Undergraduate Program Rules
You must have 1 course with a writing component, a W course, on your transcript to graduate. This can be satisfied by any W course offered at Pitt. Many humanities, social sciences, languages and chemistry courses have a "W" section. It is important therefore to check the CAS Course Descriptions newspaper and the Time Schedule to determine whether a particular section of a course is offered as a W-course in a given term. All courses offered as W-courses are listed in the Time Schedule with a special indicator of WRIT. You can also take a course that is not designated as a W course if the instructor will agree (in writing) to grade the course for you as a writing course.
A current list of the acceptable humanities/social science classes is at http://www.engr.pitt.edu/students/electives.html. You may be able to take a course that is not on this list if it meets the requirements of the School of Engineering. If you wish to take a humanities/social science class that is not on the list, send the request to the undergraduate coordinator (Dr. Debski) for possible approval.
All freshman students are required to take the Writing Placement examination prior to their first term of enrollment at Pitt. For this exam, students write a response to a college-level reading passage. Results of the writing placement exam determine if the student must take a basic writing or composition course, which does not count in Engineering as part of the student's humanities/social science requirement.
Any freshman student who places into Basic Writing, via the English Writing Examination, must complete this requirement prior to moving out of the Freshman Program. Departments will be responsible for monitoring transfer students from areas such as CAS or CGS, as well as external transfer students. Students may complete ENGCMP 0150 or ENGCMP 0200 and ENGCMP 0201 to fulfill this requirement. (ENGCMP 0200 will only be acceptable if taken with the ENGCMP 0201, 1 credit intensive writing course.) A score of 4 or 5 on either the English Composition or English Literature Advanced Placement (AP) exam will also fulfill this requirement. A score of 4 or 5 on the English Literature AP exam will give the student 3 advanced standing credits in a non-equivalent English Literature and satisfy the Basic Writing requirement.