Holy Cross offers a curriculum leading to the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree, which some students earn with College honors. To meet the requirements for graduation, all students must complete both 32 semester courses successfully and record a minimum of eight semesters of full-time study.
Each student’s curriculum consists of common requirements, a major, and freely elected courses. In designing their curriculum, students are limited to a total of three programs, combining majors, minors, and concentrations, only two of which can be majors.
To qualify for a degree from the College, at least one half of a student’s courses, including the two full semesters of the fourth year, must be completed at the College of the Holy Cross. Students are permitted, however, to participate in Holy Cross programs, such as the Washington Semester, Semester Away and Study Abroad, in the first semester of their fourth year.
Common Requirements
Common requirements include one course each in Arts, Literature, Studies in Religion, Philosophical Studies, Historical Studies, and Cross-Cultural Studies; and two courses each in Language Studies, Social Science, and Natural and Mathematical Sciences. No more than two courses from a single academic department may be counted toward fulfillment of the common requirements, except that students may take a third common requirement course in the same department where the Language Studies requirement is fulfilled.