Degree Requirements

In this section:

General Education Requirements
Listings of Approved Courses
Basic Skills Requirements
Reminder to Transfer Students

Introduction

What do we expect Arts and Sciences undergraduate students to learn from their education in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences?

To use what one knows to understand what one does not know
To master a discipline
To contextualize the present through an understanding of the past
To reason quantitatively
To form an independent opinion grounded in knowledge
To use knowledge of difference to understand others
To articulate arguments, inferences, and deductions for a wide range of audiences in person and in writing
To come to know through the arts
To lead and to serve

Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science Degrees

Source: School of Arts and Sciences Gazette, vol. 37, no. 4, December 12, 2005

The goal of the School of Arts and Sciences is to provide liberal arts and pre-professional education for undergraduate students that is grounded in scholarly excellence and that gives students the knowledge, understanding, analytical tools, and communication skills that they need to become reflective citizens within a diverse and rapidly changing world.

The Arts and Sciences faculty believe that these educational goals for our students are best achieved through a process that involves two elements—the General Education Requirements offer an introduction to the broad range of subject matters and modes of thought and analysis found across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and this broad introduction is then complemented by in-depth studies in one or more major fields of disciplinary or interdisciplinary study, selected from amongst the programs of study devised, offered, and supervised by one of our departments or interdisciplinary programs.

The General Education Curriculum is designed to allow students to pursue their own interests at the same time that they are introduced to contemporary and diverse views of a broad range of human cultures, modes of thought, and bodies of knowledge. It is also designed to ensure that as many of the General Education courses as feasible are truly courses within the disciplines (or at intellectually rich interdisciplinary interfaces) that draw on the unique resources of a research university. Courses taken in the first few years at the University also, however, have an important role in the development of the skills needed for work in the major or for post-baccalaureate life, work, and study, and the curriculum begins with requirements that are primarily designed to ensure that each student acquires such skills.

Fulfilling Your General Education Requirements

The goal of the School of Arts and Sciences is to provide liberal arts and pre-professional education for undergraduate students that is grounded in scholarly excellence, and offers you the knowledge, understanding, analytical tools, and communication skills you need to become perceptive, reflective, and intellectually self-conscious citizens within a diverse and rapidly changing world. Our General Education Requirements are at the core of that goal.

Below is an overview of these requirements. Because new courses are constantly being added, we encourage you to talk with your advisor and visit the General Education Course Catalog (PDF) to get the most up-to-date information about which courses fulfill which requirements.

Writing Requirements

An Introductory Composition Course
This is a college-level composition course such as the Seminar in Composition offered by the Department of English, or one of the approved freshman seminars. Students who need to strengthen their writing skills may be required to take Composition Tutorial, Workshop in Composition, or Intensive Workshop in Composition. To fulfill this requirement, students must pass introductory composition courses with a grade of C- or better by the end of the first two terms of full-time enrollment. The director of composition may exempt students who have superior writing skills from the introductory composition requirement.
Two Writing Intensive Courses
After completing an introductory composition course, each student must complete two writing intensive courses (W-Courses) or one W-course and a second English composition course. Each student must satisfy one element of this requirement within his or her major field of study.

Quantitative and Formal Reasoning Requirement

All students are required to take and pass with a grade of C- or better at least one course in university-level mathematics (other than trigonometry) for which algebra is a prerequisite, or an approved course in statistics or mathematical or formal logic in a department of the School of Arts and Sciences.

General Education Requirements within the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and the Arts

Several courses in our curriculum may simultaneously fill more than one of the following requirements.

The specifics of the General Education Requirements are:

Course in Literature
The student will be introduced to the techniques of literary analysis through a broad range of literary texts. (If the course is also to count for W-course credit, the student must have satisfied the Composition requirement before enrolling in the literature course.)
Course in the Arts
This course introduces the student to the modes of analysis appropriate to music, theatre, or the visual arts, and might be a survey, genre, period, or artist course.
Second Course in Literature, the Arts, or in Creative Expression
This will be a second course in literature or the arts, or a course in which the student is given training in creative expression in writing, the theatrical arts, studio arts, filmmaking, photography, musical performance, musical composition, or dance.
Course in Philosophy
This course will emphasize close reading, analysis, and evaluation of classic works of philosophy.
Course in the Social Sciences
This course will treat topics considered to be of fundamental importance in the social or behavioral sciences (including social psychology).
Course in Historical Change
This course will deal with a crucial human time sequence, such as economic, political, social, and cultural change within a society or from one society to another; change in science and the idea of science; or change in literature and the arts.
Three Courses in the Natural Sciences
These courses will introduce students to scientific principles and concepts. The courses may be interdisciplinary (i.e., involving faculty from at least two departments in their development and implementation). No more than two courses may have the same department as the primary sponsor of the course.
Sequence of Two Foreign Language Courses
Each student is required to complete successfully two terms of university-level study in a single foreign language, unless he or she can demonstrate elementary proficiency in a foreign language. A student whose native language is not English, or who is bilingual, is exempted from this requirement.
Three Courses in Foreign Culture/International
Each student must complete three foreign culture/international courses chosen from at least two of the categories within the regional, comparative, or global classifications used for these courses.
Course in Non-Western Culture
At least one of the courses used to satisfy the international culture requirement or another general education requirement (e.g., historical change) must address a culture or cultures other than those of the Mediterranean, Central and Western Europe, and French- or English-speaking North America.

Listings of Approved General Education Courses

Courses that have been offered in recent years and that have been approved by Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Council as meeting the General Education Requirements are listed in the General Education Catalog; some of these courses are offered regularly, but students should be aware that many are only scheduled occasionally. The Schedule of Classes indicates which courses will be available in any given term, and advisors in the School's Advising Center and departmental advisors are familiar with which courses are scheduled regularly.

To read descriptions of courses that fulfill General Education Requirements, please search the Course Descriptions database.

Basic Skills Requirements

Because of the diversity of talents and educational backgrounds that our students bring to their undergraduate studies, some students may need to improve their basic writing and mathematical skills to meet the requirements of university-level courses.

Writing Skills. Students who need additional writing preparation will be required to take and pass, with a grade of C- or better, a course in Workshop in Composition or Intensive Composition Workshop by the end of the first term of full-time enrollment. Students who are placed in Seminar in Composition may be required to take the intensive version of the course to strengthen their writing skill.
Mathematical Proficiency. Students who need additional mathematical preparation, as indicated by algebra placement testing scores, will be required to take and pass, with a grade of C- or better, a course in algebra before the end of their first two terms of full-time enrollment. Students are exempt from the algebra placement test if they achieve a satisfactory grade on the advanced placement examination for calculus in high school, earn a C- or better in calculus through College in High School, complete an approved equivalent of Algebra or other mathematics course, or score 600 or better on the Math SAT.

Reminder to Transfer Students

When students are accepted into the School of Arts and Sciences, courses they took at other institutions are reviewed to determine which degree requirements the courses satisfy. In some cases, a requirement may be satisfied with a course not equivalent to an Arts and Sciences course if it meets the spirit of the requirement. The results of this review are included on your Undergraduate Degree Requirement Evaluation, which Student Records mails to a transfer student's home address. If you believe that a course taken at another school should satisfy a requirement, but it was not approved on your Undergraduate Degree Requirement Evaluation, you may petition by making an appointment with an assistant dean or the director of Student Records by calling 412-624-6480. If you are taking courses at another institution when you apply to Arts and Sciences, our staff will evaluate those courses for transfer credit when they appear on an official transcript from that institution.