The University of California has two requirements for students earning a bachelor's degree at any of their campuses. The Entry Level Writing requirement can be fulfilled prior to matriculation by earning a specified score on standardized tests such as an Advanced Placement English exam or the UC Analytical Writing Placement Exam. Students who do not have a qualifying test score must take a designated writing course and pass it with a C or better before their fourth quarter at the university. Students who speak English as a Second Language may be required to take ESL coursework before they can enroll in an Entry Level Writing course.
The second requirement is United States History and Institutions. Students who have not completed a year of American history or government in high school with a C or better or earned a qualifying score on a US History AP or SAT II exam must take one year of college-level American history or government and pass with a C or better.
All UC Irvine students, regardless of major, must satisfy a set of distribution requirements. The requirements include three writing classes beyond the Entry Level Writing course (two lower division courses and one upper division) and three courses each in the areas of science, social sciences, quantitative reasoning, and arts and humanities. For the foreign language competency requirement, students can complete three years of a language at the high school level, one year at the college level, participate in a study abroad program, or earn a qualifying score on an approved exam. Students must also complete one course each with a multicultural studies, global issues, and laboratory/performance component, but these courses may also simultaneously fulfill another distribution requirement. For example, a science class with a lab component could fulfill both the science and laboratory/performance requirements.
Each school at UC Irvine may have its own requirements that all students enrolled in one of that school's degree programs must complete. For example, students in the School of Humanities must take a year-long Humanities Core course in their freshman year and demonstrate second-year proficiency in a foreign language. Students in the School of Engineering must complete 48 credits of math and science courses and 72 credits of engineering coursework. However, these courses may also be used to simultaneously satisfy UC or Irvine general requirements.
All students must complete the requirements for at least one major in order to graduate from UC Irvine. Courses required for the major must be taken for a numerical grade as opposed to a Pass/No Pass grade. Students may double major or complete a minor or concentration, but these are not required. If a student chooses to complete a minor, he must maintain a 2.0 GPA in all minor requirements.
A total of 180 credits with a minimum GPA of 2.0 is required for graduation. Any additional credits needed to reach 180 after all requirements have been completed may be fulfilled with electives.