Pre-Enrollment
Step 2: Learn About Your Degree
What kinds of courses will I take for my degree?
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A bachelor’s degree in Arts and Sciences will be a minimum of 120 credits and
will have 5 components to it, as shown above. The kinds of classes that fit into each of those 5 components are labeled below. |
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University General Education Requirements - 33%As the foundation of your degree and a requirement of all UNO students, University General Education requirements give you the skills to be a successful learner and allow you to broaden your knowledge in several valuable ways to help you interact with and thrive in the world around you.
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Major Requirements - 30%To graduate with a BA or BS degree from Arts & Sciences, students must choose one or more of 27 available majors in the college, many of which offer additional ways to focus one’s interest with concentrations or tracks. It’s important to note that students admitted for pre-health areas do not yet have a major. More information about pre-health is forthcoming. |
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Arts & Sciences College Requirement - 13%College requirements are in addition to University General Education requirements and are specific to each student’s degree. In Arts & Sciences, students may choose any one of the three options below.
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BA or BS Degree Requirement - 13%Each college awards its own type of bachelor’s degree that speaks to the kinds of majors offered in that college. The College of Arts and Sciences offers two options for degrees: the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Sciences degrees. Some majors are offered as either, which others may only be offered as one or the other. This requirement is 15-16 credits.
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Free Electives - 11%All UNO bachelor’s degrees require students to earn a minimum of 120 total credits. Electives are courses that count toward the 120 credit minimum and aren’t specifically needed to satisfy any of the other components of one’s degree. The amount of electives each student needs will vary, based largely on one’s major and minor selections, as well as individual needs. |
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Where does pre-health and/or pre-law come into the picture?
First, to be clear, it’s OK to be admitted as Pre-Medicine, Pre-Pharmacy, Pre-Law and the like. While they may not be majors we offer degrees in at UNO, they do tell us your interest in pursuing a career in that field and we can help you determine next steps. Here’s how it works
Pre-Health
If you're admitted to UNO for a 4-year pre-health area, such as Pre-Medicine, Pre-Physician Assistant, Pre-Pharmacy, Pre-Physical Therapy, etc., then your steps will be as follows:
- Declare a UNO major that suits their intellectual interests. (We can chat about that with you if you don’t yet know)
- Add in specific pre-health requirements (scroll down on that website to see specific programmatic requirements) to the degree based on the health career of choice.
- Work with a Health Careers Resource Center advisor as well as the major advisor, to be sure UNO degree and pre-health requirements are all being met. (This includes all the extra stuff like advising on volunteering, research, and so on.)
To put it differently, students fulfilling requirements for pre-health programs may utilize major, minor, general education or elective space to work specific pre-health requirements into the UNO bachelor’s degree. The student won’t graduate from UNO with Pre-Medicine as their major, but that’s not important – fulfilling the prerequisites and being a quality candidate for medical school is. Visit the HCRC website for more information.
Students admitted to UNO for a 2-yr pre-health area, such as Pre-Nursing, Pre-Dental Hygiene, & Pre-Radiation Science Technology, will need to do the following things:
- Work with a Health Careers Resource Center advisor to learn about options and receive advising specific to the 2-yr prerequisite courses needed.
- To be clear, students interested in these specific areas do not need to declare a UNO major because the health programs do not require more than 2 years worth of prerequisites to be met.
Again, students interested in these specific areas do not need to declare a UNO major because the health programs do not require more than 2 years worth of prerequisites to be met.
Pre-Law
Students admitted to UNO as a Pre-Law major essentially have that major as a placeholder until they know what UNO major they would like to declare. They will need to select an available UNO major that suits their intellectual interests. Any major in the College of Arts and Sciences can offer excellent preparation for the study of law! Law schools seek students from a wide range of undergraduate majors and do not recommend any particular major or course of study as a prerequisite for admission, but students may wish to select a major in line with specialty areas of law, if desired.
How do I track all of my requirements?
All students have access to DegreeWorks, an online degree audit system, through their MavLink homepage and can use it to view the specific requirements for their selected degree/major.
Learn How to Read and Understand DegreeWorks
The audit is broken up into the different requirements needed to complete your program, such as General Education requirements, Major requirements, etc. View the powerpoint below to learn more about DegreeWorks and how you can use it to better understand your degree requirements.
Click HERE to open in Google Slides
What if I'm thinking of changing my major?
You can use the "What If" function in DegreeWorks to view the different majors, minors, concentrations, and/or certificate programs at UNO that you are interested in. It will allow you to see the requirements for each option and what courses you have completed that can be applied towards each one. See the tutorial below for instructions.