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Application Deadline

  • Spring: December 8
  • Summer: April 12 (early sessions)
  • Fall: July 19

Class Begins

  • Spring: January 6, 2025
  • Summer: May 5, 2025 (early sessions)
  • Fall: August 19, 2024

Degree Awarded

Bachelor of Arts
in Social Sciences

WSU College

College of Arts and Sciences

Customize Your Degree to Fit You

Do you want to explore the wide variety of fascinating fields and disciplines higher education has to offer? Do you want to design your degree to fit your life? Then a degree in social sciences may be the program for you. 

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Why Major in Social Sciences?

The online bachelor’s degree in social sciences gives students the opportunity to customize their learning experience to meet their personal, academic and career goals. This student-centered program is among the most flexible of WSU’s online degree programs. With an emphasis on studying the world through the lens of the social sciences, students can choose from a wide array of concentrations, study multiple disciplines, and often make the most of transfer credits.

Find out more from a Social Sciences Outstanding Senior!

What You’ll Learn

Students pursuing the WSU’s social sciences bachelor’s degree, offered entirely online, gain marketable skills that employers value, including critical thinking and analysis, cultural awareness and sensitivity and effective communication skills. As a graduate, your degree will open doors to many career options, including business, social services, law enforcement, education, government, and public service. The degree also provides a solid foundation for pursuing advanced degrees.

Concentrations are available in the following subjects:

  • Administrative Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Comparative Ethnic Studies
  • Criminal Justice
  • Economic Sciences
  • History
  • Human Development
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Infographic: Social sciences degree.
Note: All career statistics come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook

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WSU Online Social Sciences Degree Strengths

  • Play a major role in designing your own degree.
  • Choose from many concentration areas and study what interests you.
  • Gain valuable knowledge and marketable skills that can open the door for a wide variety of jobs and careers fields after you graduate.
  • Learn from experienced and highly-qualified faculty members from WSU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Program of Study

All courses are available online

All WSU undergraduates must complete a minimum of 120 semester credits of which 40 credits must be at the 300 – 400 level. Students must also complete the University Common Requirements (UCORE). These can generally be satisfied with a direct transfer degree. For a list of direct-transfer agreements, visit WSU’s Transferring an Associate Degree web page.

Students must also fulfill the College of Arts and Sciences graduation requirements and the program requirements of the degree.

Social sciences students have two options; their program of study can include two (Plan A) or three (Plan B) different concentrations.

Two concentrations

Primary Concentration

24 semester credits in one Social Sciences discipline)
At least 15 credits must be upper division (300-400 level).

Social Sciences discipline options under Plan A include the following:

  • Anthropology
  • Comparative Ethnic Studies
  • Criminal Justice
  • Economic Sciences
  • History
  • Human Development
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Secondary Concentration

15 semester credits in any discipline)

All 15 credits must be concentrated within one academic department and at least six of these credits must be upper-division (300-400 level).

Three areas of concentration

At least 21 credits must be upper division (300-400 level) and must be included within the concentration areas and Social Sciences electives.

Concentration 1

9 semester credits in one Social Sciences discipline

Concentration 2

9 semester credits in a second Social Sciences discipline

Concentration 3

9 semester credits in a third Social Sciences discipline

Elective Credits

12 semester credits from within the three Social Sciences concentration areas you choose

Social Sciences discipline options under Plan B include the following:

  • Options listed under Plan A
  • Administrative Studies

All students, including community college transfer students with an approved transferable AA degree from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Arizona or Hawaii, or students pursuing a second major in the College of Arts and Sciences, will be held to the following additional requirements:

  • Foreign Language: Complete 2 years of high school or 1 year of college in a single foreign language
  • Complete an Equity and Justice [EQJS] designated course
  • Additional 1 lab credit of [BSCI], [PSCI] for a total of 8 semester credits and 2 labs.

Please review the online WSU Catalog for additional information about specific degree requirements.