Faculty of Arts

Why Arts at Waterloo?

community icon Develop human-centred skills at Waterloo. Find out how to persuade and communicate, and harness your imagination and empathy to become a good leader and valued team member. And most importantly, you’ll learn how to learn.

line drawing of a briefcase Get motivated and start carving out a meaningful and productive career by leveraging the power of co-op. You’ll test out different industries and types of work, all the while earning money to help pay for your education.

2 first-year courses capped at 25 studentsMake a seamless move from high school to university with the Arts First program. These unique, super small classes help you ramp up your communication and analysis skills – and they’re available for most Faculty of Arts programs.Designed to help

Learn more about the Arts First program →

Entry programs

Apply directly to one of these programs on your application. For Honours Arts and Honours Arts and Business, you choose your major at the end of first year.

Accounting and Financial Management
Computing and Financial Management
Global Business and Digital Arts
Honours Arts (choose one of 30 majors*)
Honours Arts and Business (choose one of 30 majors*)
Social Development Studies
Sustainability and Financial Management

Majors*

For Honours Arts and Honours Arts and Business, 40% of your courses are in your major. You can even do a double major or add a minor!

Anthropology
Classical Studies (or Classics)
Communication Studies (or Communication Arts and Design Practice)
Economics
English (choose Creative and Professional Writing; Literature; Literature and Rhetoric; or Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication)

Fine Arts (choose Studio Practice or Visual Culture)
French
Gender and Social Justice
German
History
Legal Studies
Liberal Studies
Medieval Studies
Music
Peace and Conflict Studies

How to choose a program or major in the Faculty of Arts →

Watch video on YouTube

Co-op and careers

In the Faculty of Arts, Honours Arts and Honours Arts and Business have both co-op and non-co-op streams, the direct entry program for Social Development Studies is non-co-op only, and the remainder of the entry programs are co-op-only programs.

Get paid. You’ll grow from up to 20 months of meaningful work and help offset the cost of your education.

superhero with arms in the air

Be ready. Your courses help prepare you for that first co-op job by developing core competencies.

Build skills. Gain knowledge with each work term and strengthen your résumé.

Learn more about co-op at Waterloo →

Watch video on YouTube

Join us on Spotify to get the inside scoop from recent Waterloo Arts grads. Where are they working? How did they get there and what did they learn along the way?

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