About General Education

Requirements for graduation include the General Education Program — courses that allow you to develop and/or demonstrate these abilities and attributes:

• oral and written communication
• problem-solving, logical reasoning, and analysis
• use of appropriate technologies to suit the purpose
• individual initiative
• team-building and teamwork
• interpersonal effectiveness
• professional and personal ethics
• respect for human differences

General Education courses count for about one-third of your work in earning a degree. The program consists of courses intended to foster development of critical reading and writing skills (including, for most students, first-year and intermediate seminars), quantitative reasoning requirement, and distribution requirements. Meeting the distribution requirements involves completing courses in the arts and humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, social and behavioral sciences, and world languages and culture.

The General Education Program’s first goal is to give you, at the start of your college career, a strong foundation for success in courses you’ll take later on. The program also aims to strengthen your capacity and enthusiasm for lifelong learning — to help you make your way successfully into the future.