Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Welcome to the Bachelor of Arts degree program!

 

Picking your courses for Semester 1 (Fall 2023):

As a Bachelor of Arts (BA) student, you will select five (5) courses (2.5 credits) for your first semester if you wish to study full time. You are selecting courses for your fall semester only. Selection for winter semester courses occurs in November and December.

Your 5 courses will be from the arts and social science subject areas with perhaps one or two courses from other subject areas. Your courses for Fall 2023 will include:

  1. Specialization courses: courses that count towards your specialization (called a “major” and/or “minor” in the Honours version of the BA degree, or an “area of concentration” in the General version of the degree). These courses are required if you have a specialization. If you do not have a specialization, skip to #2.
  2. BA Distribution Requirement courses: courses that count towards fulfilling the BA Distribution Requirements. These courses are required for all BA degree students. First year is an ideal time to start working on these requirements.
    By the time of graduation, all BA students must have completed:
    • 3 courses (1.5 credits) from 2 different subjects in the arts/humanities (see list below).
    • 3 courses (1.5 credits) from 2 different subjects in the social sciences (see list below).
    • 2 courses (1.0 credits) from the natural/mathematical sciences. The science courses recommended for BA students are ones that do not require any high school science background (see the BA Counselling Office website).
  3. Elective courses: These are courses of interest that aren’t specifically required for your specialization or BA Distribution Requirements. All BA students must take elective courses. You may take elective courses from any subject area that WebAdvisor allows you to add. Due to course restrictions that may be in place, it may not be possible to register for certain courses in other subject areas.
 

Sample schedules:

Sample Fall Schedule for a BA Honours Degree Student with a Major (specialization) in Sociology

  1. SOC*1100 or ANTH*1150 (Both ANTH*1150 and SOC*1100 are required for a Sociology major and are both offered in fall and winter. It is recommended that you take one in each semester)
  2. BIOL*1500 (this will count as a natural science for the BA distribution requirements)
  3. PHIL*1030 (this will count as an arts/humanities for the BA distribution requirements)
  4. GEOG*1220 (this will count as a second subject area from the social sciences for the BA distribution requirements)
  5. FRHD*1100 or an additional arts/humanities or social science (this is an elective)

Sample Fall Schedule for a BA General Degree Student without a specialization

  1. ARTH*1510 (this will count as an arts/humanities for the BA distribution requirements)
  2. PHYS*1600 (this will count as a natural science for the BA distribution requirements)
  3. POLS*1500 (this will count as a social science for the BA distribution requirements)
  4. EURO*1100 (this will count as a 2nd subject area from the arts/humanities for the BA distribution requirements)
  5. FRHD*1100 or an additional arts/humanities or social science (this is an elective)

It is important to select the “required courses” for your chosen area of study first, then build the rest of your schedule around these courses. There may be only one course specifically required for your specialization in your first semester.

To find out which course(s) are required for your chosen specialization in Semester 1 (Fall 2023), please go to the Bachelor of Arts Counselling Office website and look under “First Year Course Selection.”

It is important that you look at this information to make certain you select the correct course(s) for your specialization area. For instance, there may be multiple English courses offered in the fall semester, including ENGL*1080 and ENGL*1200. A student pursuing English as their area of study requires ENGL*1080 but does not need to take ENGL*1200.

If you are a BA General Degree student who has been admitted without a declared specialization, choose the courses that interest you the most.

You will be registering for 1000 level (first year) courses during Semester 1 (Fall 2023). An exception to this may be language courses if you have background proficiency. If you believe you have advanced language skills in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek (Ancient), Italian, Latin, Portuguese or Spanish, please contact the School of Languages and Literatures for guidance on an appropriate course to take in Fall 2023 (519-824-4120, ext. 53883).

For information about the Co-operative Education program, including requirements for students enrolled in Co-op and what to do if you're interested in applying for the program, visit the Co-operative Education page.

Select your courses from the subjects in the following lists. Course descriptions are available in the Undergraduate Calendar.

 

Course space fills up quickly so add courses as soon as possible! Do your best to try selecting courses on your own prior to contacting us. We are certainly here to assist you, but we know you can do it!

 

For additional information please contact:

BA Counselling Office
MacKinnon Building, Room 130
519-824-4120, ext. 52140
baco@uoguelph.ca