As part of the degree requirements, students must complete approximately 85 credits of general education course work:

  • English Composition (C): 5 credits
  • Writing (W): 10 credits
    • one course may be part of the major requirements for students in majors such as Communication, History (all tracks), PP&E (all tracks), Law & Policy, Psychology, and Writing Studies
  • Reasoning (RSN): 5 credits
    • courses such as Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, General Chemistry, Statistics, and others may fulfill this requirement 
  • Diversity (DIV): 5 credits
    • these are courses that focus on sociocultural, political, and economic diversity of human experience
  • Arts and Humanities (A&H): 20 credits
    • these are courses in TARTS, TAMST, TFILM, TLIT, TWRT; select courses from other subject areas may count
  • Social Sciences (SSc): 20 credits
    • these are courses in TEGL, THIST, TLAWPL, TPPE, TPSYCH, TSOC; select courses from other subject areas may count
  • Natural Sciences (NSc): 20 credits
    • these are courses in TBIOL, TCHEM, TESC, TMATH, TPHYS, TCSS; select courses from other subject areas may count

Most students who transfer from another college have many of these requirements completed. Any requirements that aren't complete when a transfer student is admitted to UW Tacoma become part of the student's degree program.

Some courses may fulfill more than one general education category at the same time. For example, a course might be a Writing course and also an Arts and Humanities (A&H). Courses that are both A&H and Social Science (SSc) can only fulfill one general education area. 

Contact your academic advisor if you have questions about how your coursework fulfills these requirements.