Area Distribution

By means of this requirement the College seeks to instill an understanding and an appreciation of the major areas of learning. Students are not expected to master all areas in detail, but should develop a coherent view of essential concepts, structures, and intellectual methods that typify these disciplines.

Courses offered by the academic departments and programs of the College are divided into five area categories: the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, mathematics and symbolic analysis, and creative expression. Each of these divisions represents a different perspective on human knowledge and learning; some departments and programs overlap these divisions while others may stand outside them. Interdisciplinary courses combine the approaches of more than one area category in order to examine the differences and similarities between disciplines and explore alternative ways of discovering and organizing knowledge.

All candidates for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees from the College must fulfill the 30-credit Distribution Requirement.

This broad intellectual experience, which forms an essential part of a liberal arts education, is to be achieved in the following way:

1. Students must complete 7 credits in each of the following three areas: Natural Science (NS), Social Science (SS), and Humanities (HU), for a total of 21 credits.
2. Students must also complete 3 additional credits in three of the following five areas: (NS), (SS), (HU), Mathematical and Symbolic Analysis (MSA), and Creative Expression (CE), for a total of 9 credits. Credits in courses designated Interdisciplinary (ID) may be used to satisfy up to 9 credits of this part of the requirement.