Keep tabs on gen eds to avoid graduation snafus

Whether you view it as a terrible curse inflicted on liberal arts students everywhere or as… Whether you view it as a terrible curse inflicted on liberal arts students everywhere or as an eye-opening opportunity to explore outside your academic forte, general education requirements are necessary for graduation, so you may as well pick the best ones you can.

PeopleSoft, the online registration and course system at Pitt, provides lists of which courses fulfill gen ed requirements. It will also keep a record of which requirements you’ve fulfilled and which are left to complete.

Another way to find out which courses fulfill certain requirements is www.as.pitt.edu. Under “offices,” click on “undergraduates,” then “advising center,” and finally on “course descriptions.” From here, you can either search by the course and subject to see which requirement(s) the course fulfills, or you can search based on the requirement itself and access a list of all courses that fulfill a specific requirement.

“I usually recommend for students to take one or two [general education requirements] a semester,” Pitt adviser Gregory Allen said. “So by the time they’re a senior, they’re pretty much all done. You don’t usually want to be a senior having to take a lot of your gen ed requirements.

Perhaps the most narrow are the international requirements. There are four – regional, comparative, global and an international non-western requirement. Of the regional, comparative and global groups, students must take courses from at least two of these different categories. For example, students cannot pass the international requirement by taking three regional international courses or three comparative.

The most popular non-western course is Russian fairy tales. While a fun course, shop around a bit before choosing it – there are plenty of interesting options for this group.

Another group is the natural sciences. As with the international requirement, something important to remember is that at least one of these science courses must be from a different subject, for example, you cannot take three psychology courses or three chemistry courses – at least one must be from a separate department. Biology for non-majors is a popular choice, as is stars, galaxies and the cosmos in the astronomy department. While both are interesting, be careful if you know you’re not a science person – sticking with something like psychology courses may be a safer bet.

Next is the quantitative and formal reasoning requirement, or the math requirement. Unless students are able to place out by scoring a 600 on the math section of the SAT or earning a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP Calculus exam, at least one mathematics course other than trigonometry must be fulfilled. Algebra is a prerequisite for this option, while the other option is taking an approved statistics, mathematical or formal logic course in one department in the School of Arts and Sciences. This is one of two requirements with a time restraint on it – students must complete the math requirement within their first two semesters at Pitt.

To fulfill the writing requirement, students must take their seminar in composition by the end of their first two semesters after completing Pitt’s writing placement exam. The course must be passed with a grade of C- or better.

“If you score a 600 or higher on the verbal part of your SATs, you don’t have to take our writing placement exam,” Allen said. “It determines whether you go into seminar in composition 0200 or equivalent or you might have to start at a lower one.”

“If you get a 5 on the English AP exam and a 600 verbal SAT then you can place out of the [seminar in composition requirement] altogether.”

Also, two writing intensive, or W-courses, must be taken – one must be in the student’s major and the other course can be outside a student’s major. Another option is taking one W-course and one other composition course – again with one taken in the student’s major.

One course in literature is required, as is one course in the arts and a third course from either literature or the arts is necessary as well. A creative expression course may also fulfill the third part with courses like introduction to poetry writing, public speaking, black and white photography, piano, sculpture, drawing or introduction to performance.

Other required areas are philosophy, social sciences and history. One can take courses like introduction to ethics, the nature of emotions or history of ancient philosophy to fulfill the philosophy requirement; introduction to archeology, game theory principles; religion and politics in the social sciences; and the dictators or origins of Christianity for the historical change requirement. Of course, this is just to name a few.

Unlike high school, Spanish isn’t the most popular foreign language to take “just because.” With so many choices, ranging from Hebrew to Chinese to Slovak, foreign languages can definitely be one of the more fun categories to explore. Students must take at least two semesters in the same language to complete this requirement, unless they placed out of it by having two years of one language in high school.

For students in different undergraduate schools like engineering, general education requirements are a little different. Engineers only have to take six gen eds and engineering advisers usually fit them into a student’s schedule in a set pattern with little flexibility. Nursing majors experience a similar set up, while business and pharmacy students have a few more options.

Be careful to fulfill your requirements before you approach senior year, and make sure to check with an adviser before the beginning of senior year to ensure you didn’t miss anything.

According to Allen, “Even though a course may fulfill more than one requirement you can only use it to fulfill one requirement, unless it fulfills non-western,” he said.

But Allen’s main advice is to take what you like.

“Just try to find something that’s interesting,” he said. “Because usually, even if it’s not the easiest class in the world, it will be interesting to you, and you won’t mind doing the work.”