History and Overview

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) stands at the heart of academic life at the University of Florida. The college offers an academic environment in which students learn to communicate effectively, to reason independently and to comprehend the traditions and institutions that have shaped the world. CLAS offers 40 majors in 22 departments, three academic programs and is home to 32 centers and institutes, including the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research and the Center for African Studies. The teaching faculty, nearly 700 strong, are active scholars working to create new knowledge through research. The main goals of the college are to prepare students as citizens and to empower them as leaders.

The college serves its students, the state and the nation in a number of important ways. Perhaps the most obvious is in the area of research, where faculty and students help expand the boundaries of knowledge through teaching and research in such areas as aging, child development, the family, literature, speech communication, history, women’s studies, language, culture, biotechnology, environmental science, politics, high energy physics, space and religion.

World events demonstrate the importance of such ideas as freedom, democracy and human worth. These ideals and values remain central to the mission of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as it seeks to prepare students for an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Ever mindful of national and international concerns, the college endeavors to foster a healthy cultural, ethnic and racial diversity among students and faculty.

Each fall at a convocation ceremony, the college honors outstanding juniors as Anderson Scholars. These students receive certificates of highest distinction, high distinction or distinction based on maintaining a 4.0, 3.93 or 3.85 overall grade point average respectively during their first two years at UF with a 12-hour course load each semester.

Anderson Scholars are named in honor of James N. Anderson, the first dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1910-1930).

At the end of each fall and spring term, the dean recognizes the outstanding academic achievement of students who are enrolled full time and earn a grade point average of 3.75. For students to be eligible for the Dean’s List, their course work for the semester may not include any optional S-U grades, grade changes or dropped courses.

The college offers a variety of opportunities for independent and seminar honors work to those undergraduates who have demonstrated appropriate qualifications.

Superior students should take initiative in planning undergraduate and graduate programs. They should consult the honors coordinator in their department about requirements for the baccalaureate degree cum laude (with honors), magna cum laude (with high honors) or summa cum laude (with highest honors).

To graduate cum laude, a student must have a 3.5 overall junior-/senior-level average. Some majors have additional requirements. To graduate magna cum laude or summa cum laude, the student must have an overall junior-/senior-level 3.5 GPA and, in addition, submit a thesis, a research project or other creative work. Upon evaluation by the department or other responsible group, the student will be recommended for magna cum laude or summa cum laude recognition. One copy of the thesis and an abstract must be delivered to the graduation coordinator in the Academic Advising Center (AAC) by the last day of classes for the term of graduation. Postbaccalaureate students are not eligible to receive honors recognition.

The Learning Services Center (LSC) provides students the opportunity to improve their study skills, prepare for various tests (GRE, LSAT, MCAT), and learn more about the various majors and career options available to CLAS students. The LSC is located next to the lobby on the first floor of the AAC. For more information, please visit

CLAS has many programs overseas for undergraduates for a semester, a summer or an academic year that provide a wide range of academic and cultural experiences.

Studying abroad, however, is more than academic. Students establish new friendships, become more fluent in a foreign language and learn about the history and traditions of the country in which they study.

Juniors and seniors also can improve their writing skills in Writing in the Discipline (ENC 3254), which focuses on writing in specific disciplines (history, communication science and disorders, neurobiological sciences, physical sciences, psychology and sociology). The course addresses the form, content and style of professional articles. It shows students how to prepare grant proposals, letters of application to graduate programs and potential employers and oral presentations of research.