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Core Subject Requirements

All applicants must complete a minimum level of preparation in six subject areas. This requirement ensures that students entering the University have an appreciation for the liberal arts and are adequately prepared to succeed in college. This component of UW admission is known as the core subject requirements. Because these are admission (not graduation) requirements, the core subject requirements must be completed before enrolling at the UW.

Core Subject Requirements
Subject Years Required
COMPOSITION/LITERATURE 4 years
MATHEMATICS 3 years
SOCIAL SCIENCES 3 years
FOREIGN LANGUAGE 2 years
SCIENCE 2 years
FINE, VISUAL, OR PERFORMING ARTS 0.5 years
ACADEMIC ELECTIVES 0.5 years

Because these are admission requirements, all core subjects must be satisfactorily completed before the first quarter of enrollment at the UW. Almost all applicants will have satisfied these requirements through high school course work, which is generally defined as that completed in grades 9-12. There are, however, several ways to satisfy core requirements at the college level. In general, five quarter credits (or three semester credits) at the college level equals one year of high-school study. If you completed a portion of the core requirements in high school, you can supplement high school courses with college course work.

Example

  • High School: 3 years of English
  • Community college: 5-credit English composition or literature course (counts as 1 high-school year)
Total: 4 years

GRADING RESTRICTIONS

In general, you must attain at minimum a passing grade (including 'D') to satisfy a core subject requirement. Also acceptable is a grade of 'Pass' in a course taken on a 'Pass/Not Pass' basis. However, if you are completing core subjects through college course work you are strongly encouraged to choose a letter or numerical grade, because you may later want to apply core courses towards requirements for your major or University or college graduation requirements, for which grading restrictions pertain.

Applicants using a college course to satisfy the mathematics requirement: specific restrictions on grading apply. See the Mathematics section.

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