For many fields, you can wait until your sophomore year to choose your major. Other fields, especially in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics, require a particular sequence of courses that you should begin in your first year. What follows are introductions to each of Yale College’s majors; you can find more information on Registration & Course Selection.
Interdisciplinary Studies
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
African American Studies is an interdisciplinary major that examines race, culture, and struggles for equality rooted in the experiences of people of African descent in Black Atlantic societies including the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Africa.
Undergraduate Studies in African American Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | African American Studies (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The program in African Studies considers the arts, history, cultures, languages and literatures, politics, and development of Africa.
Undergraduate Studies in African Studies (B.A.)Yale College Programs of Study | African Studies (B.A.)
American Studies (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The American Studies program examines, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the development and expression of national cultures and subcultures, as well as borderland and diasporic cultures.
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
Archaeology is the study of the human past through examination and interpretation of artifacts and other material remains. The discipline covers the entire record of human cultural development, from the beginning of toolmaking to advanced civilizations.
Undergraduate Studies in Archaeological Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Archaeological Studies (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
Archaeology is the study of the human past through examination and interpretation of artifacts and other material remains. The discipline covers the entire record of human cultural development, from the beginning of toolmaking to advanced civilizations.
Undergraduate Studies in Archaeological Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Archaeological Studies (B.A.)
Social Sciences/Sciences & Engineering
Computer Science and Psychology is an interdepartmental major designed for students interested in integrating work in these two fields. Each area provides tools and theories that can be applied to problems in the other. Examples of this interaction include cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and biological perception.
Sciences & Engineering/Arts & Humanities
Computing and the Arts is an interdepartmental major for students who wish to integrate computing with work in architecture, art, history of art, music, or theater studies. Majors explore topics from these arts disciplines in the context of mathematics, computer science, and information technology.
Computing and the Arts (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Computing and the Arts (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
In the East Asian Studies (EAS) 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.
Social Sciences/ Sciences & Engineering
The Economics and Mathematics major is intended for students with a strong interest in both mathematics and economics and for students who may pursue a graduate degree in economics.
Undergraduate Studies in Economics and Mathematics (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Economics and Mathematics (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The major in Ethics, Politics, and Economics studies individual, societal, and international issues, joining the social sciences with philosophy to promote an understanding of the institutions, policies, and people that shape the world.
Undergraduate Studies in Ethics, Politics, and Economics (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Ethics, Politics, and Economics (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration offers an introduction to the intellectual traditions and debates surrounding the concepts of ethnicity, nationality, and race; a grounding in both the history of migration and its contemporary manifestations; and a knowledge of the cultures, structures, and peoples formed by these migrations.
Undergraduate Studies in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The major in Latin American Studies is designed to further understanding of the cultures of Latin America and to view those cultures from regional and global perspectives. The major builds on a foundation of language and literature, history, and the social sciences; its faculty is drawn from many departments of the University.
Undergraduate Studies in Latin American Studies (B.A.)Yale College Programs of Study | Latin American Studies (B.A.)
Sciences & Engineering/Arts & Humanities
The Mathematics and Philosophy major allows students to explore those areas where philosophy and mathematics meet, in particular, mathematical and philosophical logic and the philosophy of mathematics.
Undergraduate Studies in Mathematics and Philosophy (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Mathematics and Philosophy (B.A.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
The Modern Middle East Studies major focuses on the culture, history, religion, politics, and society of the modern Middle East in its full geographical breadth, using any of its four major languages, namely Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish.
Undergraduate Studies in Modern Middle East Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Modern Middle East Studies (B.A.)
Sciences & Engineering/Arts & Humanities
The Philosophy curriculum is divided into three broad groups: history of philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, and ethics and value theory.
Undergraduate Studies in Physics and Philosophy (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Physics and Philosophy (B.A. or B.S.)
Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences
Genders and sexualities are powerful organizing forces: they shape identities and institutions, nations and economies, cultures and political systems. Careful study of gender and sexuality thus explains crucial aspects of our everyday lives on both intimate and global scales.
Undergraduate Studies in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (B.A.)
The Computing and Linguistics major provides multidisciplinary training in the computational study of human language, the development of systems for natural language processing, and the automated analysis of textual data in applications in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Students learn the foundational tools and methods that underlie this work, including areas of computer science, statistics and data science, and linguistics, and apply them to some empirical domain, through coursework and an independent research project in the senior year.
The B.A. in Computing and Linguistics exposes students to the fundamental ideas and foundational techniques of the field, while the B.S. provides more extensive training and engagement in research, preparing students for graduate work in the area.
Computing and Linguistics (B.A. and B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Computing and Linguistics (B.A. and B.S.)
Humanities and Arts
Architecture majors are prepared for advanced study in a variety of fields, including architecture, art, history of art, urban planning, environmental studies, social studies, and public affairs.
Undergraduate Studies in Architecture (B.A.)Yale College Programs of Study | Architecture (B.A.)
The program in Art offers courses in a variety of media and provides a background in visual arts as part of a liberal education and as preparation for graduate study and professional work. Areas of study include painting/printmaking (including drawing), sculpture, graphic design, photography, and filmmaking.
The Classics department offers courses in the languages, literatures, and civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. Students may choose to major in Classics, with a focus on Latin, Greek, or Greek and Latin; in Classical Civilization; or in Ancient and Modern Greek.
The major in Classical Civilization is designed to offer students an opportunity to study an entire civilization from a wide range of perspectives.
Undergraduate Studies in Classical Civilization (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Classical Civilization (B.A.)
The Comparative Literature program is designed for students interested in literary studies who do not want to limit their programs to a single national literature. The major allows students to develop knowledge of multiple languages and cultures, and can be the foundation of an international education.
Undergraduate Studies in Comparative Literature (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Comparative Literature (B.A.)
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.
Undergraduate Studies in East Asian Languages and Literatures (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | East Asian Languages and Literatures (B.A.)
Even though Yale College has no formal requirement in English, nearly all first-year students choose to take one or more courses in the English department. Whatever majors they later choose, students need to learn to read analytically and write clearly at the college level.
Film and Media Studies is an interdisciplinary liberal arts program that focuses on the history, theory, criticism, and artistic creation of cinema and other moving-image media. Courses examine cinema’s role as a unique art form that now spans three centuries, as well as the contributions of moving-image media as practices of enduring cultural and social significance.
Undergraduate Studies in Film and Media Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Film and Media Studies (B.A.)
The major in French is a liberal arts major, designed for those who wish to study one of the world’s greatest and richest cultures in depth. The department offers courses devoted to authors, works, and literary and cultural movements that span ten centuries and four continents.
The major in German Studies provides students the opportunity to gain deep competence in the German language while learning to read celebrated literature; to analyze distinctive artworks in a variety of media; to understand key thinkers and writers who laid the groundwork for modernity; and to explore the political, linguistic, and cultural history of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and neighboring lands.
The major in Ancient and Modern Greek is designed to offer students an opportunity to integrate the study of post-classical Greek language, history, and culture into the departmental program in Ancient Greek and Classical Civilization.
Undergraduate Studies in Greek, Ancient and Modern (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Greek, Ancient and Modern (B.A.)
History explains why the world is the way it is. Yale’s history department offers a range of courses that help students to explore the past, make sense of the present, and shape the future.
Art history is the study of all forms of art, architecture, and visual culture. The History of Art major can serve either as a general program in the humanities or as the groundwork for more specialized training.
Courses in History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health explore the interactions of medicine, public health, technology, science, and society from a global and historical perspective.
Undergraduate Studies in History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health
The undergraduate program in Humanities is designed to integrate courses from across the humanistic disciplines into intellectually coherent and personally meaningful courses of study. Works of literature, music, history, philosophy, and the dramatic and visual arts are studied in conversation with one another and in relation to the history of ideas.
The major in Italian Studies explores Italy’s vital role in the formation of Western thought and culture. The core language courses provide students with the opportunity to acquire an in-depth linguistic proficiency, together with a solid literary and historical background in the language.
Jewish Studies enables students to develop a broad knowledge of the history, religion, literature, philosophy, languages, and politics of the Jews. Jewish society, texts, ideologies, material cultures, and institutions are studied from a comparative perspective in the context of histories, cultures, and intellectual traditions among which Jews have lived throughout the ages.
The Department of Music offers courses in ethnomusicology, music history, music theory, music technology, composition, and performance. Students may take most introductory courses without a prerequisite. The department also offers first-year seminars without prerequisites.
The major in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations is for students interested in the Near East in any period. Students acquire a solid linguistic, historical, and cultural background to study the area.
Undergraduate Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (B.A.)
Philosophy attempts to find highly disciplined, rational ways of dealing with some of the deepest and most difficult issues in human thought and practice—for example, the nature of mind, the possibility or impossibility of knowledge, and fundamental principles of right and wrong.
The major in Portuguese develops proficiency in the Portuguese language and provides comprehensive knowledge of Portuguese, Brazilian, and related literatures and cultures.
The Religious Studies curriculum approaches the history of human thought and practice while focusing on specific geographical, cultural, and philosophical areas of scholarly interest.
The major in Russian offered by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures acquaints students with Russian literature and culture, develops students’ appreciation of literary values and skill in literary analysis, and gives them a basic competence in Russian.
Russian and East European Studies encompasses the history, literature, politics, economics, social organization, and culture of Russia, the non-Russian portions of the former Soviet Union, and eastern Europe. Majors design individual courses of study that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Russian and East European Studies.
Undergraduate Studies in Russian and East European Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Russian and East European Studies (B.A.)
The South Asian Studies Council (SASC) brings together faculty and students with diverse interests in South Asia. The University offers a wide range of courses on South Asia in the humanities and social sciences, including courses in anthropology, English, religious studies, history, comparative literature, linguistics, history of art, economics, environmental studies, and political science.
Yale College offers South Asian Studies as a second major.
The major in Spanish is a liberal arts major that offers a wide range of courses in the language, literatures, and cultures of the twenty Spanish-speaking countries in Europe and Latin America. The program in Spanish provides students with the opportunity to acquire thorough linguistic proficiency as well as in-depth knowledge of cultural and literary topics.
Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies offers courses in theater practice (acting, directing, design, dance, dramaturgy, playwriting, musical theater, and digital media performance) as well as in performance history and theory.
Undergraduate Studies in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (B.A.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (B.A.)
Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary field grounded in the physical and social spaces of the city and the larger built environment.
Undergraduate Studies in Urban Studies (B.A.)Yale College Programs of Study | Urban Studies (B.A.)
Social Sciences
The major in Anthropology gives a firm grounding in this comparative discipline concerned with human cultural, social, and biological diversity.
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field devoted to exploring the nature of cognitive processes such as perception, reasoning, memory, attention, language, imagery, motor control, and problem solving. The goal of cognitive science, stated simply, is to understand how the mind works.
Cognitive Science (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Cognitive Science (B.A. or B.S.)
Economics is much broader than the study of recessions and inflation or stocks and bonds. Economists study decision making and incentives, such as the incentives for a firm to stop polluting and how taxes create incentives for labor market and savings behavior.
The Global Affairs major, administered by the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, prepares Yale students for global leadership and service by enhancing their understanding of the world around them.
The scientific study of language is fundamental to the understanding of the human mind. The Department of Linguistics offers several courses open to students with no previous training in the field. These courses provide a general introduction to the subject matter and technical methods of linguistics, both for students who do not plan to major in Linguistics and for prospective majors.
Political science involves the study of politics from the local to the global level—politics within countries, politics among countries, and theories and philosophies of politics. Consistent with its expansive spirit of inquiry, the Political Science department offers courses touching on questions about power, conflict, ideas, representation, institutions, distribution, and identity.
The Psychology major aims to provide students with a strong academic foundation in the science of psychology. Students who major in Psychology often differ widely in their reasons for choosing the major and in their post-graduation plans.
The Sociology major provides a solid foundation for students interested in careers in the social sciences, but knowledge about social processes and how societies work is also relevant for students in other fields.
Statistics is the art of answering complex questions from numerical facts, called data. The mathematical foundation of statistics lies in the theory of probability, which is applied to make inferences and decisions under uncertainty. Data science expands on statistics to encompass the entire life cycle of data, from its specification, gathering, and cleaning, through its management and analysis, to its use in making decisions and setting policy.
Undergraduate Studies in Statistics and Data Science (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Statistics and Data Science (B.A. or B.S.)
Sciences and Engineering
The Computer Science department offers two degree programs, B.S. and B.A., and combined majors with Economics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Psychology. Each program provides a solid technical education yet allows students to take the broad range of courses in other disciplines that is an essential part of a liberal education.
Undergraduate Studies in Computer Science (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Computer Science (B.A. or B.S.)
The Applied Mathematics major is designed to provide a foundation in these common mathematical techniques and to train students to use them to solve problems in one or two fields of application.
Undergraduate Studies in Applied Mathematics (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Applied Mathematics (B.A. or B.S.)
Applied physics combines study of the laws of nature at a fundamental level with a focus on technological applications to provide solutions for important societal problems.
The Astronomy department offers courses that provide an understanding of the cosmos on a range of physical scales spanning our solar system, out to our galaxy, and well into the frontiers beyond.
Astronomy is a quantitative physical science that applies physics, mathematics, and statistical analysis to observing, describing, and modeling the universe.
The department offers a B.A. degree in Astronomy and a B.S. degree in Astrophysics.
Engineering methods and strategies are used today to address biomedical problems ranging from studies of physiological function using images to the development of artificial organs and new biomaterials. The major in Biomedical Engineering provides an understanding of the common methods that underlie many of these disciplines, as well as the ability to develop detailed quantitative approaches in one of the biomedical engineering fields.
Undergraduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Biomedical Engineering (B.S.)
The program in Chemical Engineering principally focuses on basic and engineering sciences and on problem solving. It also emphasizes communication, analysis of experiments, and chemical process design.
Undergraduate Studies in Chemical Engineering (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Chemical Engineering (B.S.)
The wide range of courses offered by the Chemistry department reflects chemistry’s position as the foundation of all the molecular sciences. Chemistry majors learn about the molecular basis of natural phenomena and use this knowledge in chemical research.
Computer Science and Mathematics is an interdepartmental major for students who are interested in computational mathematics, the use of computers in mathematics, mathematical aspects of algorithm design and analysis, and theoretical foundations of computing.
Yale College Programs of Study | Computer Science and Mathematics (B.S.)
The Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) program prepares students to apply scientific principles and methods in order to understand Earth, the environment, and life on a regional and planetary scale.
Undergraduate Studies in Earth and Planetary Sciences (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Earth and Planetary Sciences (B.A. or B.S.)
A major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (E&EB) offers a broad education in the biological sciences. The subject matter includes molecules, cells, organs, organisms, ecosystems, and the evolutionary processes that shape them.
Undergraduate Studies in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (B.A. or B.S.)
Electrical engineering (EE) deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism, including such topics as digital computers, power engineering, telecommunications, control systems, radio-frequency engineering, signal processing, instrumentation, and microelectronics.
Undergraduate Studies in Electrical Engineering (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Electrical Engineering (B.S.)
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is an interdepartmental major designed for students who want to integrate work in these two fields. It covers discrete and continuous mathematics, algorithm analysis and design, digital and analog circuits, signals and systems, systems programming, and computer engineering.
Yale College Programs of Study | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Environmental engineers are involved with many aspects of society’s interaction with the environment. The field embraces broad environmental concerns, including the safety of drinking water, groundwater protection and remediation, wastewater treatment, indoor and outdoor air pollution, solid and hazardous waste disposal, cleanup of contaminated sites, preservation of sensitive wetlands, energy and the environment, and prevention of pollution through product and process design.
Undergraduate Studies in Environmental Engineering (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Environmental Engineering (B.S.)
Environmental Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to the complex relationships between humans and the natural and built environment. The Environmental Studies curriculum includes the natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities. Earth and life sciences provide the means to observe and assess environmental change.
Undergraduate Studies in Environmental Studies (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Environmental Studies (B.A. or B.S.)
The Mathematics program provides a broad education in various areas of mathematics and is flexible enough to accommodate many interests. Mathematics majors have numerous options after graduation, including graduate study in mathematics or in various fields of application, government or corporate laboratory work, consulting, finance and banking, and teaching.
Undergraduate Studies in Mathematics (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Mathematics (B.A. or B.S.)
The major in Mathematics and Physics allows students to explore the productive interaction between the two subjects more extensively than either individual major.
Yale College Programs of Study | Mathematics and Physics (B.S.)
The program in Mechanical Engineering provides a broad education in the foundations of the disciplines mentioned above and prepares students both for graduate studies in these areas and for entry into appropriate positions in research laboratories, industry, or government.
Undergraduate Studies in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
The B.A. and B.S. degrees offered by the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B) are for students interested not just in what life is, but also in how it works. MB&B students seek to understand life at a mechanistic level by studying how the complex molecules found in living organisms create structures, carry out chemistry, and store and utilize information to generate the remarkable properties of living organisms.
Undergraduate Studies in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (B.A. or B.S.)
The major in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) offers programs for students interested in molecular biology; neurobiology; cell biology, genetics, and their applications to problems in cell and developmental biology; and various aspects of computational biology.
Undergraduate Studies in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (B.A. or B.S.)
Jointly hosted by the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology department and the Psychology department, the Neuroscience major provides excellent scientific preparation for graduate school, medical school and the health professions, law school, as well as a wide range of professional careers in the biological sciences, technology, business, law, education, journalism, and public policy, to name a few.
Undergraduate Studies in Neuroscience (B.A. or B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study |Neuroscience (B.A. or B.S.)
The overarching goal of the physics program is to train students—majors and nonmajors alike—to think like physicists, the hallmarks of which include: striving for fundamental explanations that have broad predictive power; appreciating that quantitative analysis is necessary for proper understanding; simplifying physical situations to their essentials to enable the development of mathematical models to explain and predict experimental data; and comparing experimental data from the natural world to theory.
The major in Physics and Geosciences applies fundamental physical principles to the study of Earth and other planetary bodies at a level that is more intensive than in the Physics or Earth and Planetary Sciences majors individually. Topics of interest range from atmosphere, ocean, and climate dynamics to physics of the solid Earth or of other planetary bodies.
Undergraduate Studies in Physics and Geosciences (B.S.)
Yale College Programs of Study | Physics and Geosciences (B.S.)