General University Requirements

Objectives

The general university requirements for students 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 opportunities for the acquisition and development of writing, linguistic, and quantitative skills; to introduce 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.

Students are held responsible to the requirements in place and published in the Bulletin in the year they enter Brandeis. Thus the requirements listed below apply to students entering Brandeis in fall 2007 and thereafter. Students who entered in a previous semester should consult the appropriate Bulletin.

A. University Seminar
All students in their first year will complete one semester course from the USEM program.

B. University Writing
All students in their first year will complete one semester course from the UWS program.

Students entering in the fall of 2007 and thereafter will complete one writing-intensive course, and either a second writing-intensive course or an oral communication course.

Students normally complete the writing-intensive or oral communication component of the writing requirement in their second or third year. Courses numbered at the 90 level may not satisfy the writing-intensive or oral communication designation.

C. Quantitative Reasoning
All students will take one course that is designated as meeting the quantitative reasoning requirement.

D. Foreign Language
The foreign language requirement is met by successful completion of a third semester course (normally numbered at the 30 level) 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.

E. Non-Western and Comparative Studies
Students will complete one semester course designated as meeting the requirement in non-Western and comparative studies.

F. 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, for example, in satisfying the requirements of a major or minor. Between and among general university requirements, the only limitations on double-counting are as follows: 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 the quantitative reasoning requirement and the science component of this requirement. No courses numbered in the 90 level 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 non-Western and comparative studies, quantitative reasoning, USEM, UWS, writing-intensive, and oral communication requirements.