General Education Requirements
Berea College's curriculum includes an interdisciplinary General Education curriculum in addition to intensive study in a major. As an institution with a liberal arts foundation and outlook, the College has a responsibility to educate the whole person. Berea College's General Education curriculum addresses Berea's Great Commitments and is designed to help students develop important knowledge, skills, and habits of mind. The curriculum extends from the first year through the senior year and includes, in addition to course work, convocations and other experiences.
All Berea College degrees include the following General Education Requirements.
- GSTR 110: Writing Seminar I: Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts
- Note: credit for this course cannot be transferred in; however, transfer students who took College Composition while attending a regionally-accredited college or university as a degree-seeking student—and who earned a grade of B or higher in the course—can waive this requirement and take GSTR 210 in their first term of attendance.
- GSTR 210: Writing Seminar II: Identity and Diversity in the United States (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
- GSTR 310: Understandings of Christianity (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
- GSTR 332: Scientific Origins OR the optional alternative of two approved Natural Science courses in two different disciplines, at least one of which must be approved as a Natural Science Laboratory course. To date, the courses listed here have been approved to meet either the Natural Science course (CHM 101, HIS 110 and PHY 110) or the Natural Science Laboratory course (ANR 110, ANR 130, BIO 100, BIO 101, BIO 201, BIO 110, CHM 113, CHM 131, GEO 101, GEO 200, PHY 111 and PHY 127) part of this requirement.
- GSTR 410: Seminar in Contemporary Global Issues (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
- Practical Reasoning Requirement (two approved courses, at least one of which must be firmly grounded in mathematics or statistics)
- Six Perspectives Areas—Arts; Social Science; Western History; Religion; African Americans', Appalachians', Women's; and International (Language or World Culture option)
- Lifetime Health and Wellness: WELL 101, WELL 102 and Physical Activity Requirement
- Active Learning Experience (ALE)
- Developmental Mathematics Requirement
- Twenty (20) courses taken outside the major
- Convocation Requirement
NOTE: Some Berea College courses can be used to fulfill more than one requirement. When a course is used to satisfy both a General Education requirement and a major requirement (i.e., PSY 100: General Psychology, which meets the General Education Social Science Perspective, as well as the requirement for the Psychology major), the credit is counted only once and in the major discipline. No single course may fulfill more than two General Education requirements and no single transfer course can fulfill more than one General Education requirement. The required General Studies courses (GSTR 110, GSTR 210, GSTR 310, GSTR 332, and GSTR 410) cannot be used to fulfill any additional requirements.