Graduation Requirements

This page is intended to highlight and clarify those policies and requirements that seem to be least understood. It is not intended as a substitute for the Allegheny College Academic Bulletin (formerly Catalogue), which is the definitive source for college graduation requirements (the link connects to the most recent version of the Bulletin/Catalogue; students who matriculated in previous years should consult the Bulletin/Catalogue for the year they entered Allegheny).

Credit Requirements

Students who matriculated in Fall 2016 or afterwards must complete the following credit requirements:

  • At least 128 semester credit hours of coursework must be successfully completed.
  • At least 64 of the 128 credits, including the last sixteen towards graduation, must be Allegheny credits (the “academic residency requirement”).

Students who matriculated in Fall 2009 through Spring 2016 must complete the following credit requirements:

  • At least 128 semester credit hours of coursework must be successfully completed.
  • At least 64 of the 128 credits, including the last sixteen towards graduation, must be Allegheny credits (the “academic residency requirement”).
  • No more than 64 credits may be taken in any one department.

Students who matriculated before Fall 2009 should consult the Catalogue for their matriculation year for the applicable credit requirement.

GPA Requirements

All students must achieve a minimum GPA of 2.0 in each major and minor as well as an overall cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.

Freshmen/Sophomore Seminar Requirement

All students must:

  • take FS 101
  • take and pass FS 102
  • take and pass the sophomore seminar (e.g. FSBIO 201, FSENG 201, …)

Some of these requirements may be waived for transfer students only.

Major and Minor Requirements

All students must

  • complete a major with a major GPA of 2.0 or higher.
  • complete a minor or second major in a division outside the division of the primary major with a GPA of 2.0 or higher. (The three divisions of the College are Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.)
  • If the graduation major or minor is Interdivisional, then in most cases the requirement that the major and minor be in different divisions is satisfied by taking any other minor/major. Consult the descriptions for specific Interdivisional majors and minors for specific limitations on possible combinations.

Students matriculating in Fall 2016 and after ONLY: students may complete no more than two majors and two minors.

Distribution Requirement

Allegheny’s Distribution Requirement is changing as of Fall 2016. This page provides information on the respective requirements that apply to students who entered before and after Fall 2016.

Junior Seminar Requirement

Successful completion of a Junior Seminar is required for graduation. Normally this is taken as part of the student’s major program.

Senior Project Requirement

Completion of the Senior Project, an original creative or scholarly work in the major discipline(s), is required of all students for graduation from Allegheny.

Double-counting

The following restrictions apply ONLY to students who matriculated before Fall 2016. There is no limit on double-counted for students who enter in Fall 2016 and later.

  • No course may be counted towards both the graduation major and the graduation minor.
  • For students completing additional majors, each major must include at least 20 credits of coursework that do not count towards any other major or minor.
  • For students completing additional minors, each minor must include at least 12 credits of coursework that do not count towards any other major or minor.