Bachelor's Degree

Bachelor's Degree Graduation Requirements 

Refer to your Academic Catalog for specific graduation and degree requirements.

Total Credits
Undergraduate students must earn a minimum of 120 semester hours, of which 40 semester hours must be at the upper-division level (300-level) to be eligible to graduate from Northeastern. 

Residency
Undergraduate students must earn a minimum of 30 semester hours at Northeastern Illinois University.  Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (BAIS) and University Without Walls (UWW) students must earn at least 24 semester hours at Northeastern.

Grade Point Average
To be eligible to graduate, undergraduate students and second bachelor's degree students must have a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA (overall “C” average).  Some academic programs and departments have other specific grade requirements.  Check with your academic advisor.

Academic College or Nontraditional Degree Programs
All undergraduates must also satisfy the requirements of their individual college (College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Technology, College of Education) or the Nontraditional Degree Programs.

Academic Major and Minor
Undergraduate students must complete a major. Some majors require a minor or set of cognate courses. Students should refer to the section of the Academic Catalog which details the requirements for each major to determine if a minor or a set of cognate courses is required. Students must earn a grade of “C” or higher in all courses counted toward the major, the minor, cognate, and professional sequences. No “P” grades will count toward a major, a minor, or cognate courses.  All grade point average requirements must be met for the successful completion of a program of study.

General Education-Distributive Learning Program
All undergraduate students must complete the General Education-Distributive Learning Program requirements which include coursework in Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social/Behavioral Sciences.  Refer to the General Education-Distributive Learning section of the Academic Catalog for more information.

Engaged Learning Experiences Requirement
In addition to the General Education-Distributive Learning requirements, all undergraduate students must complete three Engaged Learning Experiences (ELE) courses, designated as Boundary Crossing (ELE-X) and Discipline Specific (ELE-DS), to satisfy the Engaged Learning Experiences requirement.  The ELE requirement must be completed at Northeastern Illinois University.  Three ELE courses (minimum of 7 hours) must be completed to graduate.  At least one of the three ELE courses must be a Boundary–Crossing (ELE-X) course.  (Students can take more than one ELE-X course to fulfill the requirement.)  At least one of the three ELE courses must be at the 300-level. A course can only be counted once toward meeting the ELE requirement, even if it is repeatable within the major or program.

To count toward the ELE requirement, a course must be graded with a letter grade (i.e., A, B, C, D).  No courses graded as pass/fail can count toward meeting the ELE requirement.  Only one "D" grade is permitted to count toward the ELE requirement.  Furthermore, the "D" can only be accepted if the course is not counting for completion of the student’s major. If a course is counted as a major requirement, it must follow the requirements of the major, which is often receiving a "C" or better.

Students can search the online Schedule of Classes by "Attribute Type" to find approved ELE Discipline Specific and ELE Boundary Crossing courses.  A listing of the approved ELE courses is also available on the University Core Curriculum website.

English Composition Requirement
All students must successfully complete ENGL-101 or its equivalent, with a grade of “C” or better. This requirement should be completed within the first 30 credit hours at Northeastern in order to ensure that students have the necessary writing skills to complete their studies.

Writing Intensive Requirement
All students must successfully complete a writing intensive (WIP) course of at least 3 credit hours within their discipline. This requirement cannot be fulfilled with transfer credit. Students should check with an academic advisor to determine which WIP course(s) may fulfill this requirement for their major.

Math/Quantitative Reasoning Requirement (MA)
All students must successfully complete one 3 credit hours math/quantitative reasoning course that has Intermediate Algebra as a prerequisite. Any 3 credit hours college-level math course, beyond Intermediate Algebra, meets this requirement.
A grade of "C" or better is mandatory to satisfy the Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning requirement. This requirement should be completed within the first 30 credit hours at Northeastern in order to ensure that students have the necessary mathematics skills to complete their studies.

See the University Core Curriculum web page for the list of General Education-Distributive Education Program List of Approved Courses which shows which courses satisfy this requirement. Students can also fulfill the Math/Quantitative requirement in one of the following ways:

  1. Transfer credit with a grade of “C” or better in any math course College Algebra level or higher.
  2. An Associate of Arts (A.A.) or Associate of Science (A.S.) degree from a community college meeting the standards of the 1991 Illinois Community College Board model General Education curriculum in Mathematics or completion of the Illinois Articulation Initiative’s General Education Core curriculum after transferring to Northeastern Illinois University.  
  3. Placing at College Level II Math on the NEIU Math Placement Test (October 2018 and later).
  4. A Math ACT score of 25 or higher, or a 580 or higher SAT score.
  5. A score of three or higher on the Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus examination. 
  6. A minimum score of 31 on the Northeastern Accuplacer College Level Math placement test (Fall 2014 through October 2018).
  7. A minimum score of 35 on the Northeastern Mathematics placement test (pre-Fall 2014). 
  8. Completion of one of the majors or minors listed below will automatically fulfill the Math/Quantitative Reasoning requirement.

College of Arts and Sciences
Biology major
Chemistry major
Earth Science major
Environmental Science (major)
Physics (major or minor)
Economics (major or minor)
Mathematics (major or minor)
Psychology major

​College of Business and Technology
Accounting (major or minor)
Computer Science (major or minor)
Finance (major or minor)
General Business Administration major
International Business minor
Marketing major
Management (major or minor)

Improving Human Relations Requirement
Illinois Bill 110 ILCS 205/9.21 requires that "each public institution of higher education to include, in the general education requirements for obtaining a degree, coursework on improving human relations to include race, ethnicity, gender and other issues related to improving human relations to address racism and sexual harassment on their campuses, through existing courses."  The General Education Program includes coursework on improving race and ethnic relations. 

Effective Fall 2026, the IHR requirement can be fulfilled through completion of General Education requirements in the Humanities and the Social/Behavioral Sciences areas. For students who are not declared majors in these areas, this totals three Humanities courses spread across at least two programs, and three Social/Behavioral Science courses spread across at least two programs. This solution efficiently folds the IHR requirement into (mainstream) General Education requirements and removes the obstacles and the need for petitions of exception for the current requirement. It also follows a precedent set by other Illinois universities. In addition, we recommend:

  • Students transferring into NEIU from Illinois schools who have completed the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) equivalent courses for Humanities (HU) and Social/Behavioral Science (S/BS) GenEd credits will have fulfilled the IHR requirement.
  • Out-of-state and International students who have completed the equivalent to NEIU’s Humanities and Social/Behavioral Science GenEd credits will have fulfilled the requirement.
  • Transfer students who have not yet completed some or all Humanities and Social/Behavioral Science requirements will simply take them at NEIU, thus fulfilling the IHR requirement.
  • Current students who have yet to fulfill the requirement will be able to take advantage of the more streamlined process beginning Fall 2026.
  • Second bachelor’s students do not need to repeat the IHR requirement if they received a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university within the www.neiu.edu past 20 years.
  • BAIS (Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies) students who complete the program's 12-hour general education requirements in the humanities/fine arts and social sciences will have fulfilled the requirement.
  • UWW (University Without Walls) students who will not be completing the humanities and social/behavioral sciences GenEd courses will fulfill the IHR Requirement with NDP 310 (WIP)- Diversity in the Workplace.
  • For returning BAIS and UWW students, NDP 310 (WIP) Diversity in the Workplace will automatically fulfill the Improving Human Relations requirement.

In addition, the Registrar's Office is allowed to waive up to 1 hour of SB/HU. In cases where transfer coursework for international students is in question due to 9 credit hour combinations, the Registrar’s Office reserves the right to make a judgment regarding how many courses can be used.
Any student majoring in a Social/Behavioral Science or Humanities area should be deemed to have fulfilled their IHR requirement. Any request for an exception will be initiated at the relevant Dean’s office level and approved by Academic Affairs.