General University Requirements
S = Objectives
The general requirements for students entering Brandeis in the fall of 1994 and thereafter incorporate a variety of interconnected elements to build a strong, general education foundation. The fundamental goals of the program are to improve students' abilities to integrate knowledge from different fields; to provide more extensive opportunities for the acquisition and development of writing, linguistic, and quantitative skills; to introduce greater flexibility in the scheduling of degree requirements throughout the undergraduate career; and to expand students' opportunities to interact with faculty in small class settings in the first year of instruction.
S = General University Requirements
The basic outline of the requirements
for students who entered Brandeis in the fall of 1994 and thereafter
is as follows:
A. The Cluster Program
All students will complete
three interrelated semester courses from an approved "cluster,"
including selections from at least two different schools of the
University: Creative Arts, Humanities, Science, and Social Science.
B. University Seminar in Humanistic Inquiries
All students in their first
year will complete one semester course from the USEM program.
C. University Writing
All students will complete
two components of the writing requirement: WL 1a (University Writing
Seminar) and a writing intensive course. All first-year students
are required to take WL 1a, the University Writing Seminar that
is offered in conjunction with each University Seminar in Humanistic
Inquiries. When students select their seminars, they will simultaneously
enroll for the associated writing lab. Normally, in their second
or third years, students will take a course which is designated
as writing intensive. Courses numbered in the 90s shall not be
eligible for a writing intensive designation.
D. Quantitative Reasoning
All students will take one
course which is designated as meeting the quantitative reasoning
requirement.
E. Foreign Language
The foreign language requirement
is met by successful completion of a third semester course (normally
numbered in the 30s) in the introductory language sequence. No
more than one course (and never the final one) in the sequence
may be taken on the pass-fail grading option.
F. Non-Western and Comparative Studies
Students will complete one
semester course designated as meeting the requirement in non-Western
and comparative studies.
G. School Distribution
Students will complete one
semester course in each of the four schools of the University:
Creative Arts, Humanities, Science, and Social Science. In general,
"double counting" is encouraged; most students will
satisfy the school distribution requirement in the context of
others, e.g., in satisfying the requirements of a cluster, a major,
a minor, or a program. Between and among general University requirements,
the only limitations on double counting are as follows: University
Seminars in Humanistic Inquiries are interdisciplinary in character
and have membership in no specific school of the University. The
three course foreign language sequence may not be applied toward
the humanities component of this requirement. No single course
in a student's program may satisfy both the quantitative reasoning
requirement and the science component of this requirement. No
courses numbered in the 90s may apply toward this component. Finally,
a single course may be used toward school distribution in only
one school.
The pages that follow contain
additional information (including course lists) for the cluster,
non-Western and comparative studies, quantitative reasoning, University
seminar, and writing requirements.