Commitment to liberal arts & sciences is at the core of Harvard College’s mission: before students can help change the world, they need to understand it. The liberal arts & sciences offer a broad intellectual foundation for the tools to think critically, reason analytically and write clearly. These proficiencies will prepare students to navigate the world’s most complex issues, and address future innovations with unforeseen challenges. Shaped by ideas encountered and created, these new modes of thinking will prepare students for leading meaningful lives, with conscientious global citizenship, to enhance the greater good.

Harvard offers General Education courses that show the liberal arts and sciences in action. They pose enduring questions, they frame urgent problems, and they help students see that no one discipline can answer those questions or grapple with those problems on its own. Students are challenged to ask difficult questions, explore unfamiliar concepts, and indulge in their passion for inquiry and discovery across disciplines.

For students interested in deeply pursuing two areas of study, the option to declare a double concentration was added in the 2022-2023 academic year. Double concentrations allow students to pursue two distinct, in-depth paths of study that do not substantially overlap. Students who pursue a double concentration do not need to write a senior thesis unless one of the fields of study is an honors-only field.

A joint concentration allows students to combine two fields that are each an undergraduate concentration and integrate them into a coherent field of study. Joint concentrations culminate with an interdisciplinary senior thesis written in one of the concentrations only. In essence, joint concentrations allow an undergraduate to blend two concentrations into one cohesive unit of classes.

Special concentrations allow you to craft a degree plan that meets a uniquely challenging academic goal. This could be an unprecedented area of research or a combination of disciplines not covered by our current offerings.

To create your own special concentration, you must submit a petition to the Standing Committee on Special Concentrations, which reviews each plan of study on an individual basis.

Harvard's Program in General Education connects students to the world beyond the classroom by focusing on urgent problems and enduring questions. Students take one course in each of four categories: Aesthetics & Culture; Ethics & Civics; Histories, Societies, Individuals; as well as Science & Technology in Society.

The distribution requirement exposes students to the range of scholarly disciplines offered at Harvard. Students take one course in each of the three main divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; as well as Science, Engineering, and Applied Sciences.

Quantitative Reasoning with Data courses teach students how to think critically about data. Students learn the computational, mathematical, and statistical techniques needed to understand data. They’ll also learn how to use those techniques in the real world, where data sets are imperfect and incomplete, sometimes compromised, always contingent. Finally, they’ll reflect on all the questions raised by our current uses of data — questions that are social and ethical and epistemological.

The writing requirement is a one-semester course offered by the Harvard College Writing Program that focuses on analytic composition and revision. Expos courses are taken as first-year students and are taught in small seminars focusing on writing proficiency in scholarly writing. Students meet one-on-one with instructors (called preceptors) regularly to refine writing skills. Depending on the result of the summer writing placement exam, some students take a full year of Expos.

Students may take a year-long (eight credit) or two semester-long (four credits each) courses in a single language at Harvard. Courses taken abroad may also be considered with prior approval. Students who study language at Harvard will have their record updated upon successful completion of the coursework. A list of the foreign languages offered at Harvard can be found on the Arts and Humanities website.

In addition to your concentration, you can pursue a secondary field (sometimes called a minor at other institutions). There are currently 50 secondary fields. A secondary field is an excellent way to expand your education into multiple intellectual interests. Work with your adviser to develop a plan of study that matches your goals.

Undertaking advanced study in an ancient or modern language gives you a unique perspective the literature, history, and viewpoints of another culture. Each language citation program consists of four courses of language instruction beyond the first-year level, including at least two courses at the third-year level or beyond.

Independent Study allows for academic inquiry not available through regular coursework—such as an interdisciplinary investigation, an arts practice or performance study, or a field research project. Speak with your adviser to find out if this option is a good fit for you.

Students can apply to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for a master's degree in select fields of study during their fourth year at Harvard through the Concurrent Master's Program.

Harvard undergraduates can take classes at one of Harvard's ten graduate schools or cross-enroll at other Boston-area institutions.

About half of all Harvard students choose an honors track within their concentration, and most of these write senior theses or complete research projects under the supervision of professors and departmental tutors.