BACS Information

Page Last Updated: Tuesday, July 07, 2026

1. Undergraduate Record
2. Declaring the Major
3. Degree Handouts and Resources
4. Degree Requirements
   1. BACS Prerequisites
   2. BACS Required CS Courses
   3. Computer Science Electives
   4. Integration Electives
   5. GPA requirements for the BACS
5. Distinguished Majors Program
6. Transferring to the BACS Degree

Undergraduate Record

Official descriptions for the BACS degree program in the Undergraduate Record:

• For those following the 2025-2026 requirements
• For those following the 2024-2025 requirements
• For those following the 2023-2024 requirements
• For those following the 2022-2023 requirements
• For those listed in SIS with an earlier “requirements term”, go to one of the pages above, then click on “Archived Records” near the bottom of the left-side menu.

Declaring the Major

See the page on Declaring the BACS.

As noted in the Undergraduate Record:

• “Because the goals of the degree are integrated with the study of the liberal arts, students from outside the College of Arts and Sciences who have not taken significant coursework in the College will not be allowed to declare the BA in CS degree as a second major.”

In particular, students in Engineering are not allowed to declare the BA in Computer Science (but are welcome to declare the BSCS as a 2nd major or to complete the CS minor). Students from schools other than Engineering (or the College) who wish to explore if they have taken enough coursework in the College to be allowed to declare the BACS should contact the program director at bacsdirector@virginia.edu.

Degree Handouts and Resources

• UVA BACS Degree Checklist
• UVA BACS Example Semester Schedule
• Course Prerequisite Chart

For information on the “old” BACS degree requirements, see the bottom of this page.

Degree Requirements

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here.

BACS Prerequisites

To declare the degree, you must have completed the following:

• An introductory computer science course, such as CS 1110, CS 1111, CS 1112, CS 1113 or CS 1120, or an equivalent course; or successful completion of the associated place-out test.
• CS 2100 - Data Structures and Algorithms 1 (with C+ or higher) or equivalent or successful completion of the associated place-out test.

BACS Required CS Courses

All BACS majors must complete the following courses (20 credits):

• CS 2120 - Discrete Mathematics and Theory 1 (Credits: 3)
• CS 2130 - Computer Systems and Organization 1 (Credits: 4)
• CS 3100 - Data Structures and Algorithms 2 (Credits: 3)
• CS 3120 - Discrete Mathematics and Theory 2 (Credits: 3)
• CS 3130 - Computer Systems and Organization 2 (Credits: 4)
• CS 3140 - Software Development Essentials (Credits: 3)

Computer Science Electives

All BACS majors must complete 9 credits (normally 3 courses) of CS electives. These are CS courses at the 3000-level or above, in addition to the required courses listed above. At most, 3 credits of CS 4993 (Independent Study) can be counted towards this requirement. CS 4980 and CS 4998 cannot be counted towards this requirement.

Integration Electives

All BACS majors must complete 12 credits of Integration Electives. These are non-CS courses that contribute to this program of study by exploring applications of computing to arts and sciences fields in a significant way or by providing fundamental computing depth and background. Integration electives are courses offered by departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The list of approved courses can be found in the BACS section of the UG Record.

Our page about Integration Electives describes rules on whether things NOT on the official list can be counted. It also has a link to the petition-request for, and a list of courses that have already been successfully petitioned. If you have questions about anything about integration electives not answered on that page, email the BACS Program Director.

GPA requirements for the BACS

At this time the BACS requirements for graduating with the BACS major do NOT include a minimum GPA requirement for CS courses. (Engineering students doing the BSCS major must have a 2.0 GPA average for CS courses.) Therefore a BACS major can have a grade as low as a D- in a CS course or integration elective course that will still satisfy the major requirement and count for graduation. Note you must have a C- or higher some CS courses that are prerequisites for later CS courses.

Distinguished Majors Program

Prof. Yixin Sun manages the BACS Distinguished Majors Program (DMP), and details about that program can be found at https://csdmp.github.io/. Students who apply to and are accepted to be in the Distinguished Majors Program must complete the usual degree requirements as well as a fourth year thesis project. This requires two semesters of CS 4998 - Distinguished BA Majors Research (3 credits each semester) in addition to the usual requirements.

Transferring to the BACS Degree

If you are interested in tranferring to the BACS degree (either internally in UVA or externally), please see Transferring to UVA CS.

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Table of contents

• Declaring the BACS
• Integration Electives