Electrical Engineering broadly encompasses disciplines such as microelectronics, photonics, computer engineering, signal processing, control systems, and communications. Three electrical engineering degree programs are offered, as well as a joint degree between the electrical engineering and computer science departments.

Energy, the environment, and health care are key challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. Chemical engineering is a discipline well placed to confront these challenges. Chemical engineering is rooted in the basic sciences of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology; a traditional engineering science core of thermodynamics, transport phenomena, and chemical kinetics; a rigorous design component; and an expanding focus on emerging topics in materials, nanotechnology, and life sciences. The discipline has grown from its petrochemical origins to become central to state-of-the-art technologies in microelectronics, alternative energy, biomedicine, and pharmaceutics.

Electrical Engineering broadly encompasses disciplines such as microelectronics, photonics, computer engineering, signal processing, control systems, and communications. Three electrical engineering degree programs are offered, as well as a joint degree between the electrical engineering and computer science departments.

The major has prerequisites in both mathematics and economics: MATH 120; ECON 110 or 115; and ECON 111 or 116. Upper level economics courses may be substituted for prerequisite economics courses. With Math DUS permission, students familiar with multivariable calculus may substitute an upper level mathematics course in the same area for MATH 120. Upper-level courses substituted for prerequisites do not count toward the total of twelve term courses (beyond the introductory level in economics and mathematics) required for the major.

Economics is much broader than the study of recessions and inflation or stocks and bonds. Economists study decision making and incentives such as how taxes create incentives for labor market and savings behavior. Many current public policy debates concern questions of economics, including causes and consequences of inequality and gender and racial wage gaps; how to address poverty; the impact of immigration and trade on the well-being of a country’s citizens; the cause of the Great Recession; and how to predict future downturns.

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (E&EB) offers broad education in the biological sciences, covering subject matter that ranges from molecules, cells, and organs through organisms to communities and ecosystems, and the evolutionary processes that shape them. The department offers a B.S. and a B.A. degree. The B.S. program is designed for students planning to pursue graduate study in ecology and evolutionary biology, other biological disciplines, environmental science, or to attend medical, dental, or veterinary school.

In the East Asian Studies major, students focus on a country or an area within East Asia and concentrate their work in the humanities or the social sciences. The major offers a liberal education that serves as excellent preparation for graduate study or for business and professional careers in which an understanding of East Asia is essential. The major in East Asian Studies is interdisciplinary, and students typically select classes from a wide variety of disciplines. The proposed course of study must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies (DUS).

The major in East Asian Languages and Literatures provides rigorous training in the study of East Asian languages, literatures, cultures, and thought from ancient times through the present, with a strong focus on the reading and analysis of texts, theater, film, and other forms of media. Students select either the Chinese or the Japanese track but are encouraged to take courses in both tracks to become familiar with East Asian literary culture more broadly. The major is excellent preparation for careers including business, law, academia, foreign service, translation, and journalism that demand advanced linguistic proficiency and analytical sophistication. East Asian Languages and Literatures graduates have gone on to careers in law, business, medicine, academia, film, translation, teaching, and diplomacy.

The Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) program, formerly Geology and Geophysics, prepares students for the application of scientific principles and methods to the understanding of the Earth system and other planets. Subjects range from the history of Earth and life to present-day environmental processes and climate change, the deep interiors of Earth and other planets, tectonic plates, oceans, atmospheres, climates, land surface, natural resources, and biota. The emphasis of the curriculum is on employing basic principles from the core sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology) to further an understanding of Earth’s past and present, and addressing issues relating to its future. Students gain a broad background in the natural sciences, and select a specific track to focus their work on planetary or environmental phenomena of particular interest.

For students with a computing perspective, issues in these disciplines present interesting and substantive problems: how musicians use computers to compose; the limitations of current software tools used by artists; the types of analyses done by art historians; challenges in designing and using virtual sets in the theater; ways that virtual worlds might help to envision new forms of artistic expression; and lessons that can be learned from trying to create a robotic conductor or performer.

Mechanical engineering is among the most diversified of the traditional engineering disciplines. The mechanical engineer builds machines to extend our physical and mental capabilities and to convert traditional and novel energy sources into useful forms.

Environmental engineering encompasses the scientific assessment and development of engineering solutions to environmental problems affecting land, water, and air (the biosphere). The field addresses broad environmental issues, including the safety of drinking water, groundwater protection and remediation, wastewater treatment, indoor and outdoor air pollution, climate change, solid and hazardous waste disposal, cleanup of contaminated sites, the prevention of pollution through product and process design, and strategies for sustainable water and energy use and production.

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, the brain, and human behavior. The Psychology department offers course work and research opportunities in the fields of clinical, cognitive, developmental, neuroscientific, and social psychology. By studying psychology, students better understand human behavior, including who we are, how we do the things we do, and how we enhance our lives and society. The Psychology major provides a foundation for careers in education and research; law; medicine and public health; politics and public policy; and in business fields such as marketing, finance, and management.

The undergraduate program in English cultivates students' powers of argument and analysis while developing their understanding of important works of English, American, and world literatures in English. Courses offered by the department are designed to teach students foundational research and writing skills; to provide historical perspectives from which to read and analyze literary works; and to deepen students' insight into their own experience. For students interested in creative writing, the department offers an array of courses taught by renowned professional writers in all of the major genres, including fiction, poetry, play and film writing, nonfiction prose, and journalism.

Students in the Art major develop a critical and practical understanding of the visual arts and design through a studio-based curriculum that organically blends practice with critical thinking and art historical precedents; apply fundamentals of art across a variety of mediums and disciplines; relate the practice of making art and design to the study areas of art history and theory; and learn to embody the knowledge and practice of at least one artistic discipline through active search and research. Students may concentrate on a medium such as painting/printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, photography, or filmmaking, and interdisciplinary study is supported. Art majors learn to place their own work in the context of an inclusive group of contemporary art worlds and cultures. This study is a crucial element in a liberal arts curriculum both for future arts practitioners and for those ultimately studying and working in other fields. A key element of the creative learning process is the critique, which is implemented via both group settings and one-on-one studio visits with faculty and visiting critics. Through rigorous practice and regular feedback, a student gains insight into one's own critical voice. Art majors have access to the graduate programs by attending regular lectures, critiques, events, and exhibitions that represent a diverse set of art practitioners who regularly visit the School of Art.