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Course information

Guide to First Year Programs

Guidebooks

A resource for Arts & Sciences students, the guidebook focuses on policies, the majors, experiential education, the core curriculum and major requirements. Copies are available in the dean's office, or as PDFs, below.

All students in the College of Arts & Sciences must complete the College’s Core Curriculum in order to graduate. The Core Curriculum is a set of course requirements intended to offer the breadth of experience essential to a well-rounded individual and the broad base of knowledge traditionally associated with a liberal arts education, as well as to promote life-long learning. The Core complements students’ major programs by providing opportunities to present ideas from other disciplines found in the arts, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and sciences. The College believes that the Core Curriculum should enhance students’ critical reading, writing, thinking, and communication skills; introduce the foundational methods of perception and inquiry; engage interest in the analytical and integrative tools used in disciplines outside the students’ major; and encourage constructive thought about identity and respect for other ethnic and cultural heritages. Instruction in Core courses strives to emphasize the critical skills, reflective thought, and ethical standards which form the basis of a well-educated, productive, creative, and intellectually responsible citizen.

BA and BS Core Curriculum Requirements
The College Core requirements, combined with students’ major requirements, enable Arts & Sciences students to satisfy the University’s ACE (Academic Common Experience) and Diversity (Core Category III) objectives for all undergraduate curricula. The ACE goals can be summarized in three general categories:

1. Skills that are needed in any career (effective thinking, communication, information literacy, interpersonal skills).

2. Awareness of how our understanding of events or concepts are shaped by the context in which they occur (natural world context; social world context; and cultural world context, which we treat separately as arts and humanities contexts, in Core Category II) as well as by such perspectives as history, ethics, aesthetics (historical, ethical and aesthetic perspectives, Core Category IV) and personal experiences.

3. Building Connections across disciplines; between theory and application; between college and work; between individuals and society; and between college study and lifelong learning. While many Core and major courses will focus on these goals, Core Category V courses are especially appropriate opportunities to engage students in these approaches to learning in the Core.

	View the graph of the categories in Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum
	For additional information about the Core, please consult "College Core Curriculum" under the Quick Links section on the right.