General Requirements for Majors

There are three ways for a student to earn a B.A. degree through the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry:

as a chemistry major,
as a biochemistry major, or (less commonly)
as a distributed studies major with primary area of study in chemistry or biochemistry.

An honors program is available to chemistry and biochemistry students and there is a program for American Chemical Society certification of graduating majors.

Arts and Sciences College Requirements

To graduate, students must satisfy general requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences. These regulations are subject to change, and students have the option of choosing either the rules in force when they entered the College or current rules. Highlights of current requirements:

1.         CORE curriculum (see the catalog for a complete list of the College of Arts and Sciences CORE classes and requirements)

            Chemistry and Biochemistry students will have to consider especially the Written Communication (6 hours) and perhaps the Foreign Language skills areas, Historical Context (3 hours), Cultural and Gender Diversity (3 hours), United States Context (3 hours), Literature and the Arts (6 hours), Contemporary Societies (3 hours), and Ideals and Values (3 hours) areas.

The Chemistry/Biochemistry Major program automatically satisfies the Natural Science requirement, Quantitative Reasoning and Critical thinking CORE requirements.

2.         Grade point minimums

            The College requires that the grade point average for all major (i.e., CHEM) courses attempted be at least 2.00. In addition, the department insists that all required CHEM courses be passed with a grade of C- or better. An overall GPA of 2.00 is also required for graduation from Arts & Sciences.

3.         Credit hour and residency requirements:

            The total number of credit hours required for graduation in the College of Arts and Science is 120, 45 of which must be upper division. Double degree students are required to take additional hours to graduate. Students must take a minimum of 45 credit hours at the UCB campus, 30 upper division credit hours after matriculation into the College of Arts and Sciences, and 12 upper division hours in the major after matriculation into the College of Arts and Sciences. No more than 45 credit hours of chemistry and biochemistry courses count toward graduation.

Additional Information for Majors

Chemistry major normally includes 30 hours of required upper division courses, Biochemistry major 29-33 hours depending on the advanced biology course chosen. The core curriculum commonly requires 6 upper division credits (3 hours in writing and 3 in literature and the arts). This leaves about 10 additional upper division credits to be earned. The following considerations may help in this regard. (a) Biochemistry majors may find it helpful to satisfy their advanced biology requirement with one of the upper division courses rather than with MCDB 2150-2151 or EBIO 2070. They may also earn two additional upper division hours by taking the majors organic lab, CHEM 3361 and 3381 rather than 3321 and 3341. (b) The core curriculum commonly requires two upper division courses, but students are encouraged to take additional upper division work in satisfying the core requirements. (c) Remaining upper division hours required may be made up of elective advanced courses in chemistry or related sciences. See the recommended elective sections on page 2 above.

Transfer students will have to check especially carefully on their upper division credits. Lower division courses at other institutions will transfer as lower division credit, even if the corresponding CU, Boulder, course is upper division. For example, organic chemistry taken at a junior college or as a lower division course at a four-year school will only carry lower division credit even if it is accepted by the department as replacing 3311-3321-3331-3341. A student with such transfer credit will need additional upper division courses to complete the required 18 hours in the major and 45 total upper division hours.

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General Requirements for Majors

Arts and Sciences College Requirements

Additional Information for Majors