<p>I do recall that many engineering majors took humanities and social studies breadth courses passed / not-passed (C- was the minimum to get a P in this case, and neither P nor NP counted in one’s GPA). While most of the humanities and social studies courses typically taken by non-majors for breadth purposes were fairly easy to pass (and low workload compared to some of the ones required for majors in those subjects), getting A grades was not necessarily easy, especially for those whose ability in that general area was relatively weak.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some of the engineering students with more well rounded abilities did take those breadth courses for letter grades.</p>