Undergraduate Degrees & Credentials

Undergraduate students at Duke may pursue one of two degree options:

  • The Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) or
  • The Bachelor of Science degree (BS)

All academic departments and programs offer one or more majors leading to the BA degree or BS degree option. In many departments, you can choose to pursue the BA or the BS degree. If you double major, your first major determines the degree you will earn. For example, if you double major in English and Chemistry, you will graduate with a BA degree, because your first major (English) offers the BA degree. If, on the other hand, you were to make Chemistry the first major, you would have the option to complete either the BA or the BS degree, since Chemistry offers a BS as well as a BA track.

Majors & Minors

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences offers bachelor degrees in more than 44 majors. At Duke, we emphasize deeply interdisciplinary exploration in our undergraduate curricula. Students choose a primary major as their core disciplinary foundation, and use the perspectives, methods and traditions of that discipline as a lens to explore, compare and contrast other disciplines. We also offer 46 minors, allowing students to pursue areas of personal interest or obtain additional training for a career path.

Explore Majors & Minors

Interdepartmental Major

An Interdepartmental Major is a combination of credits from two Trinity College departments or programs that each offer a major. It's an opportunity for you to customize your educational path in ways that give you more flexibility than selecting just one major, or double majoring. Both departments must agree to your proposed course of study. 

Interdepartmental Major

Program II - Alternative Major

Students can also design their own curriculum through Program II, an alternative approach to the traditional major. Students admitted to Program II examine and explore an area of scholarship, often an interdisciplinary or emerging area of knowledge not generally available within existing majors. Students work with the Program II Committee to develop a curriculum proposal that creates a cohesive educational path that is rigorous and well-focused around a theme. Program II can support either a bachelor of science or bachelor of arts degree.

Program II

Certificates

Through certificate programs, students can pursue interests that lay outside a single major. Trinity College of Arts & Sciences offers more than 20 certificate programs. Such programs often parallel the research interests of our faculty, are frequently interdisciplinary in focus, and represent areas of deep student interest at Duke.

Certificates