Admissions for Incoming Freshmen & Current Students

Welcome to the Department of Asian Languages and Literature! We are glad that you are considering a major or minor in our department. Visit Undergraduate Programs to learn about all the degrees and experiences we offer. AL&L is proud to be a member of the Humanities Division of the College of Arts & Sciences. We encourage students to explore the richness and value of the humanities through the Humanities First program.

Declaring a Major

Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and South Asian are minimum requirement majors. That means as long as you meet certain prerequisites (below), you can be admitted to the major. The Asian Languages and Cultures major is an open major, meaning that students in good academic standing may declare the major at any time, without fulfilling requirements stated below.

Please note that prospective students who are not yet accepted to UW do not need to apply to this department directly. We do not have a "Direct to Major" or "Direct to College" pathway. Students interested in becoming AL&L majors can apply as pre-majors in the Humanities, and then apply for the major they are most interested in after taking some language classes. You can find out more information about applying to UW as an undergraduate student here. Are you a transfer student interested in declaring one of our majors? Check out this page.

To declare the major, please first check out the required classes for each degree, and then contact Humanities Academic Services (HAS).

Prerequisites for admission to a major in Asian Languages and Literature:

1) Completion of at least 20 credits of college course work (or Department-approved equivalent) in the intended primary language of concentration (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Sanskrit, depending on the specific major).

The following stipulations also apply to prerequisite (1) above: the most recent course completed in the intended primary language of concentration must be a course offered by the University of Washington. The final grade in the most recent course in that language must be 2.5 or higher.

2) Completion of one W-prefix writing course, conducted in English, with a grade of 2.0 or higher. (A "second" English composition course, such as Engl 111, 121, 131, 182, will also satisfy this requirement. Postbaccalaureate students are exempt from this requirement.)

The Department prefers that prospective majors present a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher.

Declaring a Minor

In order to apply for a minor, you must have completed at least 90 college credits and already have declared a major. You should declare your minor through your major department. If your major department is in the School of Humanities, please meet with an advisor in the Humanities Academic Services Center (has-center@uw.edu) to declare your minor. If your department is not in the School of Humanities, reach out to your major department's advisor to declare your Asian L&L minor. 

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