Applied Liberal Arts (ALA) helps clarify connections between your education and your life, your job, and your future. The critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and cultural literacy skills valued by today’s employers are hallmarks of a liberal arts education. Our program also provides courses in high-demand workplace essentials such as project management, data visualization and analysis, design thinking, and conflict resolution.
You'll pursue a major in Applied Liberal Arts while earning a concentration in one of six areas. You'll complete six major requirements and either five or six courses within a specific concentration.
This course takes a 360-degree perspective on project management, incorporating the important peripheral elements that influence the discipline. This course helps students develop practical skills for functioning in a variety of roles on projects, including project manager, while developing an appreciation for the importance of governance and project & portfolio management (PPM) in any work environment, looking at the concept and the practice of projects from the perspective of participant, practitioner, and executive sponsor.
A picture is worth a thousand words. We are in a world full of data and information, the demand for data analytics and visualization skills is growing rapidly nowadays. Data visualization is a critical part of data science, it is an effective way to communicate insights from data through visual presentation,we use data visualization to identify hidden patterns and reveal relationships to show trends in data, and tell the full story of the data. In this course, students are introduced to the foundations of data visualization along with various data visualization tools. We will introduce the key design principles, how to present data using a number of common data visualization tools (such as Excel and Tableau software). This course will provide students from all backgrounds the opportunity to learn data skills and have hands-on experience working with various datasets, creating visualizations and telling data stories. Students will develop data visualization skills that can be applied to their fields of study and future career. Topics covered include best practices in use of color, visualization principles, static and interactive visualizations, visualization types, etc.
This course presents specific tools for improving people skills in preparing for and conducting negotiations. It examines the characteristics of different negotiating situations, leadership and decision-making functions, interpersonal communication, the intercultural community, management strategies, and factors affecting which negotiation style most enhances communication.
This course will introduce students to the basics of data analysis and interpretation. Students will critically engage with actual data from across disciplines in order to develop their own interpretations of the underlying meaning. We will explore how these skills can apply to making decisions in academic, professional, and community contexts. The skills developed and practiced here will assist the students in critically evaluating and drawing meaning from data as well as making well-informed decisions from that data.
Design Thinking is human-centered, creative problem solving. It seeks to tackle tough problems by examining what is economically possible, systemically viable, and desirable to the constituents of focus. It is a process that overcomes many of the challenges to innovation today—preference for or comfort in the status quo—while remaining true to human nature at the center of most problems. This course seeks to introduce students to the concept of Design Thinking, its foundational principles, and the application of these principles to real-world issues. At its heart, this is a methods course that asks students to reframe problems in new ways so that creative solutions might arise from a reframing of the problem.
This course closes out the degree. It's meant to be taken after completing all major requirements (though not necessarily all degree requirements). You may take it concurrently with the final courses for the major if you are scheduled to graduate in the given semester.
A distinguishing characteristic of liberal arts education is a required core curriculum. The Bachelor of Arts programs require the following core courses:
Discern personal and professional responsibilities in order to develop creative solutions that lead to engagement in courageous action that contributes to dismantling unjust structures
Demonstrate a nuanced understanding and respect of diverse individuals and perspectives and the application of this understanding to further equity, human rights, and social justice
B.A.
Think critically, learn deeply, and analyze a myriad of problems across various different contexts and situations. You'll gain a strong academic foundation, an invaluable skillset for today's world, and a depth of spirit that will help you act as an empathic problem solver.
The Applied Liberal Arts degree consists of six major requirements and either five or six courses within a specific discipline.
Choose from six concentrations:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
In this Business bachelor’s degree program, you will build the communication expertise all employers need, as well as in-demand skills including critical thinking, ethical leadership, quantitative analysis, project management, and risk management.
Students graduate with a skillset that’s agile, wide-ranging, and informed by data. With a solid foundation in data analysis, project managment, communications and more, students are ready to step forward as socially responsible, ethically-oriented business leaders.
Requirements:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Explore the social, economic, and psychological factors of criminal behavior and understand how criminal justice operates in modern society. You’ll also assess political, legal, and judicial institutions and the ethical issues surrounding criminality and punishment.
Students graduate understanding the processes through which criminal laws are made and enforced, the major theories of criminality, and the economic and psychological factors that underpin criminal behavior. They will apply social scientific research methods to particular case studies while honing their written and spoken communication skills.
Sample courses:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Want to join the fight against cyberattacks and work in one of the world’s fastest-growing fields? This flexible B.A. program provides a robust foundation that will prepare you to meet the surging demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals and succeed in the ever-changing cyber ecosystem.
With some 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs around the world, our expert-taught program provides core competencies that will enable you to protect both public and private organizations from today’s urgent threats. Through in-person, online, and hybrid course options ranging from Computer Networks to Ethical Hacking, our curriculum emphasizes risk management, risk tolerance, and risk mitigation.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
Certificate
In today’s ever changing cybersecurity landscape, the success of a security program needs to have its roots in risk management -- implementing security controls and compliance with regulatory requirements to achieve the level of risk tolerance acceptable to the organization.
The cybersecurity certificate program lays the foundation for security professionals to achieve success. The cybersecurity program provides a robust baseline of skills needed to adapt to changes in business, technology, and threat environments. Within the program, emphasis will be placed on the concept of risk management, risk tolerance, and risk mitigation.
With a customizable six-course curriculum that blends online and in-person classes. Courses include:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Acquire an in-depth understanding of the many ways communication affects—and is affected by—modern societies. Ranging in focus from interpersonal communication to how advertisers, political campaigns, and the media employ mass communication, this major or certificate equips you to analyze information across several facets of life.
Through this major, students hone their spoken and written communication skills and examine theories of interpersonal, relationship, group, organizational, and mass communication. Students will apply social scientific research methods to case studies and consider the ethical implications of mass communication in society.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A. M.S.
Want to understand how consumers and businesses behave? For students aspiring to master the theory and practical skills central to our market-driven world, this program provides a 360-degree understanding of economic dynamics in modern societies.
Students aiming to become bankers, business managers, market researchers, budget analysts, or others working in careers where they need to know the intricacies of economies will be well-suited for success with this degree. Students learn to differentiate between market structures and analyze case studies using theories of economic growth, unemployment, and inflation.
Required courses:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
Learn the narrative and stylistic techniques employed by classic writers of fiction and nonfiction in order to:
In addition to courses in British, American, and World literature, the curriculum requires four additional English electives, as well as two writing courses.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
Our curriculum encompasses European, American, pre-modern, and non-Western history. As critical thinkers, students apply tools and concepts of historical inquiry and communicate research results clearly and effectively.
Major requirements:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Today's organizations depend on information technology expertise. Students pursuing this degree or certificate prepare to fill that role by working their way from simple computer applications toward advanced software and hardware development.
This major emphasizes technical and theoretical issues in information technology. From project management to collaborative computing, the curriculum prepares you to program computer applications and employ software and technology related to security.
You'll begin with an immersion in the basic tools and concepts of computing, then move on to examine programming, modern computer and web-based applications, and advanced software and hardware development.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
This flexible program allows you to choose courses in consultation with your advisor. You’ll graduate with a comprehensive, multifaceted understanding of our contemporary times and be prepared to:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
Enhance your understanding of specific disciplines, discern your interests, and try out a subject before committing to a program. Our nondegree offerings allow you to convert to degree-seeking status should you be accepted, while benefitting from the rigor of a Boston College education.
Nondegree students are vital to Woods College and Boston College, enriching the classroom and our communities. They come to Woods to learn new skill sets, improve their understanding of specific disciplines, and complete certificate programs. Some may also be looking to try out a subject before committing to a program or enhance their academic track record.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
This major is ideal for students who seek to understand the world around them at its deepest level. You'll learn to address fundamental questions about knowledge, goodness, and the nature of human experience in a clear, systematic fashion. With a curriculum anchored in the great works of antiquity and the Enlightenment, this program introduces students to the major fields of philosophical inquiry including political philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of science.
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
Students graduate from this major with a strong grasp of the intricacies of political life, able to analyze political processes and institutions from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
Requirements:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Do you wonder why we do what we do and what makes us tick? Seek the answers through this flexible program, which covers aspects of many applied areas in psychology. Courses are offered nights, online, and in a hybrid format.
This major is ideal for students who want to analyze human behavior through the lenses of developmental history, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and civil society. You'll study with leading practitioners and industry experts as you learn to apply key theories from the field of psychology to solve real-world issues at work, in your community, and in society.
Requirements:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
B.A.
Develop the skills necessary to apply a sociological lens to everyday life in addition to scholarly research. You will learn to analyze and critique social, structural, and cultural factors that influence those experiences with a particular focus on using these skills for the betterment of the human condition.
This program will introduce you to classical and contemporary sociological theories and challenge you to apply these theories in evaluating social phenomena. By the time you graduate, you’ll have a firm grasp on the complexities of behavior and interaction in modern societies.
Requirements:
Career development is a campuswide effort, with many faculty and staff professionals personally helping you find internships, apply to graduate schools, or simply understand your options. Your career discernment and planning starts from the moment you set foot on campus and continues throughout your life.
If you are mailing hard copies of application materials, please send them to:
Boston College
Woods College of Advancing Studies Admissions Office
St. Mary's Hall South
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
*Current Woods College Undergraduate degree students interested in adding a certificate to their plan of study should not use the online application.
If you have been conferred your associate's degree, you may submit an Attestation Form in lieu of an official high school transcript. The completed form can be sent to wcasadm@bc.edu.
Please mail transcripts to:
Boston College
Woods College of Advancing Studies Admissions Office
St. Mary's Hall South
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
If your academic institution provides electronic transcripts please indicate wcasadm@bc.edu as the recipient.
Applicants whose Native language is not English are required to demonstrate English language proficiency, for required scores, visit our International Student page.
Please submit one essay by responding to one of the topics listed below. The essay should be typewritten, double-spaced, and should be limited to 500 – 750 words in length.
The essay is essential to the Admissions Committee as it allows the committee to assess your personal goals, your reasons for choosing the program to which you are applying, your commitment to your educational goals, and your writing ability.
The essay must be uploaded as part of your online application.
Application fee: $45
Two letters of recommendation are required. Letters must be sent directly from the recommender through our online application portal or sent directly to Woods College (wcasadm@bc.edu).
Please note: Letters of recommendation should be provided by recommenders who can speak to your professional or academic abilities.
If you are having difficulty securing a second letter of recommendation, please email wcasadm@bc.edu to schedule an interview with the Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions. This interview will serve in lieu of the second letter of recommendation.
TOEFL: Woods College requires a minimum total internet-based TOEFL score of 90, with minimum scores in each section of 20.
IELTS: Woods College requires a minimum total band score of 6.5, with minimum scores in each section of 6.0.
For additional information about scores, visit our International Student page.
For all international students and non-native English speakers, interviews are conducted as part of the application process.
The purpose of the interview is for the admission committee to gain a better sense of an applicant and how the program fits his or her academic and vocational needs. Additionally, the interview provides the committee an opportunity to assess a student’s specific information and to address the unique needs one may have in transitioning to Boston College. The interview will last no more than 15 minutes. Interviews will only be scheduled once an application has been submitted.
All students who have, or are currently attending, an institution outside of the United States must provide a detailed, course-by-course transcript evaluation indicating the following:
For BA applicants: conferral of a secondary school degree that is equivalent to a U.S. high school’s degree from an accredited institution.
For MS applicants: conferral of an undergraduate degree that is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
This evaluation is not just an English translation, but a document provided by an accredited evaluating agency that shows all grades, course titles, credit hours, United States degree equivalency, grade-point average (GPA), and date of degree conferral.
This detailed, course-by-course transcript evaluation must be submitted to complete the application.
Please request a detailed, course-by-course transcript evaluation for all international institutions where a degree was conferred from one of the following agencies:
Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) | Center for Educational Documentation (CED) | The Evaluation Company (TEC) |
World Education Services Inc. (WES)
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Financial Aid and Scholarship Information
Schedule an appointment with an admissions counselor through our online calendar.
Woods College of Advancing Studies offers Bachelor's and Master's degrees, certificates, and professional education opportunities. If you're interested in furthering your education, we have something for you.
Courses and Microcredentials.
Take a course, see how it goes.
