Core Curriculum

The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) requires that all students complete a goal-based Core Curriculum, as well as an approved major and an approved minor. Students who are pursuing an approved credit-intensive major or who are double majoring will have the minor requirement waived.

The distinctive SAS Core Curriculum is structured as a set of core arts and sciences learning goals. All are framed as activities students will be able to do at a foundational level by virtue of meeting the specified core goal. Courses may be counted as meeting up to two learning goals; students generally will complete the core in 10 to 14 courses of 3 or 4 credits each. A course used to meet core goals may also be used to fulfill a major or minor requirement. Only graded degree credit-bearing courses worth at least 3 credits and certified by the SAS faculty may be used to meet core goals. For lists of courses certified as meeting each goal, see here.
SAS Core Curriculum course lists are also available in the Rutgers online degree audit system, Degree Navigator, and each semester the Schedule of Classes is searchable by Core Code.

AREAS OF INQUIRY

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES [CCD], [CCO] Students must take two approved courses that meet these goals.

Diversities And Social Inequalities [CCD]

Analyze the degree to which forms of human differences and stratifications among social groups shape individual and group experiences of, and perspectives on, contemporary issues. Such differences and stratifications may include race, language, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, economic status, abilities, or other social distinctions and their intersections.

Analyze contemporary social justice issues and unbalanced social power systems.

Our Common Future [CCO] Analyze a contemporary global issue from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Analyze the relationship that science and technology have to a contemporary social issue.

Natural Sciences [NS] Students must take two approved courses that meet one or both of these goals.

Understand and apply basic principles and concepts in the physical or biological sciences.

Explain and be able to assess the relationship among assumptions, method, evidence, arguments, and theory in scientific analysis.

Social and Historical Analysis [HST] [SCL] Students must take two approved courses that meet one or both of these goals.

Historical Analysis [HST] Students must take one approved course that meets one or both of these goals.

Explain the development of some aspect of a society or culture over time, including the history of ideas or history of science.

Employ historical reasoning to study human endeavors, using appropriate assumptions, methods, evidence, and arguments.

Social Analysis [SCL] Students must take one approved courses that meets one or both of these goals.

Understand different theories about human culture, social identity, economic entities, political systems, and other forms of social organization.

Employ tools of social scientific reasoning to study particular questions or situations, using appropriate assumptions, methods, evidence, and arguments.

Arts and Humanities [AH] Students must take two approved courses that meet one or more of these goals.

Examine critically philosophical and other theoretical issues concerning the nature of reality, human experience, knowledge, value, and/or cultural production. [AHo]

Analyze arts and/or literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values, languages, cultures, and technologies. [AHp]

Understand the nature of human languages and their speakers. [AHq]

Engage critically in the process of creative expression. [AHr]

COGNITIVE SKILLS AND PROCESSES [WC] [WCr] [WCd]

Writing and Communication [WC] Students must take three approved courses that meet all 5 of these goals, including College Writing 01:355:101 or College Writing Extended 01:355:104; one WCr; and one WCd.

Communicate complex ideas effectively, in standard written English, to a general audience.

Respond effectively to editorial feedback from peers, instructors, and/or supervisors through successive drafts and revision. [WCr]

Communicate effectively in modes appropriate to a discipline or area of inquiry. [WCd]

Evaluate and critically assess sources and use the conventions of attribution and citation correctly.

Analyze and synthesize information and ideas from multiple sources to generate new insights.

Students receiving a score of 4 or above on the AP English composition or literature tests, or transferring in an equivalent to College Writing, are exempted from College Writing 01:355:101. For such students the writing and communication goals become a two-course requirement: WCr and WCd.

The Revision-Based Writing and Communication learning goal [WCr] must be fulfilled by taking a class at Rutgers University-New Brunswick; transfer and AP courses are not certified to meet this learning goal.

Quantitative and Formal Reasoning [QQ] [QR] Students must take two approved courses that meet one or more of these goals.

Formulate, evaluate, and communicate conclusions and inferences from quantitative information. [QQ]

Apply effective and efficient mathematical or other formal processes to reason and to solve problems. [QR]

Requirements (SAS)

REQUIREMENTS