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.
- L&I 100: Explorations
- 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 L&I 200: Discoveries in their first term of attendance.
- L&I 200: Discoveries
- Note: credit for this course cannot be transferred in; however, transfer students who took two College Composition courses while attending a regionally-accredited college or university as a degree-seeking student—and who earned a grade of B or higher in the courses—can waive this requirement and take L&I 300: Intersectional Justice in the United States in their first term of attendance.
- L&I 300: Intersectional Justice in the United States (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
- L&I 400: Global Issues (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
- Eight Ways of Knowing: one each of Applied Disciplines, Creative Arts, Cultural & Ethnic Studies, Humanities, Quantitative, Social Science, and two Natural Science courses (one must have a laboratory component)
- Five Value Areas: Beyond the Borders, Holistic Wellness, Power & Equity, Seeking Meaning, and Sustainability
- Four Richness Areas: One each of Quantitatively Rich and International Rich (may be a second Beyond the Borders Value course) and two Writing Rich courses
- Two Wellness Activity Courses (.25 credits)
- Active Learning Experience (ALE)
- Developmental Mathematics Requirement
- Swim Requirement (may be met with a test or by completion of WELL 200 or WELL 209)
- 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 fulfills both a major requirement and General Education requirement (i.e., PSY 100: General Psychology, which meets the General Education Social Science Way of Knowing, as well as the requirement in the Psychology major), the credit is counted only once and in the major discipline (i.e. does not count toward the 20 credits outside the major). A single course may fulfill one Way of Knowing, one Value, and one ore more Richness. The required General Studies courses (L&I 100, L&I 200, L&I 300, and L&I 400) cannot be used to fulfill any additional requirements.