Humanities & Social Sciences Requirements

1. Minimum units: at least 18 units of humanities and social sciences courses must be completed with passing grades. Humanities and social sciences courses, other than transfer courses, may be taken for pass/no pass credit.
2. Breadth: at least 6 units of the 18 must be in the humanities and at least 6 units must be in the social sciences.
3. Upper-level: at least 3 units of the 18 units completed must be from one or more courses numbered 3000 or higher.

Washington University in St. Louis courses labeled with the McKelvey School of Engineering::Engineering Humanity or McKelvey School of Engineering::Engineering Social Science course tag in the semester course listings will count respectively toward the humanities or social sciences requirement for engineering degrees. In general, most art courses (ART) will count toward the engineering school's humanities requirement, even if they do not have the specific McKelvey School of Engineering::Engineering Humanity designation. Some upper-level art courses are open only to students with an open art program.

Courses taken elsewhere are treated as transfer courses. Transfer courses must be approved through Engineering Undergraduate Student Services as acceptable transfer credit and as applicable humanities or social sciences courses. All transfer courses must be taken for credit (i.e., not pass/no pass), and students must earn a C- or better in transfer courses for the credit to transfer to the school. Grades do not transfer.

Find Humanities & Social Sciences requirements in Workday:

You can easily search for WashU courses online that will count as fulfilling either Humanities or Social Sciences credits for any engineering program. You can find step by step instructions and a video on how to find and view course sections through the following webpage.

Find and view course sections

1. In Workday, search for and select the SRPT0039 – Find Course Sections report.   
2. For Start Date Within, enter the semester and year (e.g., Fall 2025) and press Enter to see search results. For more information about academic periods, see the Academic Periods & Calendars core concept page.
3. Choose academic level(s).
4. (Optional) Choose active course subjects, course tags, and instructors. You can select more than one.
   1. Tip: To find course sections that satisfy an academic requirement, use the Course Tag facet (e.g., select McKelvey School of Engineering :: Engineering Humanities to see courses that satisfy the McKelvey Humanities requirement).
5. Click OK to see a full list of course sections offered during that academic period with a status of open, waitlist, or closed.