Central Washington University | Liberal Studies, Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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Liberal Studies, Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Liberal Studies, Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Program Description

The Liberal Studies Program offers students an interdisciplinary academic experience across Arts (Fine, Visual, and Performance) and Humanities (Human Society, Culture, Critical and Analytical Thinking) disciplines, aligned with students’ postgraduate career goals. Classes that count for Liberal Studies will predominately come from College of Arts and Humanities (CAH) disciplines, with opportunities to take classes from other disciplines that are thematically aligned. Liberal Studies requires intentionality from students as the student will be the driver (in consultation with the advisor and program director) of their academic experience. It will be important that students think about the classes they will take from a thematic perspective so that when they get ready to go into the workforce, students can clearly articulate their academic discipline of study. Students can choose between the 65-credit large plan (stand-alone major) and 45-credit small plan (requires the completion of a second major or minor).

Likely Career Paths

Because they plan a career-focused degree path, Liberal Studies students can pursue the career they want, including: editor, researcher, entry-level management, social services, para-professional, librarian, policy analyst, minister, public relations personnel, urban planner, city manager, legislative assistant, training specialist, medical communications, archivist, museum manager, civil servant, journalist, hospitality administrator, non-profit leader, organizational director, operations manager, and more. The program can also serve as excellent preparation for graduate or law school.

Key Considerations

Cost: University-wide costs (Visit the CWU Financial Aid site for more information)
Location: Ellensburg
Primary contact: 509-963-2893 | liberalstudies@cwu.edu | CWU Liberal Studies

Course Planning

Program applicants must have completed 45 credit hours of study with a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and be in good academic standing for admission.

Because of the wide variety of courses that can count as electives in the program, most courses that are broadly in the liberal arts or that map to a student’s career goals are good choices in the first two years.

The Transfer Equivalency Site (TES)provides CWU equivalencies of courses at other colleges and universities.

Advising Notes

Students transferring credits of one of the more vocationally-based (AA, AAS-T, AAA, AFA, AAAS, etc.) degree programs have each transcript individually evaluated to fit their academic goals and career objectives. Our goal is to remove as many obstacles as possible in their various pathways to a career in the shortest timeframe possible. Time to completion will vary on the number of core general education and overall courses that transfer with the student.
Courses transferring in as well as those taken at CWU appliable to the Liberal Studies Program must have grades of C- or better, with no more than 15 credits coming from 100/200-level (lower division) courses for large plan major completion and no more than 10 credits coming from 100/200-level courses for small plan major completion. Additionally, Liberal Studies majors must maintain a minimum 2.4 GPA in the major to graduate.
The program welcomes 300/400-level transfer courses that support program goals and career objectives from accredited institutions nationwide.
Any Washington state DTA (Direct Transfer Agreement) degree will satisfy all general education requirements.
Major requirements may change over time; students will be expected to meet the catalog requirements in place at the time they are admitted to the major.

Current Catalog