Year Two Electives:

There are two 'humanities and social sciences' electives in the second year of the CAS program. These courses must satisfy the requirements of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board, i.e. they must deal with 'the central thought processes and methodologies of the humanities and social sciences'. This basically just means that you must study something that is traditionally thought of as a humanities or social science topic - just about anything from the Arts faculty satisfies this, in addition to various programs (such as Psychology) taught in other faculties.

Language acquisition courses do not satisfy this requirement and should thus be avoided.

Economics courses are also not allowed, even though the topic would generally be considered a 'social science'. The reason for this is that there is a mandatory course in engineering economics already in the curriculum and we wish to avoid duplication.

Another requirement for these two courses that is specific to the Dal engineering faculty is that they must both include a strong writing component. This means that part of your grade in the selected courses must depend on your ability to write in the English language. Almost any course from the Acadia departments of History, English, Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, Womens and Gender Studies, Comparative Religion, Theater or Classics will satisfy this requirement. Certain courses from Art and Music also fit the bill.

Finally, both of these humanities elective courses must be taken in a classroom environment at the university level. Thus, neither high school transfer credits or 'Distance Ed' courses can be used to fill the requirement.

The vast majority of courses offered by our Faculty of Arts satisfy these requirements. Contact the School of Engineering if you are unsure if your choice of electives are acceptable.

For a list of possible humanities credits listed by the School of Engineering click here.