General Education Refresher
It is hard to believe that this summer will be two years since the new General Education requirements started! This edition of the Advising Essentials will provide a refresher on those updated requirements, including some new tips and nuances that we have learned since their inception.
The Basics
Penn State students who started in the Summer 2018 semester and after must fulfill the following General Education requirements:
  • Students must have at least one course in each Knowledge Domain that is single-domain. For example, a student cannot take two Interdomain courses that are partially Arts courses to fulfill the Arts Knowledge Domain. The student must take one stand-alone Arts course and the other Arts course could be fulfilled by an Interdomain course or another stand-alone.

  • Most students will take ENGL 15, CAS 100, and ENGL 202 to fulfill their Writing & Speaking requirements. There are some exceptions, including:

  • CAS 137 & CAS 138 are required for Schreyer's Honors students and are taken instead of ENGL 15 and CAS 100.

  • Students majoring in BioRenewable Systems in the College of Agricultural Sciences take BRS 391 instead of ENGL 202.

  • There are two substitution options available to students within the Knowledge Domains. They may do one or both of these substitutions. The substitutions cannot eliminate a whole category.

  • Move Three Substitution

  • Students may take three credits away from one domain and move it into another domain. Ex: If a student wants to take one fewer Humanities class, they could move 3 credits out of Humanities and add it to the Arts category, for a total of 9 credits in the Arts and 3 credits in the Humanities.

  • World Language Substitution

  • Students who are in a major that requires a world language can take one more course beyond the 12th credit level proficiency and use that course to substitute for one Knowledge Domain requirement.

  • Students who are in a major that does not require a world language can take up to the 12th credit level proficiency in a language. This will fulfill 3 credits in one of the Knowledge Domain categories.

  • The Interdomain, United States Cultures, and International cultures requirements can be fulfilled while simultaneously fulfilling other Knowledge Domain requirements.
Degree Audit Considerations
If students are very intentional with their course selection, they may be able to fulfill the Knowledge Domain requirements with fewer than 30 credits (due to Interdomain courses). If this happens, students must still take 30 credits in the Knowledge Domains. They can simply take courses in any Knowledge Domain category to fulfill the 30 credit requirement.

Toward the bottom of a student's degree audit there is a section that keeps track of the 30 credit requirement. A student may have the other General Education requirements on their degree audit fulfilled but this one could remain unfulfilled.
Resources
  • This checksheet was created by Behrend faculty member Glenn Kumhera and it is one way of visualizing the General Education requirements. Students (and advisers!) can use this sheet to keep track of progress toward fulfilling the requirements.

  • The Office for General Education has an online GenEd Planning Tool. This tool allows students to input the courses they have already taken in that category and search for classes that will fulfill those specific requirements.

  • This tutorial shows how to use the Search by Course Attribute feature in Schedule Builder, which can be used to find General Education courses when creating a schedule.

  • The DUS Advisers recorded a student webinar that reviews the General Education requirements and using a degree audit. This is a great resource to send to a student if they need further clarification.

  • Use this visual to help students understand the importance of taking General Education courses and how they can influence career preparation.
If you have questions about General Education or would like additional training on the topic, the DUS advisers are more than happy to help! Please reach out by calling 814-898-6164 or emailing askacpc@psu.edu.

Thank you,