General Education

Chair of the Committee on General Education

Suchandra Basu

General Information

The General Education Program provides a foundation for deeper study in a wide range of academic disciplines. Through the General Education Program, students develop the skills and habits of mind necessary for full participation in an increasingly complex world. The structure comprises both foundational courses and upper-division courses that afford students the opportunity to further develop in their majors skills acquired in foundational courses and also to make connections across disciplinary boundaries. Students will develop the capacity to learn in their undergraduate courses and for the rest of their lives; we believe that goal requires introducing them to many different kinds of knowledge and offering many occasions for relating the knowledge they acquire. One key goal is to engage students fully in their own educations; we therefore offer as much choice and flexibility as possible in course selection and, crucially, a first-year seminar meant to excite student interest in college-level learning and to introduce the habits of inquiry essential to the academic enterprise. The program also includes an integrated course that emphasizes comparative perspectives on particular topics or ideas.

Program Requirements

All degree programs require both the completion of one 3-4 credit course in each of nine categories (three Core courses and six Distribution courses) AND the completion of at least 40 total credits of General Education courses.