General Education
The General Education requirements were changed for the Summer 2018 incoming class of students, which means you may be seeing many advisees in their third year who need to follow the updated requirements. This edition of the Advising Essentials covers (almost) everything you need to know about the updated General Education requirements.
Former General Education Requirements:
  • For students starting at Penn State PRIOR to Summer 2018.

  • Foundations courses (ENGL 15, CAS 100, ENGL 202, GQ) required a D or better to be considered passing.

  • Students could complete a 3/6/9 substitution with Arts, Humanities, and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Updated General Education Requirements:
  • For students starting at Penn State Summer 2018 and after.

  • Foundations courses (ENGL 15, CAS 100, ENGL 202, GQ) require a C or better to be considered passing.

  • Students can complete a "Move 3" substitution by taking 3 credits away from one Knowledge Domain and moving it to another Knowledge Domain; this includes Arts, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Health and Wellness.

  • Students now need 6 credits of Integrative Studies; this can be fulfilled with two interdomain courses or two linked courses. Interdomain courses often has an "N" in their suffix (ex: ASTRO 141N).

  • An interdomain course is 1 course that spans 2 Knowledge Domains (similar to how the US and IL requirements function).

  • Students must take at least 1 stand-alone course in each of the Knowledge Domains, regardless of substitutions or integrative courses (see below for details).
What Didn't Change:
  • Students must complete 30 credits in the Knowledge Domains.

  • Students still need to take courses that fulfill the United States Cultures and International Cultures requirements.

  • Other graduation requirements, such as First Year Seminar and Writing Across the Curriculum, must be completed.

  • Students may substitute 12th-level language proficiency for three credits in one of the Knowledge Domains.

Knowledge Domain 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.


  • 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 would like to discuss the new requirements in detail, or you would like to run through a student scenario, please reach out to the DUS Advisers are we are more than happy to help.