Graduation Requirement Overview
SF State is considered to be a Liberal Arts institution in that, upon completion of undergraduate study, it will provide a Bachelor's degree - either a Bachelor's of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor's of Science (B.S.). The difference between the two is basically the number of units required and types of courses needed.
Earning the Bachelor's Degree
The Big Picture:
The first thing you need, is enough units. You will be taking 4-5 classes during your first semester toward your Bachelor's degree of 120 units minimum.
Within those units you will have certain requirements as illustrated in the pie chart below:
All requirements are divided into 4 parts:
- General Education - which is comprised of a minimum of 48 units.
- Major - which varies in unit size - from 30 to over 80 units.
- Additional Requirements - includes courses such as English, US History and Government.
- Electives - only as many units are needed to reach the 120-unit minimum to graduate.
First-Year Advantage
As a freshman for your first year (at Orientation and for the second semester) we give you early registration for classes so that you;
- take certain requirements during your first two semesters;
- encounter little difficulty in getting those requirements.
We will go into more details later about those specific requirements.
A Complete Degree
In order to graduate from SF State you will need;
- at least 120 semester units;
- 48 units of General Education;
- a complete major program (adding a minor is optional);
- some English composition courses;
- one U.S. History course and one U.S. Government course.
That's it!
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Next, we will break-down General Education and discuss it's three parts.
