General Education Requirements

UC Davis General Education requirements consist of 32 units of topical breadth, with 12-20 units from Arts & Humanities (AH) and 12-20 units from Social Sciences (SS). The Core Literacies must also be satisfied.

Please note that the College of Engineering has its own Pass/No Pass (P/NP) rules. To see which GE’s may be taken P/NP, see the College’s Pass/No Pass guidelines.

We have prepared a GE worksheet to help you track your GE courses. Use Course Search Tool to look up a GE. Course descriptions and prerequisites can be found in the General Catalog.

Popular GEs by Department 

check to ensure that they are AH and/or SS

  • African American Studies (AAS)
  • AAS 10: African American Culture and Society.
    AAS 181: Hip Hop in Urban America.
  • Art History (AHI)
  • AHI 1A: Ancient Mediterranean Art
    AHI 1B: Medieval and Renaissance Art.
    AHI 1C: Baroque to Modern Art.
  • American Studies (AMS)
  • AMS 10: Introduction to American Studies.
    AMS 30: Images of America
  • Anthropology (ANT)
  • ANT 2: Cultural Anthropology.
  • Managerial Economics (ARE)
  • ARE 142: Personal Finance.
  • Asian American Studies (ASA)
  • ASA 1: Historical Experiences of Asian Americans.
    ASA 3: Social and Psychological Perspectives of Asian Americans.
  • Cinema & Digital Media (CDM)
  • CDM 1: Introduction to Film Studies.
  • Chicana/Chicano Studies (CHI)
  • CHI 50: Chicana and Chicano Culture.
  • Classics (CLA)
  • CLA 3: Rome and the Mediterranean - 800 B.C.E. to 500 C.E.
    CLA 10: Greek, Roman and Near Eastern Mythology.
    CLA 30F: Word Roots.
  • Comparative Literature (COM)
  • COM 5: Fairy Tales, Fables.
    COM 6: Myths and Legends.
    COM 7: Literature of Fantasy and the Supernatural.
  • Dramatic Art (DRA)
  • DRA 144A: Embodied Chinese Culture.
  • Economics (ECN)
  • ECN 1A: Principles of Microeconomics.
    ECN 1B: Principles of Macroeconomics.
  • Education (EDU)
  • EDU 110: Educational Psychology - General.
  • English (ENL)
  • ENL 5F: Introduction to Creative Writing - Fiction.
    ENL 180: Children's Literature.
  • Food Science and Technologies (FST)
  • FST 10: Food Science, Folklore and Health.
  • Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (GSW)
  • GSW 50: Introduction to Critical Gender Studies.
  • Human Development (HDE)
  • HDE 12: Human Sexuality.
  • History (HIS)
  • HIS 4A, B, C: History of Western Civilization.
    HIS 7A: History of Latin America to 1700.
    HIS 7B: History of Latin America, 1700-1900. 
    HIS 7C: History of Latin America, 1900-Present.
    HIS 9A, B: History of East Asian Civilization.
    HIS 17 A, B: History of the United States.
    HIS 111A, B, C: Ancient History.
  • Humanities (HUM)
  • HUM 13: Witches - Myth and Historical Reality.
  • Linguistics (LIN)
  • LIN 1: Introduction to Linguistics.
    LIN 6: Language and Society.
  • Music (MUS)
  • MUS 10: Introduction to Musical Literature.
    MUS 11: Musics of the World.
    MUS 106: History of Rock Music.
    MUS 116: Music of the Beatles.
  • Native American Studies (NAS)
  • NAS 1: Introduction to Native American Studies.
    NAS 10: Native American Experience.
  • Philosophy (PHI)
  • PHI 1: Introduction to Philosophy.
    PHI 13: Minds, Brains, Computers.
    PHI 15: Bioethics.
  • Political Science (POL)
  • POL 1: American National Government.
    POL 3: International Relations.
  • Psychology (PSC)
  • PSC 1: Introduction to Psychology.
    PSC 168: Abnormal Psychology.
  • Religious Studies (RST)
  • RST 10: Contemporary Ethical Issues.
  • Science and Society (SAS)
  • SAS 20: Genetics and Society.
    SAS 30: Mushrooms, Molds and Society.
    SAS 70A: Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture and Law.
  • Sociology (SOC)
  • SOC 1: Introduction to Sociology.
    SOC 2: Self and Society.
    SOC 3: Societal Problems.
  • University Writing Program (UWP)
  • UWP 11: Popular Science and Technology Writing.