critical Community Engagement 120 - Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring
This course focuses on putting the skills acquired in CCE 1-3 or CCE 110 (for transfers) into practice by acting. This project-based capstone course gives students the opportunity to design, develop, and deliver a project in collaboration with local community partners.
Offered Fall, Winter and Spring Quarters, Starting Fall 2025
Breadth Requirements
Breadth Requirements can be completed any time throughout the undergraduate career, depending on individual academic goals and preferences.
Breadth courses may overlap with major, minor and/or university requirements. Approved Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and transfer credit will be applied.
Breadth courses can be taken for letter grade or P/NP.
Breadth Resources and Approved Course Lists
- Full list of Approved Breadth Courses - arranged by Breadth area for you to explore your options.
- List of Approved Breadth Courses Being Taught Next Quarter
- List of Approved Breadth Courses Being Taught Summer 2025
- List of Breadth Overlaps with University Requirements (DEI, JTCCER, and AHI) - this list includes courses that are not approved for the Eighth College Breadth but do fulfill one of the university requirements and shows how courses may overlap for several requirements.
Select two courses of interest from each of the following five areas:
Arts - 2 courses
Humanities - 2 courses
In addition to the humanities courses listed above, language courses at the 3rd-quarter level or higher may be used to satisfy the Humanities area of the Eighth College Breadth Requirement. Language courses encourage community engagement by empowering students to interact with members of the many communities where the language is used. These language courses also help students understand the viewpoints of these communities and the challenges they face.
Below is the list of language courses accepted for the Eighth College Humanities Breadth Requirement. Courses numbered 1** refer to any upper division course numbered 100-199.
Natural Sciences - 2 courses
Quantitative Methods and Engineering - 2 courses
Social Sciences - 2 courses
University Requirements
Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR)
The University of California requires all undergraduate students (including international students) to demonstrate a minimum proficiency in English composition within three quarters of entering the University.
Refer to the Analytical Writing Program for how to meet the ELWR
American History and Institutions (AHI)
A knowledge of American history and of the principle of American institutions under federal and state constitutions is required of all candidates for the bachelor's degree. Exception for all international students on F-1 or J-1 visas: the college will waive AHI at the end of the final quarter.
Refer to the UC San Diego General Catalog for how to meet AHI.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
A knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion is required for all candidates for a bachelor's degree. This requirement is satisfied by passing one four-unit course.
Refer to Undergraduate Education for the approved list of courses to satisfy DEI.
The Diversity Equity and Inclusion Course Requirement per San Diego Senate Regulation 600.G is a graduation requirement for all UC San Diego students.
There has not been a change to this requirement. Any changes to graduation requirements are communicated from the Academic Senate to UCSD students via UCSD email.
In accordance with applicable Federal and State law and University policy, the University of California does not discriminate, or grant preferences, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or other protected categories. More information about Proposition 209 can be found here. More information about the University of California Anti-Discrimination Policy can be found here.
Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement (JTCCER)
A knowledge of climate change is required of all candidates for a Bachelor’s degree who begin their studies at UC San Diego in lower-division standing in Fall 2024 or thereafter.
Refer to Undergraduate Education for the approved list.
Unit Requirements
- A minimum of 180 units; at least 60 units must be upper-division
- No more than 25% of UC San Diego course units graded on a Pass/No Pass basis
- At least 35 of the final 45 units complete at UC San Diego
GPA Requirement
A 2.0 or higher GPA in all courses taken at University of California including: UC Summer Session, UC Education Abroad Program, UC Sacramento Center, and the UC San Diego Washington Program (UCDC).
Quarter Limit Policy
- An undergraduate student who enrolls at UC San Diego as a first-year in Fall 2019 and thereafter is allowed to enroll for twelve quarters to complete all requirements for a bachelor of arts (BA) or bachelor of science (BS) degree. If a student reaches this quarter limit and needs additional time to complete those requirements, they will be required to submit a completion plan and have it approved by their major department or program as well as their college prior to enrolling for additional quarters to continue work toward the degree.
- Summer session, as well as quarters during which students are approved for part-time status or have withdrawn from all courses, will not count toward the allowable number of quarters.