Major Preparation in the College

Listed below are the majors within the College of Letters and Science with links to the lower-division preparatory courses for each. You should complete as many preparatory courses as possible prior to transferring, based on the availability of the courses at your current or local schools. California community college students are strongly encouraged to complete IGETC; all other transfer students are encouraged to make progress toward completion of the UCLA general education requirements.

Some majors are highly selective; for these we look for stronger preparation and the completion of most preparatory courses before transferring. A significant number of courses should be completed at the time of application. Consider your major choice carefully. Changing your major once you have been admitted to UCLA may not be an option.

Consult your college counselor, ASSIST or the UCLA General Catalog to determine equivalent coursework offered at the institution you are currently attending and for information about the General Education requirement. Applications are accepted for the fall quarter only.

Major Preparation for Individual Majors

The completion of major preparation courses is a critical part of the admission process.

  • Complete required major preparation courses first, then focus on the strongly recommended or additional courses. 
  • If your chosen major does not have specific prerequisites, we expect you to demonstrate academic interest by completing courses related to the major. Additionally, you can elaborate on your interest in the major in the Personal Insight Question responses and Activities section of the UC Application.

Select your major or area below to learn about the required lower-division preparatory coursework.

African American Studies

African and Middle Eastern Studies [4]

American Indian Studies

American Literature and Culture

Ancient Near East and Egyptology

Anthropology (B.A.)

Anthropology (B.S.) [3]

Art History

Asian American Studies

Asian Languages and Cultures majors[4]

  • Asian Humanities
  • Asian Languages and Linguistics
  • Asian Religions
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Southeast Asian Studies

Asian Studies [4]

Astrophysics

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences/Mathematics

Biochemistry [2]

Biology [2]

Biophysics

Business Economics [1, 2, 3]

Central and East European Languages and Cultures

Chemistry majors

  • Chemistry
  • Chemistry/Materials Science

Chicana and Chicano Studies[4]

Classical Civilization

Climate Science

Cognitive Science [1, 3]

Communication [2, 3]

Comparative Literature

Computational and Systems Biology [1]

Data Theory[1]

Disability Studies[1]

Earth and Environmental Science

Economics [1, 2, 3]

Engineering Geology

English [4]

Environmental Science

European Languages and Transcultural Studies[4]

European Studies [4]

Gender Studies

Geography

Geography/Environmental Studies

Geology

Geophysics

Global Studies [1, 2, 4]

History [1]

Human Biology and Society (B.A.) [1, 2]

  • See life sciences majors for the B.S. degree.

International Development Studies [1, 2, 4]

Jewish Studies

Labor Studies

Language majors

  • Arabic
  • African Languages
  • Greek
  • Greek and Latin
  • Iranian Studies
  • Latin
  • Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
  • Russian Language and Literature
  • Spanish
  • Spanish and Linguistics
  • Spanish and Portuguese

Latin American Studies [4]

Life Sciences majors [2, 3]

  • Biology
  • Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution
  • Human Biology and Society (B.S.) [1]
  • Marine Biology
  • Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics
  • Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Physiological Science
  • Psychobiology [1]

Linguistics[4]

  • Applied Linguistics
  • Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Anthropology
  • Linguistics and Computer Science
  • Linguistics and English 
  • Linguistics and Philosophy
  • Linguistics and Psychology
  • Linguistics/Language majors:
    • Linguistics and Asian Languages and Cultures
    • Linguistics and Italian
    • Linguistics and Scandinavian Languages
    • Linguistics and Spanish

Mathematics majors[1]

  • Applied Mathematics 
  • Mathematics
  • Mathematics/Applied Science
  • Mathematics/Economics [2]
  • Mathematics, Financial Actuarial [2]
  • Mathematics for Teaching
  • Mathematics of Computation

Middle Eastern Studies[4]

Nordic Studies

Philosophy

Physics (B.A./B.S.)

Political Science [1, 2]

Psychology [1, 2, 3]

Russian Studies[4]

Sociology [1, 2]

Spanish and Community and Culture[4]

Statistics and Data Science [1, 2]

Study of Religion

[1] Students are classified as pre-majors until the lower-division preparation courses are completed at UCLA.
[2] Admission to this major is highly selective, as the number of applicants greatly exceeds space available.
[3] You must be admitted directly into this major. You will not be able to change into this major after admission to UCLA.
[4] High school foreign language classes will NOT satisfy major preparation requirements.

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