Degree Programs and Curriculum

Majors
Minors
Certificates
Joint Degree Programs
Accelerated Bachelor/Master Degree Programs
Special Academic Programs for First-Year Students
Interdisciplinary Programs
Undergraduate Research

1. Majors

The College of Arts & Sciences offers the following majors leading to the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree:

*The Joint Program in Public Policy (JPPP) is a cross-school program offered by the College of Arts & Sciences and the McCourt School of Public Policy.

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The College offers the following majors leading to a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree:

*International Business, Language, & Culture is a joint degree program offered by the College of Arts & Sciences and the McDonough School of Business (MSB).

**The BS in Environment and Sustainability is a program offered jointly by the College of Arts & Sciences and The Earth Commons Institute.

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2. Minors

Minors are optional. Most are open to all, and may be declared when declaring a major, or at any time after. Some minors, noted below with an asterisk, require an application, typically submitted in the spring of sophomore year. The following minors are available to students in the College of Arts & Sciences:

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3. Certificates

College students may earn a certificate in one of the regional study programs below offered through the School of Foreign Service. Certificates are the functional equivalent of minors, so they count as one of the maximum three academic programs that a student may complete as part of the degree. In keeping with SFS policy, students may not pursue two certificate programs. Double counting policies for certificates conform to College policies for minors.

See the Certificates page for the full requirements for each of the above programs.

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4. Joint Degree Programs

International Business, Language & Culture
- The College of Arts & Sciences and the McDonough School of Business offer a joint undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science in International Business, Language, and Culture (BS-IBLC).
Joint Program in Public Policy
- The College of Arts & Sciences and the McCourt School of Public Policy offer a Joint Program in Public Policy (JPPP), leading to a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy (AB-PP).

5. Accelerated Bachelor/Master Degree Programs

Some graduate programs offer qualified undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in an accelerated program format. In this structure, students may:

Double count two graduate-level courses toward both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and
In many cases, with approval of the graduate program, count two additional graduate courses taken during the undergraduate career to apply to the master’s degree exclusively, provided those courses are “above and beyond” all undergraduate requirements (i.e., major/minor/core/certificate and 120-credit graduation minimum).

Undergraduate enrollment in graduate-level courses is at the discretion of each program; please consult the specific graduate program of interest for program details. Students ordinarily apply to the graduate program in the junior year (in some cases, students are able to apply in the senior year as well) and, with the approval of the graduate program director, must identify any double-counted and graduate-only classes in the final semester of the undergraduate degree.

Currently, the following accelerated degree programs are available to qualified students with appropriate undergraduate coursework:

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6. Special Academic Programs for First-Year Students

Ignatius Seminars

The Ignatius Seminars are courses offered in the fall semester for the intellectually curious student interested in an integrative and personal approach to learning. These seminars introduce Georgetown College first-year students to the depth and diversity of Georgetown’s dynamic intellectual community. Favorite topics of College faculty form the offerings for these seminars that invite small student groups to join their professors in the creative exploration of mind and spirit. All incoming first-year students are invited in the summer prior to matriculation to apply to participate in the Ignatius Seminar program.

LCL Hager Scholars Program

The LCL Hager Scholars program is for declared majors in languages, linguistics, and comparative literature, designed to create a sense of community and opportunities for intellectual growth. Over the course of this yearlong program, Hager Scholars will gain a greater appreciation of the possibilities available to students and scholars of language(s), inside the classroom and in the world beyond. In addition to a course in their declared major, FLL Hager Scholars will be enrolled in designated courses that fulfill core requirements, and a 1-credit colloquium addressing critical and contemporary issues where language plays an illuminating, deepening, or complicating role.

Ways of Knowing

The Ways of Knowing Seminar is an integrated learning experience in the fall, placing two core disciplines into conversation with each other to confront questions of truth, knowledge, expertise, belief, and meaning. Thematic material and disciplines represented in the Ways of Knowing Seminar will vary from year to year, but the two courses each year will be closely tied to each other, designed together as a unified experience. Students in the seminar take both courses and form a tight community of learners and explorers, dedicated to unpacking the process of knowing.

Departmental and Interdisciplinary Seminars

Several of Georgetown College’s departments and programs are offering distinctive seminar experiences to first-year students that prioritize problem-based learning, small class environments, introductions to disciplines and fields of research, and close faculty mentoring. Examples in Fall 2022 include seminars from psychology, Italian, government, and American Studies. Some seminars expand to comprise multiple courses and multiple disciplines, placing at the center of focus a problem, one that requires interdisciplinary attention. The Ways of Knowing seminar, described above, follows this model, as does the American Studies program’s Race and Class in DC seminar.

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7. Interdisciplinary Programs

Interwoven throughout Georgetown’s traditional department-based curriculum are interdisciplinary programs, majors, and minors that take advantage of the breadth as well as depth of intellectual resources on the Georgetown campus. These programs are based on themes that cross departmental boundaries and reflect the emergence of significant new perspectives on human knowledge. They are the result of collaborative efforts by faculty from several disciplines to create curricular offerings to address complex questions from multiple disciplinary directions.

The College offers interdisciplinary majors and minors in:

American Studies (major only)
Black Studies
Disability Studies
Global & Comparative Literature (major only)
Justice & Peace Studies
Global Medieval Studies
Political Economy (major only)
Women’s & Gender Studies

The College offers interdisciplinary minors in:

Catholic Studies
Cognitive Science
Education, Inquiry & Justice
Environmental Studies
Film and Media Studies
Jewish Civilization
Journalism
Medical Humanities, Culture & Society
Religion, Ethics, & World Affairs
Science, Technology & International Affairs
Tech, Ethics & Society

The College also offers qualified students the opportunity to design their own formal interdisciplinary major, integrating multiple disciplines, through the Interdisciplinary Studies program. All students, however, are encouraged to seek connections and synthesis in and amongst their majors, minors, core courses, and electives in order to more fully appreciate the connectedness of the many ways of knowing.

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8. Undergraduate Research

The College of Arts & Sciences places a central emphasis on research in the formation of students through the ongoing quest for deeper knowing, toward fulfillment of the academy’s public responsibility to expand and improve humanity’s understanding of the world. Students are invited to join faculty in their scholarly work, to learn the methods and approaches of research from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, and to become independent seekers through asking and answering original research questions. The College provides a variety of opportunities for students to pursue undergraduate research, including in-class projects, fellowships and funding options for independent research in semesters and summers, faculty collaborations as research assistants, and senior capstones and theses.

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