SFS undergraduate first-year students entering in the fall of 2018 will have a new curriculum with fewer requirements and more flexibility, with a new science requirement for the first time in the School’s nearly 100-year history. The changes will allow students to explore opportunities like one-credit courses as well as give them greater freedom to pursue certificates, language minors, and study abroad.
The updated curriculum is being instituted after a multi-year process, which included consultations with students, faculty and alumni. These changes will not affect current undergraduate students at the SFS and transfer students entering during the 2018-2019 academic year.
The new science requirement ensures that all SFS students are conversant with scientific problems and their impact on the world today.
“Upon the SFS Centennial, we must assure that our students are prepared to make a positive impact on a new century,” says SFS Dean Joel Hellman. “That means solving global problems involving science and technology that are central to today’s world. The SFS curriculum will change to keep our school—and our graduates—leaders in global innovation.”
Other changes include reducing the number of courses for SFS majors from 10-12 to 8-10; compressing the economics requirement from four courses to three; and allowing for one-credit and other non-traditional courses to count toward graduation by reducing the number of three or more-credit courses needed to graduate from 40 to 38 while maintaining the overall credit requirement of 120 credits.