Social Welfare Major Requirements

The Social Welfare B.A. major is under the jurisdiction of the College of Letters & Science (L&S), which is the degree-granting college.

In addition to the specific requirements for the Social Welfare major outlined in this Handbook, to earn the Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Welfare, you must satisfy all requirements of the University of California, the Berkeley campus, and the College of Letters & Science. For complete details on these requirements, along with information on other residency and unit requirements, please visit L&S Advising > Letters and Science Degree Requirements.

Summary of Social Welfare Major Requirements

  1. Lower-division requirements: Students who intend to seek declaration of the Social Welfare major must complete a prescribed set of lower-division prerequisite entry requirements to be eligible to petition to declare the major. Students must also have:
    1. a minimum GPA of 2.0. 
    2. accrued less than 80 cumulative units, including work in-progress.
  2. Upper-division requirements: Social Welfare majors must complete four required, upper-division Social Welfare courses, known as the "core courses;" and a minimum of five approved social science electives, totaling at least 18 units, from Social Welfare and other departments.
  3. All courses used to fulfill major requirements, including core and elective courses, must be taken for a letter grade.
  4. In order to graduate, Social Welfare majors must earn a minimum overall GPA 2.0 in the social welfare core courses, AND in the elective social science classes taken to fulfill major requirements.

Disclaimer: The School of Social Welfare reserves the right to (1) add or delete courses; (2) change instructor, time, day or location of courses; (3) cancel any course for insufficient registration or academic/administrative decision without notice; (4) unregister students from courses for which they have mis-enrolled or have not received permission to enroll; or (5) move students into a different section of a multi-section course. Students will be notified of any changes.