Divisional Requirements

Divisional Requirements at WFU

A Wake Forest education is holistic, which is academic-speak for all-inclusive. Our commitment to educating the whole person starts with an all-you-can-experience buffet of opportunities designed specifically to provide a balanced, yet adventurous, educational diet.

Wake Forest students in the First Year Experience class have a wide ranging discussion of the liberal arts, AP class credit, divisional requirements, and required language classes with professors Nate French and Chris McLaughlin.
Wake Forest students in the First Year Experience class have a wide ranging discussion of the liberal arts, AP class credit, divisional requirements, and required language classes.

Here, fundamentals walk hand-in-hand with fun. We believe innovation thrives in the presence of a well established academic core, and that knowing, understanding and transforming are forever connected to thinking, feeling and doing. Our curriculum was developed – and continually evolves – to ensure that you’ll enjoy all of the above during your time in the Forest.

In order to graduate, a Wake Forest student must finish three requirements for 120 hours of credit: a core set of classes; a course of study related to a major; and electives. The core set of classes includes basic requirements (a first-year seminar, a writing seminar, health and PE classes and foreign language literature) and divisional requirements (at least two classes in each of the humanities, social sciences and math/natural sciences and at least one in the fine arts and literatures).

Wake Forest also offers an “Open Curriculum” option, in which a small number of students, approved by a committee, may design a course of study with an adviser that follows a liberal arts framework but does not necessarily fulfill all the core degree requirements.

The numbers

  • Typical hours per semester: 15
  • Minimum hours required for full-time status: 12
  • Minimum hours required for BS or BA degrees: 120
  • The Basics
    • First-Year Seminar (1)
    • Writing Seminar (1)
    • 200-Level Foreign Language (1)
    • Health and Exercise Science (2)
  • The Divisions
    • Humanities (2)
    • Literature (1)
    • Fine Arts (1)
    • Social Sciences (2)
    • Math and Natural Sciences (2)
  • The 21st Century Requirements
    • Quantitative Data Analysis (1)
    • Ethical Inquiry (1)
    • Power, Oppression, and Resistance (1)
    • Studies in World Cultures (1)

Academic Resources