| Subject | Years Required |
|---|---|
| ENGLISH | 4 years |
| MATHEMATICS | 3 years |
| SOCIAL SCIENCE | 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 college admission distribution requirements 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 these 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)
GRADING RESTRICTIONS
In general, you must attain at minimum a passing grade (including 'D') to satisfy a college admission distribution requirement. Also acceptable is a grade of 'Pass' in a course taken on a 'Pass/Not Pass' basis. However, if you are completing a college admission distribution requirement through college course work, you are strongly encouraged to choose a letter or numerical grade, because you may later want to apply such 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.
UW alumnus Hans Dehmelt, the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for immobilizing single subatomic particles Professor emeritus in Physics
