School of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is home to a host of academic departments and initiatives that provide students at Columbia College Chicago with the intellectual, analytical, and creative capacity to succeed in whatever field they choose to pursue.

We house the college’s LAS Core Curriculum—a set of course requirements for all undergraduate students seeking a degree at Columbia. These engaging courses in literature, history, humanities, languages, mathematics, and the sciences, along with interdisciplinary offerings, complement any major field of study and challenge students to think in independent, critical, and diverse ways.

In addition to the LAS Core Curriculum, the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is home to the college’s Honors Program, an important initiative with advanced learning opportunities to qualified students; the Undergraduate Research Mentorship Initiative, which connects students with faculty members to conduct worthy scholarly and research projects; and the First-Year Seminar, a foundational, interdisciplinary course in the LAS Core Curriculum that is required for all Columbia students.

With more than one hundred full-time faculty members who are leaders in their respective fields, our academic departments offer undergraduate degrees in Art and Materials Conservation, ASL-English Interpretation, Creative Writing – Nonfiction, Creative Writing – Poetry, Cultural Studies, and Early Childhood Education. We also offer graduate programs in Creative Writing – Nonfiction, Creative Writing – Poetry, Elementary Education, and Arts Education. Our education programs are renowned for their arts-infused curriculum and emphasis. Numerous scholarships are available for students in these programs, including the Jay W. Boersma Scholarship. 


Finally, the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is home to the Center for Community Arts Partnerships; the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media; the Teaching Artist Journal; @LAS magazine; and the LAS Dean’s Lecture, all of which deepen the rich experiences and academic challenge available to students at Columbia College Chicago.