General Education

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General Eduation Requirements

The General Education requirements can be found in the SSU catalog, or on the web. If you follow the disciplinary option, you can think of the requirements as a checklist. You must satisfy every one of the checklist entries in order to meet the general education requirements for graduation. A single course might allow you to check off two or more entries in the checklist. For example, AMCS339 satisfies the requirement for a course in area D1, the ethnic studies requirement, and (if you have reached junior status) 3 units of upper division general education coursework.

A typical checklist might contain the following entries (this list is not exhaustive):

The minimum requirement is that you take one course from each of the disciplinary areas. If you choose your courses properly you can satisfy all the other checklist requirements with that minimal set of courses. However, if you are careless in choosing courses you may find it necessary to take additional courses to satisfy all the requirements. For example, if you take PHYS 100, BIOL 115 and CS 150, you have satisfied areas B1, B2, and B3, but not your science lab requirement. Since there are no science labs outside these three areas, you will have to take another area B1 or B3 course for your science lab requirement.

Upper Division General Education

Upper division courses taken before the semester in which you reach 60 units will not count as upper division general education. Notice that it is the semester in which you reach 60 units that is important. If you start a semester with 54 units completed and take 2 upper division general education courses, each for 3 units, then if you pass both courses you will reach 60 units that semester and both courses count as upper division general education. If you fail to complete all your courses that semester and do not reach 60 units, the upper division courses do not count as upper division general education. They do still count as general education, just not upper division.

The upper division general education courses are supposed to be completed in 3 different categories (area B, C, D, or E - area A has no upper division courses at this time). If you transfer most of your general education units from another school, you may find yourself with only the 9 upper division units to complete at SSU, and with an evaluation of transfer credit that leaves three categories still to be done, but with some of those categories in the same area. For example, you might have to complete courses in areas C1, C2 and E. Under these circumstances the requirement that the upper division courses be in different areas is waived. As a general rule of thumb, transfer students must take the upper division general education classes in as many different areas as possible without adding otherwise unnecessary courses to their schedule.

Evalution of Transfer Credit

If you transfer to SSU from another school, your transcripts will be examined when you apply and an evaluation will be made of the coursework you have completed that will count toward your general education reqirements. You will be sent a documentshowing this evaluation. If you feel this evaluation is inaccurate you should speak with the person who prepared the evaluation (whose name is provided on the document).

If, during your stay at SSU, you take additional courses at another school that will satisfy some general education requirements, you must provide transcripts to Admissions and Records. That office will prepare a new evaluation of transfer credit.

If you want to know before you apply to SSU what courses might count towards general education ... (to be completed).

Credit By Examination

You can satisfy the requirements in U.S. Constitution and in California Government by examination. This might be useful if you have already taken a politics course in another state. These examinations are listed in the SSU catalog as POLS 150 and POLS 151.

Substitution of Courses

Usually the only courses that count for general education are those listed explicitely in the current catalog or schedule of classes as general education classes. However, you can petition to use other classes to meet general education requirements. This might be desirable if you have transferred to SSU and the categories which remain to be completed do not have upper division courses in them. For example, if you still have the U.S. History requirement to complete, and you have only the 9 upper division units of general education still to complete, you might petition to substitute an upper division U.S. history class so that you can meet the U.S. History requirement without taking more than 3 classes.

The only upper division US History classes that can meet the general education requirements are those that cover at least a century of history. The following courses are acceptable: HIST 446, HIST 460, HIST 468, and HIST 477.

The following upper division courses can be used to satisfy the state and local government and Constitution requirements: POLS 426, and POLS 427. The following upper division courses can be used to satisfy the state and local government requirements (but not the Constitution requirement): POLS 320