Exploring Academic Pathways: A Guide to Majors at Lehigh University

Lehigh University, with its motto "homo minister et interpres naturae" ("humans, servants and interpreters of nature"), offers a wide array of academic opportunities across its four colleges. Students benefit from the resources of a large research university while enjoying the personalized attention characteristic of a smaller, private institution. The College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) stands as the academic heart of Lehigh, providing a diverse range of majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs, as well as essential liberal arts education accessible to all Lehigh students. The faculty in Arts & Sciences are active scholars, accessible, and committed to undergraduate programs. A CAS education focuses on the individual student, helping them discover and nurture their potential.

The College of Arts & Sciences: A Foundation for Exploration

The College of Arts & Sciences provides a strong foundation in the liberal arts, encouraging students to develop a multidisciplinary understanding of human experience, artistic and linguistic expression, and the natural and social worlds. Students tackle big questions and contemporary challenges, build critical intellectual skills, and explore diverse disciplinary perspectives and tools.

Liberal Arts Program

The liberal arts tradition includes a deep commitment to intellectual breadth. Each academic discipline provides a unique lens through which we can understand the world. Scholars and practitioners in distinct disciplines frame questions differently, utilize different sources of knowledge, and practice different methods of inquiry.

Degree Options: BA vs. BS

Lehigh offers both Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees. BA degrees typically have fewer major requirements, allowing for more coursework outside the major. BS degrees, offered in specific disciplines, usually involve more extensive coursework in the major and related fields, with less coursework outside the major. Both degree programs require a minimum of 120 credit hours for graduation and a minimum grade point average of 2.0 in the major.

Academic Advising

When a student declares a major, they are assigned a major advisor from that department or program's faculty. The major advisor assists students with course selection, research opportunities, internship selection, and other areas of professional development.

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Navigating the Curriculum

To ensure a well-rounded education, Lehigh University has implemented several key curricular components:

First-Year Writing Requirement

Students take two designated courses in their first year that focus on pre-disciplinary writing, including engaging thoughtfully with the writing process, practicing clear academic writing and argument, analyzing and practicing persuasive strategies, practicing critical thinking, improving rhetorical capacities, and developing information literacy skills. 1 FY Writing requirement may be fulfilled through WRT 001 & 002. Students who earn credit for both WRT 001 & 002 through AP or IB scores will take WRT 011: Advanced Writing: The Rhetorical Self, to complete the FY Writing Requirement.

Big Questions Seminars

Students take one Big Questions Seminar, preferably in the first semester. Big Questions Seminars focus on complex questions that have no simple or obvious answers. These can include, but are not limited to, the deep enduring questions that humanity has grappled with for ages or emerging questions of today. Big questions often transcend disciplinary boundaries. Thus, many Big Questions Seminars illustrate how multiple disciplines or multiple fields within a discipline approach the seminar's focal question, and some are co-taught by faculty from different fields.

Mathematics Course

Students take one course in mathematics that focuses on developing logical skills, problem solving, and/or computation.

Encounters

Encounters are opportunities within courses that emphasize and build capacity in central themes or skills present across the curriculum. Within the Disciplinary Perspectives, designations are applied when the learning outcomes of a course authentically match both the subject matter and methodology for that perspective. Courses designated with the Disciplinary Perspectives are broadly accessible to CAS students. Many but not all designated courses are at lower levels (000-, 100-, or 200-level) and have few prerequisites. Within the Encounters, courses designated as W, Q, or CC may include both those that are broadly accessible to all CAS students and those that are more advanced or restricted to students in specific major or minor programs. Big Questions Seminars and courses offered for 1-2 credits may be designated as satisfying up to one encounter.

Contemporary Challenges

Courses designated with a CC have a specific learning outcome dedicated to addressing and building comprehension of complex, critically important, large-scale and/or socially significant contemporary issues. A key feature of contemporary challenges is that they are dynamic and evolve over time. Thus, the College of Arts & Sciences faculty establish a set of focal contemporary challenges, and re-evaluate them periodically to ensure the topics remain current. The three current challenges are (1) Social Difference and Power (analysis of social identity and structural inequities in the distribution of resources, power, and status); (2) Sustainability (analysis of the complex convergence of environmental, social, and economic factors impacting our planet, communities, and current and future generations); (3) Conflict and Security (analysis of the causes and consequences of conflict and cooperation at the interpersonal, organizational, national, and global level).

Specialized Programs and Options

Lehigh University provides several unique academic programs and options to cater to diverse student interests and goals:

Interdisciplinary Majors

In addition to established major programs, specially structured interdisciplinary majors linking multiple disciplines are possible. Any student may, with the aid of faculty members chosen from the disciplines involved, devise an interdisciplinary major program to include no less than 32 credits of related course work, with at least 15 credits from advanced courses.

Double Majors and Dual Degrees

A student who wishes to fulfill the requirements for more than one major program has two options: a double major or a dual degree. A double major is a single BA degree with two majors. A student pursues a double major by declaring both majors. Typically, double majors can be completed in four years, but sequencing of courses and time conflicts with required courses can introduce delays. A dual degree program is a combined BA and BS program or two BS degrees in one or more of our undergraduate colleges. The BA is offered by the College of Arts & Sciences, and the BS may be in CAS or in one of the other undergraduate colleges. A student pursues a dual degree by declaring the first program and then requesting the second degree program by filling out a Dual Degree Petition Form, which must be accompanied by an approved semester-by-semester academic plan. The dual-degree student must satisfy major and distribution requirements for both degrees and earn a minimum of 30 additional credits beyond those required for the first degree. All of the 30 additional credits must be taken at Lehigh or in Lehigh residency programs. The requirement of 30 additional credits typically makes the dual degree program a five-year program. There is no limit on the number of overlapping courses between two degrees, but there must be at least 30 credits of stand alone coursework in each degree program.

Minors

Minors require a minimum of 15 credits, but the specific content is determined by the department, division, or program offering that minor. A minor is optional, and if successfully completed, will be shown on the university transcript in the same manner as the major field. A 2.0 minimum grade-point average is required for courses in the minor. Because of this requirement, no course in the minor program may be taken with Pass/Fail grading.

Eckardt Scholars Program

The Eckardt Scholars Program is a highly selective and unique honors program in the College of Arts & Sciences. The program prioritizes intellectual curiosity, independent work, and close mentoring relationships between students and faculty. Each incoming class includes approximately twenty Eckardt Scholars. These students receive unique academic privileges that provide them with great opportunities at Lehigh and beyond. Students in the program are exempt from the Liberal Arts program and work with their major advisor and the Eckardt Scholars Program Director to create a flexible course of study that best suits their academic interests and ambitions. Although exempt from the Liberal Arts program requirements, students will complete the requisite number of credits for their degrees and all correlative requirements for their majors. Participation in the Eckardt Scholars Program is restricted to only the most well-qualified students. Some students are invited to enroll when first admitted to Lehigh, while others are identified by faculty and encouraged to apply during their first few semesters.

Internships

Many departments and programs offer credit for specific internship experiences. Students should consult with their home department for information on arranging internships. The University faculty has established three important criteria that must be met by all internships: 80 hours of work are required for each credit awarded, no credit can be awarded for an internship ex post facto, and the student must register for the internship course during the same term that the internship work is performed. Students must pre-arrange all internship experiences with the appropriate department. Internship credits cannot be awarded for work experiences lacking a distinct, identifiable educational component. A memorandum of understanding circulated among the employer, student, and departmental internship course director helps to promote a common understanding of the educational and work objectives of the internship.

Pre-Law Program

In keeping with the policy of the Association of American Law Schools, the university does not have a prescribed pre-law curriculum; however, Lehigh has a strong pre-law tradition. Successful candidates for law school demonstrate skills in critical analysis, logical reasoning, and communication and have pursued rigorous coursework of significant breadth and depth. Lehigh students have attained entrance to law schools from diverse curricula in all three of the undergraduate colleges. Specifically law-related courses are offered in the College of Arts & Sciences (e.g. In addition to formal academic instruction, Lehigh provides other opportunities for learning about the law and legal careers. The annual Tresolini Lecture series brings nationally recognized speakers to campus for extended interactions with faculty and students. and state Supreme Court justices and renowned legal scholars and practitioners. Advising is available to prospective pre-law students on a continuous basis from first-year orientation through the law school application process in the senior year.

Pre-Health Programs

Schools of medicine, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, and veterinary medicine stress the importance of a strong liberal arts education as well as prescribed studies in the sciences. A health professions advisory committee, which includes the pre-professional advisor and faculty members from the sciences and social sciences, provides career and academic counseling and works closely with students from first-year orientation through the entire process of applying to professional schools. In cooperation with the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh offers an accelerated program that enables selected students to earn both the baccalaureate degree (B.A.) with a major in predental science and the doctor of dental medicine degree (D.M.D.) after seven years of study at the two institutions. In the first three academic years at Lehigh, credit hours are earned toward the 120 credits required for the baccalaureate degree. The next four years are spent in the regular program of dental education at the Penn School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia. During their first three years at Lehigh, students are expected to make satisfactory progress in prescribed academic areas as well as in the area of personal growth, developing those attributes ultimately needed to become a dentist. Penn Dental School receives student grades and monitors student progress through feedback from Lehigh. Students are expected to attain specified grade point averages and DAT scores. Studentsâ undergraduate credentials are processed through the Admissions Committee of Penn Dental School before a final definitive acceptance is offered. Application for admission to this program is made through Lehighâs Office of Admissions. In cooperation with the State University of New York College of Optometry in New York City, Lehigh offers an accelerated program in which students may earn both the baccalaureate degree (B.A.) with a major in behavioral neuroscience and the doctor of optometry degree (O.D.) after seven years of study at the two institutions. In the first three academic years at Lehigh, credit hours are earned toward the 120 credits required for the baccalaureate degree. The next four years are spent in the regular program of optometry education at SUNY College of Optometry. SUNY College of Optometry receives student grades and monitors student progress through feedback from Lehigh. Students are expected to attain specified grade point averages and OAT scores. Studentsâ undergraduate credentials are processed through the Admissions Committee of SUNY Optometry before a final definitive acceptance is offered. Students may apply to this program either during their initial application or during their enrollment at Lehigh. Application for incoming s…

Interdisciplinary Programs

Lehigh offers many unique interdisciplinary programs, including Computer Science and Business (CSB), Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE), Integrated Business and Health (IBH) and Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts and Sciences (IDEAS), and many more programs that cross colleges and fields of study.

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