College of Arts and Sciences

Arts and Sciences Advising Services

Mission

The mission of Arts and Sciences Advising Services is to guide our diverse undergraduate population in developing and implementing sound educational plans that are consistent with their values and their academic and career goals. Our purpose is to encourage students to become self-directed learners and decision-makers. Further, we serve as a resource to faculty and support their work with undergraduate students within the college. Finally, our efforts support the University of Tennessee’s broader mission, specifically by encouraging student persistence towards graduation.

Academic Advising

Prior to enrolling for the first time at the university, all degree-seeking first-year students and transfer students are required to meet with an academic advisor. Readmitted students must also meet with an academic advisor prior to reenrolling. The following groups of students are required to meet with an advisor during each tracking semester (fall and spring):

• All students with fewer than 30 hours at UT Knoxville.
• Students following exploratory tracks.
• Students identified as “off track” by uTrack.
• Students on Academic Probation.

All other students are required to consult with an advisor for a substantial conference during a designated semester each year.

Programs of Study

The college offers students a wide variety of undergraduate degree programs. These programs have been designed both to help students achieve specific educational and vocational objectives and to provide students with a broad-based liberal education that will prepare them to be engaged global citizens. The college also offers a small number of three-year pre-professional curricula that prepare students for advanced study in a specific profession. Detailed information about these pre-professional curricula can be found by consulting the Pre-Professional Programs major description and by contacting Arts and Sciences Advising Services.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Students earning the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees have achieved both broad knowledge of the arts and sciences and a comprehensive understanding of one or more focused areas of special interest.

Bachelor of Arts in College Scholars

The College Scholars program is a college-wide honors program that serves a limited number of especially qualified and motivated students. College Scholars have additional freedom to design an individualized undergraduate curriculum that meets particular academic interests and goals. Students must apply for admission to the College Scholars program. More information about the College Scholars program is available at https://scholars.utk.edu/.

VolsTeach Program

Students pursuing a major in selected programs in the College of Arts and Sciences are eligible to participate in the University’s VolsTeach program (http://volsteach.utk.edu/). This 4-year program permits students to complete a major in mathematics or science while also receiving secondary education teaching licensure through completion of a VolsTeach minor. For more information about VolsTeach, including advising associated with teacher licensure requirements, contact https://cehhs.utk.edu/cehhsadvising/. 

Pre-Professional Programs

The college offers pre-professional undergraduate programs for students who wish to participate in the cooperative 3+1 curricula in the health sciences (dentistry, pharmacy, or veterinary medicine) and in pre-law, and the four-year pre-medicine program. Students taking one of the health sciences or pre-law curricula proceed directly to specialized training in the chosen area after the third year of Arts and Sciences study. These students complete the first year of professional study in lieu of satisfying the requirements for a traditional major in the college.

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry

See Department of Chemistry.

Bachelor of Fine Arts

See School of Art.

Readmission

Information regarding readmission to the College of Arts and Sciences is available at http://admissions.utk.edu/other/readmission/. The official notification of readmission from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will provide additional details regarding academic advising.

Requirements for Degrees

To earn a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, these requirements must be completed.

• All university degree requirements as described in the section Academic Policies and Procedures – General Requirements for a Bachelor’s Degree.
• A minimum of 120 credit hours.
• At least 42 credit hours in courses numbered 300 or above.
• Appropriate work to satisfy the Foundations, Perspectives, and Connections requirements. (These three requirements do not apply to students in the College Scholars Program.)
• Completion of any required coursework designed to prepare students for their chosen major(s). This work may be described as “preparation for” or “prerequisites to” or “corequisites to” the major(s) chosen by a student.
• Completion of at least one major consisting of 30 to 48 credit hours of coursework. Courses used for the major may also be used to satisfy Foundations, Perspectives, and Connections requirements as described below.

Students may choose to complete one or more minors. A minor in the college consists of 15 or more hours of coursework (no more than eight hours of 100-level).

Students may take up to 20 hours of courses graded Satisfactory/No Credit subject to the regulations described below.

Satisfactory/No Credit Courses

A few courses in the college are offered only on a Satisfactory/No Credit (S/NC) basis. Students may elect to take other courses on this basis, except where the S/NC option is specifically prohibited. Courses taken on the S/NC basis, if successfully completed, will count as hours for graduation although neither S nor NC grades will be calculated in a student’s grade point average. Satisfactory is defined as C or better work on the traditional grading scale and No Credit is defined as less than C.

The option of taking courses on an S/NC basis is provided to encourage the curious and able student to explore subject matter in fields where the student’s performance may be somewhat less outstanding than work in the student’s primary field.

Note: Students planning to seek admission to graduate or professional schools (especially in the health sciences) should discuss with their advisors possible limitations on exercise of the S/NC option before registering for courses on this basis.

The following regulations apply to S/NC coursework:

• Except for courses offered only on the S/NC basis, courses taken under the S/NC option may not be applied towards Foundations, Perspectives, or Connections requirements, towards major and minor requirements, or towards major or minor preparatory work, prerequisites, or corequisites unless specifically permitted by petition.
• The maximum number of S/NC elective hours which may be counted toward graduation is 20, exclusive of courses that are offered only on the S/NC basis, physical education courses, and/or satisfactory hours earned by examination, military service, etc.
• A transfer student with S/NC or equivalent credit earned prior to admission to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in a course which satisfies a Foundations, Perspectives, or Connections requirement may count it for that purpose. Transfer students who want to apply S/NC or equivalent credit to a major or minor requirement, or to major or minor preparatory work, prerequisites, or corequisites, must receive permission to do so by petition.

College-wide Requirements for B.A. and B.S. Students

To receive a B.A. or B.S. degree from the College of Arts and Sciences, students must satisfy the Foundations, Perspectives, Engaged Inquiries, and Connections requirements as well as the requirements for a major in the college. The requirements are described in detail below.

The following rules govern students’ ability to apply courses to more than one College of Arts and Sciences degree requirement:

• Except as otherwise noted, no course may be applied to both the Perspectives requirement and the Connections requirement.
• No course may be used to satisfy two different components of the Perspectives requirement.
• If a student satisfies the Connections requirement by completing a 9-credit Connections Package, one course that applies to the Connections Package may also be applied to the student’s major requirements.
• Foundations courses may be applied to Perspectives, Engaged Inquiries, Connections, and the major.

College-wide Requirements: Foundations

All students who earn a degree in the College of Arts and Sciences must complete the Foundations requirement established by the college. Satisfying the Foundations requirement demonstrates that a student can communicate effectively in English, both orally and in writing, and that a student can use the tools of quantitative analysis. The Foundations coursework requirements consist of four parts: (1) first year English composition; (2) one additional course designated as a Volunteer Core Written Communication (WC) course; (3) one course designated as a Volunteer Core Oral Communication (OC) course; and (4) one course designated as a Volunteer Core Applied Oral Communication (AOC) course; and (5) two courses that provide foundational instruction in quantitative reasoning. The specific course requirements are as follows.

College-wide Requirements: Perspectives

All students who earn a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences must complete the Perspectives requirement established by the college. The Perspectives requirement is designed to introduce students to the modes of inquiry and discourse that characterize various academic disciplines and to the ways in which hypotheses are constructed and evaluated. In completing the Perspectives requirement, students also gain an informed appreciation for the diverse natures of the world’s cultures and societies, whether historical or present-day, and for the artistic and cultural milestones created by these cultures and societies. Perspectives courses thus prepare students to become broadly-educated, engaged, and responsible citizens.

College-Wide Requirements: Engaged Inquiries

Truly well-educated citizens should be ready to lead and solve problems, building on their chosen fields of study and personal interests and strengths. Students will benefit from experiences that broaden, extend, apply, and integrate prior learning and promote effective collaboration and self-awareness. In all Engaged Inquiries courses, students will produce an investigative, creative, or practical work relevant to the course topic. All students pursuing a degree from the college must therefore complete 9 credits in Volunteer Core Engaged Inquiries (EI) courses from at least two different departments. Students may satisfy the EI requirement by completing courses from the approved EI  list.

College-wide Requirements: Connections

In completing the Connections requirement of the college, students undertake a focused educational experience that complements in-depth study in their chosen major field. Students may satisfy the Connections requirement in one of four ways.

• Completion of nine credit hours of study abroad coursework or six credit hours of study abroad coursework and completing one additional upper level course from the approved Global Citizenship-International (GCI ) list. These nine hours of coursework may, if appropriate, be applied to non-Connections degree requirements. The nine hours of coursework do not need to be taken during a single academic term or at a single study abroad site. Students interested in pursuing study abroad are strongly encouraged to contact a study abroad advisor at the Center for Global Engagement.
• Completion of a minor, a second concentration, or a second major. The minor or second major may be in the College of Arts and Sciences or in another college. Courses used to satisfy the requirements of a minor or a second major may also be used to meet Perspectives requirements.
• Completion of nine credit hours drawn from one of the Connections Packages  listed here. The nine credit hours must be drawn from at least two different departments. Three of the nine credit hours may be applied toward a student’s major requirements. Connections Packages are topically-oriented collections of upper-division courses that have been designed by faculty to focus students’ attention on questions that have substantial multidisciplinary character.

• Completion of all Air Force or Army ROTC program requirements.

Majors

Requirements for specific majors vary by program and are discussed under each department or program. A major consists of 30 to 48 credit hours in courses numbered 100 or above (no more than eight credit hours at 100-level) as specified by the department or program. Courses taken to satisfy the college Foundations requirement may, when appropriate, be used in the major. A minimum grade of C must be earned in every course counted as part of the major. This grade requirement does not apply to preparatory coursework, prerequisites, or corequisites unless otherwise stated by the department.

All first-time, first-year UT Knoxville students who are admitted to an exploratory program must declare a major no later than the end of their fourth tracking semester. Transfer students with less than 45 hours of transferable work must declare a major no later than the end of their second full semester at UT. Transfer students with 45 hours or more of transferable work must be admitted directly into a major. Returning students may declare a major as soon as they have met required standards; however, they must officially declare a major by the time they have earned 75 credit hours.

Students transferring from other institutions must complete at least nine credit hours at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in each major earned in the College of Arts and Sciences. Majors available for students pursuing a B.A. or B.S. degree can be found

Minors

Single or multiple minors may be recorded on the academic record without regard to course overlap among minors and major or among minors and Foundations and Perspectives requirements, provided at least nine hours differentiate a minor from a student’s majors and from any other minors and the minor is not in the same concentration as any of the student’s majors. Students who satisfy the requirements of a degree in a college other than Arts and Sciences may also minor inside the College of Arts and Sciences with the approval of the degree-granting unit. The minimum requirement for a minor is 15 credit hours in courses numbered 100 or above (no more than eight hours at the 100-level). Minors are available in most departments or programs in which majors are offered across the University. At least 6 of the 15 credit hours required for a minor must be completed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Students should declare the minor at the earliest possible date, and in any case, prior to applying for graduation.

Elective Courses

Students completing a B.A. or B.S. degree in the college have the opportunity to select elective courses that supplement and support the work being done in the major and in the college-wide Foundations, Perspectives, and Connections requirements. This dimension of the student’s experience at the university represents that freedom within which total education may be rounded out and enriched. Elective courses should be chosen with care so that they will truly enhance the student’s total program and help in the achievement of well thought-out educational objectives.

Some of the choices which the student might make in selecting the elective courses are additional courses in the major field, a related minor, an area in the arts, or an off-campus semester.

Only the student’s imagination and initiative and the willingness to conceive and develop a meaningful academic program limit the choices of supplementary elective courses.

Program for Prospective K-12 Teachers

Students planning careers in K-12 teaching must complete an Arts and Sciences major in a department, in one of the interdisciplinary programs, or, if eligible, in the College Scholars Program. Prospective secondary and middle school teachers must fulfill the requirements of appropriate content majors; prospective elementary teachers may choose any major in the College of Arts and Sciences.

To be licensed for teaching, students must also gain formal admission to the Teacher Education Program in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. The process involves successful completion of a series of requirements including presentation of satisfactory scores on certain tests, completion of professional courses in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, maintenance of a 2.7 or higher GPA, and completion of a fifth year program emphasizing practical application. For details, see the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences section of this catalog and contact the Advising Center, 332 Bailey Education Complex.

PEACE CORPS PREP PROGRAM

The Peace Corps Prep program at the University of Tennessee is open to all undergraduate UT students regardless of major, provided they meet the admissions requirements for the program. Students in the program prepare for international experiences by completing a set of courses and activities designed to develop their professional and leadership skills. These courses may be used to satisfy requirements or electives in many UT majors and the International Agricultural and Natural Resources minor. The program is designed to prepare students to be strong candidates for the U. S. Peace Corps program following completion of their undergraduate degrees. The program includes training/experience for specific sectors: Education, Health, Environment, Agriculture, Youth in Development, and Community Economic Development. Students should apply for admission to the program as early as possible and no later than one year before they expect to complete their UT undergraduate degree. For more information, please visit the Peace Corps page of the Department of Political Science website or contact the Peace Corps Prep Program Coordinator.

* Meets Volunteer Core Requirements .

Academic Departments