Divisional Distribution

Divisional Distribution Requirement

The distribution requirement exposes students to the diversity of scholarly disciplines at Harvard. Starting in Fall 2019, students graduating in May 2020 or later must complete one departmental (non-Gen Ed) course in each of the three main divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS):

  • Arts and Humanities
  • Social Sciences
  • Science and Engineering and Applied Science

The online course catalogue contains information about which distribution requirement a course will fulfill.

Courses used to fulfill the distribution requirement may be taken pass/fail, with the permission of the instructor. However, when the same courses are being used to fulfill a concentration or secondary field requirement, there may be limitations on pass/fail options. Students should check with their advisers.

All 4-credit courses in every division will count toward the distribution requirement except elementaryand intermediate-level languages, some graduate courses, courses in Expository Writing, music performance courses graded SAT/UNSAT, First-Year Seminars, and House Seminars.

A course taken to fulfill a Divisional Distribution requirement cannot be counted towards the College's Quantitative Reasoning with Data requirement.

There are no constraints regarding the timing of these courses, as long as all are completed by graduation.

Transfer students may fulfill the distribution requirement with courses taken at their previous undergraduate institution. Courses taken during term time or summer study abroad, and courses taken at Harvard Summer School may also count for the distribution requirement. 

Courses that fulfill the distribution requirement are identified as such in my.harvard. The bottom left of my.harvard course descriptions indicate whether or not courses fulfill the distribution requirement and, if they do, which requirement they satisfy. To browse in my.harvard for courses that fulfill a particular distribution requirement, scroll down on the Course Search page and click on Faculty of Arts & Sciences under Browse Courses, then select below that the distribution requirement you wish to search.   

Students can consult a list of the 2024 Harvard Summer School courses that are approved for the Divisional Distribution requirement. Additional courses may be added. This list was last updated on March 5, 2024.

Students may check their Advising Report in my.harvard to learn which distribution requirements they have fulfilled.

Questions about the distribution requirement may be sent to divdist@fas.harvard.edu.