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THE BACCALAUREATE DEGREE GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

The baccalaureate degree General Education program consists of 45 credits that are distributed among two General Education components:

  1. (1) Skills (15 credits) and
  2. (2) Knowledge Domains (30 credits) in the Natural Sciences, Arts, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Health and Physical Activity. Every baccalaureate degree student also completes the First-Year Seminar, United States Cultures and International Cultures, and Writing Across the Curriculum requirements.

A restriction is placed on students in majors that are closely linked to the Knowledge Domains of Natural Sciences, Arts, Humanities, and Social and Behavioral Sciences to ensure that they participate in the full breadth of General Education. These students may not use a course in their academic major to satisfy one of the Knowledge Domains requirements. For example, an Economics major may not use an economics course to fulfill his/her social and behavioral sciences requirement. Also, students may not count courses cross-listed with courses in their major to fulfill one of the General Education Knowledge Domain, e.g., a Theatre major may not register for THEA 208 (GA;US;IL) / AAAS 208 (GA;US;IL) and have it count in the Arts requirement.

BACCALAUREATE DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
GENERAL EDUCATION

SKILLS credits
Writing/Speaking (GWS) 9 credits
Quantification (GQ) 6 credits
total 15 credits
 
KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS credits
Health and Physical Activity (GHA) 3 credits
Natural Sciences (GN) 9 credits
Arts (GA) 6 credits
Humanities (GH) 6 credits
Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS) 6 credits
total 30 credits
 
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS credits
First-Year Seminar (S, T, X or PSU)* credits vary
United States Cultures (US) 3 credits**
International Cultures (IL) 3 credits**
Writing Across the Curriculum (W, M, X,Y) 3 credits**
 

*NOTE: Beginning with the 2009 summer session, the First-Year Seminar requirement will be replaced by First-Year Engagement requirements for each University Park academic college, each of the nineteen Commonwealth campuses, and the Division of Undergraduate Studies. Students at the University Park campus will be required to complete at least 1 credit of first-year seminar and meet any other first-year requirements specified by their home college. Students at the Commonwealth campuses will be required to complete the first-year experiences specified by their campus. First-year students entering Penn State in summer 2009 and thereafter should consult their enrollment home for these requirements.

**May be completed by designated courses that also meet other degree or General Education requirements.

Flexibility of the Baccalaureate Degree General Education Requirements

Penn State wants students to use General Education to experiment and explore, to take academic risks, to discover things they did not know before, and to learn to do things they have not done before. To that end, the General Education program extends the concept of flexibility to all aspects of the degree program.

Students may, with the permission of their adviser and dean's representative:

  1. Substitute a 200- to 499-level course in an area of General Education for a course found on the General Education list. For example, a student may take a 400-level course in history and use it to meet the General Education requirement satisfied by a comparable lower- level history course.
  2. Substitute a foreign language at the twelfth credit level of proficiency, as measured by the Penn State foreign language offerings, for 3 credits in any of the categories of General Education. Baccalaureate degree students may substitute study in a foreign/second language at the twelfth credit level of proficiency or higher for any three credits in any of the categories of general education only if those three credits are in language study beyond their degree requirements.*
  3. Substitute a third course in one of the Knowledge Domains areas of Arts, Humanities, or Social and Behavioral Sciences for a second course in one of the other areas. For example, a student might take 3 courses in the Arts, two courses in the Humanities, and only one course in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. This substitution is often referred to as the 9-6-3 sequence, representing the 9 credits, 6 credits, and 3 credits completed in place of the specified 6-6-6.*
  4. Meet the United States Cultures (US) and International Cultures (IL) requirement through completion of an experiential learning program or practicum (one-semester or year long) approved by their College Dean's Office. Approved Penn State Education Abroad Programs may be used to satisfy the International Cultures (IL) requirement.
  5. Meet the First-Year Seminar (FYS) requirement through completion of a FYS course offered by any unit of the University. Thus, a student who successfully completes a FYS course in one college, prior to transferring to another college, will not be required to complete another FYS. However, since there are various modes of offering a FYS throughout the University, students transferring to a new college may find that a required course that is also a FYS must still be taken.

    *The use of these two substitutions (No. 2 and No. 3 above), either alone or in combination, may not lead to the complete elimination of any area in the skills or knowledge domains categories in the student's general education program.