American University of Beirut

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The freshman program requires the completion of 30 credits, regardless of the student’s target major. Out of these 30 credits, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education requires that:

• For arts majors:
• At least 9 credits must be in the humanities and social sciences  (with at least 3 credits in each of these two areas)
• At least 3 credits must be in the natural sciences
• At least 3 credits must be in mathematics
• 15 credits may be in elective courses
• For science majors:
  
• At least 9 credits must be in the humanities and social sciences  (with at least 3 credits in each of these two areas)
• At least 12 credits must be in the natural sciences and mathematics  (with at least 3 credits in mathematics and 6 credits in natural sciences)
• 9 credits may be in elective courses

In addition, the university requires that 3 credits are taken as ENGL 203. If a student is placed in ENGL 102, it may be considered an elective. These students are still required to take ENGL 203 after ENGL 102 to complete their freshman year requirements. Students who take ENGL 203 in their freshman year should take any 3-credit course at the 200-level in place of ENGL 203 to meet the degree requirements for their target major.

Finally, specific departments may have additional transfer requirements depending on the student’s target major of study. These requirements are listed in Table 1 for majors at FAS and in Table 2 for majors in other faculties. A checklist for each major is provided on the website of the freshman program to assist students in meeting the ministry requirements, university requirements, and departmental transfer requirements.

Freshman students must complete 30 freshman credits before they can enroll in courses that count towards their sophomore class. Exceptionally, students who have completed at least 26 freshman credits and have at most 4 freshman credits remaining may enroll in courses that count towards their sophomore class for a single semester only. However, they may not enroll in a second semester and take courses that count towards their sophomore class until they have completed the 30 freshman credits entirely. Students must also satisfy the requirements listed under the Admission section of this catalogue and the Undergraduate General University Academic Information section of the catalogue in order for their freshman year to be granted the equivalency of the Lebanese Baccalaureate Part II.

Advisors

Each freshman student is assigned an advisor who mentors the student in course selection. Students will work with their advisors until they have completed their freshman requirements and submitted their freshman equivalence regardless of whether they have been admitted to a major. Students who do not join a major in three terms are considered majorless and are re-assigned an advisor for majorless students.

Transfer to a Major

Any student in the freshman year who is not on probation at the time of application may join a major upon completing at least 26 credits and meeting the major’s transfer requirements.

Any freshman student who wishes to join a major within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences must meet the departmental requirements shown in Table 1. To join a major, the student must submit a “Change of Major” petition to the FAS Undergraduate Admission Committee, provided that the student meets the requirements for admission to the major. At FAS, late freshman students are considered freshman students for the purpose of transfer up to their third regular semester or up to their fourth regular semester if they have only completed at most 45 credits.

Any freshman student who wishes to transfer to a major in another faculty must meet the faculty requirements shown in Table 2.

Freshma​​n Courses

Freshman students must take all their non-elective credits as 100-level courses. Some of these courses are listed below, arranged according to the areas of study.

Humanities: AHIS 150, ARAB 101, ARAB 102, AROL 101, CHLA 110, CHLA 111, CHLA 112, ENGL 101, ENGL 103, ENGL 104, ENGL 105, ENGL 106, ENGL 107, ENGL 108, HIST 101, HIST 102, HIST 103, HIST 104, MUSC 150, PHIL 101, PHIL 102, SART 150, SOAN 103, THTR 100.

Social Sciences: ECON 101, ECON 102, PSPA 101, SOAN 101, PSYC 101.

Mathematics: MATH 100, MATH 101, MATH 101I, MATH 102.

Natural Sciences: BIOL 101, BIOL 102, BIOL 104, BIOL 105, BIOL 106, CHEM 101, CHEM 101L, CHEM 102, CHEM 102L, GEOL 101, GEOL 102, GEOL 103, GEOL 104, PHYS 101, PHYS 101L, PHYS 103, PHYS 103L, and ENHL 105 from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Electives: Any of the courses listed above may be counted as elective courses. In addition, some additional freshman courses that do not fall into any of the above categories and that may be counted as elective courses include: BUSS 101, CMPS 101, ENGL 102.

Courses Numbered 200 and Above

Some courses numbered 200 and above are suitable for freshman students and may be counted among the elective credits only. Note, however, that these courses are also open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors and therefore may be more competitive than courses offered at the 100 level.

Math Placement

By default, freshman students are placed in the appropriate math course based on their Math SAT score as follows:

• Students with a Math SAT score of at least 700 will be placed in Math 101.
• Students with a Math SAT score between 570 and 690 will be placed  in MATH 101 Intensive.
• Students with a Math SAT score of at most 560, or without a Math  SAT score, will be placed in MATH 100.

The Math Placement Test (MPT) is an optional test for students who wish to improve their initial placement. If students opt to take the MPT, they will be placed according to their result in the test as follows:

• Students with a score of at least 70% will be placed in MATH 101.
• Students with a score between 60% and 70% will be placed in MATH 101 Intensive.
• Students with a score below 60% will be placed in MATH 100.

Students placed in MATH 101 still have the option to take Math 100 or Math 101 Intensive if they choose to do so. Some target majors may only require MATH 100.

Table 1: Requirements to Join a Major in FAS from the Freshman Class

Table 2: Requirements to Join a Major in another Faculty from the Freshman Class

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