Bachelor’s Degree

Application for an Undergraduate Degree

Undergraduates who plan to receive a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon must submit an application through the university's online information system, DuckWeb, by the fourth Sunday of the anticipated term of graduation. To apply to graduate, click on Student Menu > Registration Menu > Apply for Undergraduate Degree.

The Office of the Registrar encourages students to apply to graduate the term preceding their graduation term. This allows students to plan or change their final term's course schedule to ensure completion of all requirements. Students who have been disqualified must petition for reinstatement to graduate.

All grade changes, removals of incompletes, and transfer work necessary for completion of degree requirements must be on file in the Office of the Registrar by the Friday following the end of the term of graduation. Academic records are sealed thirty days after the conferral of a degree; no changes to the record will be made following that date.

Students who do not apply to graduate will not receive retroactive degrees even if degree requirements were completed at an earlier date. Applications for graduate degrees are available from the Graduate School.

Earning a Bachelor's Degree

See also: Second Bachelor's Degree (Post-Baccalaureate Degree)

To earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, you must be proficient in a foreign language at the level attained by two years of university-level work. Courses used to satisfy the foreign language requirement for the BA degree may not also be used to fulfill the Arts and Letters (A&L) area requirement.

To earn a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, you must complete the equivalent of one year of college-level work in mathematics. All courses taken must be passed with a grade of C- or higher, or P (pass). Courses used to satisfy the mathematics requirement for the BS degree may not also be used to fulfill the Science (SCI) area requirement.

Latin Honors

Graduating seniors who have earned at least 90 credits in residence at the University of Oregon and have successfully completed all other university degree requirements are eligible for graduation with Latin honors. Postbaccalaureate students are not eligible for Latin honors. The Office of the Registrar computes Latin honors upon graduation.

For students who will have degrees awarded this current academic year (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer quarters), the levels are as follows:

Summa must be 4.00 or higher
Magna must be between 3.90 and 3.99
Cum must be between 3.80 and 3.89

Requirements for a UO Bachelor’s Degree

Requirement Bachelor of Science Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of:
  • Fine Arts
  • Education
  • Music
  • Music in Education
Bachelor of:
  • Architecture
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Interior Architecture
Written English: WR 121 and either 122 or 123. These courses or their equivalents are required for all bachelor’s degrees at the UO (C-/P or better)
Area of Inquiry Requirements:
  • Arts & Letters
  • Social Science
  • Science

(See also: Area-Satisfying Courses)

A minimum of 15 credits in approved area-satisfying courses is required in each area.*

Each area must include courses in at least two subjects.

Total Minimum Credits: 45 (no more than 3 courses from one subject)

A minimum of 12 credits in approved area-satisfying courses is required in each area.*

Each area must include courses in at least two subjects.

Total Minimum Credits: 36 (no more than 3 courses from one subject)

Cultural Literacy:

(See also: Cultural Literacy Courses)

One approved course in each of the following categories: US: Difference, Inequality & Agency; Global Perspectives (Courses must be a minimum of three credits.)
Second Language:
(See also: BA Language Satisfying Courses)
  Completion of at least the third term, second year of a second-language course taught in the language (C-/P or better)*    
Mathematics/Computer Science: One year college-level or equivalent (C-/P or better)*      
Minimum Credits: 180 180 180 220 (B.L.Arch.)
225 (B.I.Arch.)
231 (B.Arch.)
Upper-Division Credits: 62 62 62 62
Total ABCDP* Credits: 168 168 168 168
UO ABCD Credits: 45 45 45 45
UO Residence Requirement: 45 after 120 45 after 120 45 after 120 45 after 160, 165, 171
UO Satisfactory Performance: A University of Oregon GPA of 2.0
UO Academic Major: Completion of an academic major required for all bachelor’s degrees at the University of Oregon.

* Credits from a course may not be used to satisfy area requirements and BA Language or BS Mathematics requirements

Second-Language Proficiency

To graduate with a BA degree, University of Oregon students need to show intermediate (third term of second year or above) competency in one language other than English. As specified in the UO Catalog, students may meet their graduation requirements for the BA degree through a sequence of courses or in other ways.

Some circumstances allow students to fulfill the Bachelor of Arts language requirement beyond taking courses, as described below.

Languages already known or that have been studied

Proficiency Exams that Earn Credit

Exams prepared by the College Level Exam Program (CLEP) of the College Board, a national organization, can provide placement information and can also earn UO credit. They are available for Spanish, French, and German. A student who scores at the equivalent of completion of the final course of the second year of language study on a CLEP proficiency exam would earn 12 credits, as well as completing the University of Oregon BA requirement.

Students should register for the test on the University of Oregon Testing Center website. The Testing Center has CLEP appointments available on a regular basis throughout the year. Students with questions can contact the Testing Center. The student is responsible for all costs associated with the exam and its administration. Information about the costs are available at the Testing Center website and the CLEP website.

University of Oregon Testing Center
Room 270
University Health, Counseling and Testing Center
1590 E. 13th Ave. Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 346-3230
testing@uoregon.edu

If you are interested in receiving CLEP credit for a language other than French, German, and Spanish, please contact the Divisional Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Proficiency Exams that Do Not Earn Credit

The following options meet the UO BA Language requirement but offer no UO credits.  For the test options below, you are required to take the relevant test in all the skills for which it is available.  For example, for the STAMP test, the skills tests are reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

STAMP

The STAMP test (Avant Assessment) is available for Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (simplified and full form), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Information for taking the STAMP can be found at Avant Assessment. Each UO language program specifies the level required to meet the BA requirement as indicated in the tables below. Required proficiency is listed in the table below by language and skill level. An external STAMP score cannot be more than one year old at the time the student submits it to satisfy the BA requirement.

Language Required Proficiency Level
Reading Writing Listening Speaking
French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish 6 5 6 5
Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian 4 4 5 5

For other languages, learners should take an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI, see below) or contact Avant Assessment to see if a test is available in their preferred language.

AAPPL

The ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) is offered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The AAPPL exam is not offered at the UO. It is most often administered in high school but can also be used as a placement test for incoming university students. The following levels in the four skill areas satisfy the BA Language requirement (I = Intermediate):

Language Required AAPL Proficiency Levels
Interpretive Reading Presentational Writing Interpersonal Speaking & Listening Interpretive Listening
French, German, Portuguese, Spanish I-5 I-4 I-4 I-5
Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Russian I-2 I-2 I-4 I-4
OPI

The Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is also administered by ACTFL. Since the OPI only measures oral proficiency, it should be combined with other documentation that demonstrates literacy, e.g., previous coursework in reading and writing or a portfolio of past work.

OPIs can be administered in the following languages: Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chavacano, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek (Modern), Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong/Mong, Hungarian, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kazakh, Kashmiri, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Levantine, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marshallese, Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Polish, Portuguese Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian Croatian, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tausug, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Wolof, Wu, and Yoruba.

Learners are expected to meet an Intermediate-Mid level on the OPI when combined with a literacy measure. If only an OPI is available, additional documentation is required. Please contact the Divisional Dean for Humanities.

For questions about the non-credit OPI, students should contact the University of Oregon Testing Center, to order the exam and to set up a time when it can be administered.

University of Oregon Testing Center
Room 270
University Health, Counseling and Testing Center
1590 E. 13th Ave. Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 346-3230
testing@uoregon.edu

The student is responsible for all costs associated with the exam and its administration. Information about the costs involved can be found on the ACTFL website and at the UO Testing Center.

American Sign Language

Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency may present results from one of two nationally recognized exams, the ASL Proficiency Interview (ASLPI) or the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI). The ASLPI generally is administered at universities that have deaf education programs. A score of 3 Plus or above on the ASLPI or Intermediate Plus or above on the SCPI will satisfy the BA Language requirement.

Further information is available on the SCPI website, visit https://www.rit.edu/ntid/slpi/. Students may also contact appropriate faculty in Special Education in the College of Education to inquire if local evaluation is available.

Credit by Examination

Credit by examination allows formally admitted undergraduate students to challenge undergraduate university courses without registering for the courses. Students seeking to receive credit by examination must be registered for the term in which the exam is given. Credit by examination may be earned only in courses whose content is identified by title in the University of Oregon catalog. Students must contact the Office of the Registrar to complete an application to determine eligibility for credit by examination. Students then obtain faculty and department approvals before the exam can be scheduled. Credit by examination is offered at the discretion of the department responsible for the course subject to the restrictions below. Students are billed $25 per credit to cover the cost of the examination.

Successful credit by examination is shown as transfer credit on the UO transcript and may be recorded as a pass (P) or graded (A, B, C, D) consistent with the options listed in the class schedule. Credit by examination may not be counted toward the satisfaction of the graduation residency requirement or for fulfillment of the requirement to complete 45 credits graded A, B, C, D at the University of Oregon. However, credit by examination may be counted toward the requirement to complete 168 credits graded A, B, C, D, P* from all institutions attended.

The following are not available for credit by examination:

  • First-year second languages
  • An elementary language course taught in the student’s native language
  • A course for which a CLEP exam is available
  • A course which substantially duplicates credit already earned
  • A course which is more elementary in nature than credit already earned
  • A course in which the student is already enrolled for credit
  • A course for which the student has received a grade of A, B, C, D, P, P*, I, X, or Y
  • A course for which the student has already taken and failed an examination for credit
  • Courses numbered 0-99; Field Studies (196), Workshop, Laboratory Projects, or Colloquium (198), Special Studies (199); Courses numbered 200, or 399 – 410
  • English composition courses (WR 121, 122, 123)

Non-English Native Language

High School Equivalency

For students whose native language is not English: provide a final official high school transcript to the Office of the Registrar as evidence of formal training in the native language. The transcript must be in a sealed envelope and show that graduation has occurred. Attendance at a US high school disqualifies a student from receiving the BA Language waiver. The BA Language requirement will be fulfilled with the completion of WR 121 and either WR 122 or 123 with grades of C- or better or a Pass.

If No Test Exists for the Language in Which You have Expertise

For languages that have no written form, evaluation is often difficult, especially if the language is spoken only by a small number of people. Nonetheless, it may be possible to arrange an evaluation that would satisfy the BA requirement. Students in this situation should contact the Divisional Dean for Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences (541-346-3902), to determine how best to locate a qualified evaluator.

Other Considerations

In rare cases, students may be able to use their language ability to fulfill the BA language requirement by meeting with an appropriate faculty member or a faculty-approved individual who is able to determine if the student’s proficiency is equivalent to successful completion of the BA level.

Providing Documentation

Students must provide detailed documentation of their efforts and abilities. A student's own statement of their language work should be supplemented by letters or documents from schools or qualified faculty. All documents should be submitted to:

DIVISIONAL DEAN FOR HUMANITIES
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
1245 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
EUGENE, OR 97403

While the nature of this documentation will differ depending on the student's situation, it could include the following:

  1. Original transcripts from a language school that specify hours in class, materials, performance or grade, and proficiency. These should be sent directly from the language school to the Divisional Dean for Humanities (see address above).
  2. Letters from qualified and approved faculty (from the UO or any other regionally accredited institution) who are able to specify in some detail the proficiency level of the student. This can be accomplished by discussing proficiency in conversation (including aural and oral), reading, and writing. Faculty must write a letter to the Divisional Dean of Humanities (see address above), specifying their own proficiency, how it was obtained, and describing how they determined that the student’s competency is equivalent to completion of the second year of language instruction. Faculty unfamiliar with the UO protocols may call the Divisional Dean at (541) 346-3902 to discuss the student's level and to obtain guidelines for evaluation. Faculty should address their relationship to the student; letters from parents or other relatives are not considered.

Languages that Have No Written Form

Languages that have no written form may be used to fulfill the graduation requirement. Evaluation is often difficult, especially if the language is spoken only by a small number of people. Students in this situation should contact the Divisional Dean for Humanities, to determine how best to locate a qualified faculty or alternative evaluator.

Departmental Exams

Students may petition a language department to provide ad hoc assessments of proficiency, which should include the same types of evaluation and expectation for level as the assessments administered in the equivalent UO courses. For example, if FR 203 requires written essays, oral exams, and grammar tests, the departmental exam should include components that measure the same skill areas and require the same level of performance.

Second Bachelor's Degree (Post-Baccalaureate Degree)

A student who has been awarded a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution may earn an additional bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon. Students cannot major in a discipline if they've earned a major or a minor in the same or substantially similar discipline from a prior degree. The student must satisfactorily complete all departmental, school, or college requirements for the second degree. Of these requirements, the following must be completed after the prior degree has been awarded:

  1. The student must complete an additional 36 credits at the university as a formally admitted student if the prior bachelor’s degree was awarded by the University of Oregon, or an additional 45 credits at the university if the prior bachelor’s degree was awarded by another institution
  2. A minimum cumulative UO GPA of 2.00 in courses taken for the second bachelor’s degree is required for the second bachelor’s degree
  3. A minimum of 18 credits must be graded A, B, C, D if the prior bachelor’s degree was earned at the University of Oregon, or 23 credits if at another institution
  4. At least 27 credits from coursework within the major must be completed after the conferral of the most recent bachelor’s degree
  5. The Bachelor of Arts degree requires proficiency in a second language. Students whose native language is not English may satisfy this requirement by providing a final official high school transcript as evidence of formal training in the native language. The transcript must be in a sealed envelope and show that graduation has occurred. Attendance at a US high school disqualifies a student from receiving the BA Language waiver. The BA Language requirement will be fulfilled with the completion of WR 121 and either WR 122 or WR 123 with grades of C- or better or a Pass.
  6. Students pursuing the bachelor of fine arts degree must complete either the Bachelor of Arts proficiency in a second language or the Bachelor of Science proficiency in mathematics and/or computer and information science

See also: