OVERVIEW AND GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

TWO COLLEGES WITH SHARED REQUIREMENTS AND PROGRAMS

The Colleges of Liberal Arts and Science and Mathematics share the same general education requirements. Undecided students will be given the opportunity to choose between the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Science and Mathematics.

The Undergraduate Program

General Education

The purpose of general education is to acquire knowledge, capabilities, and attitudes that form a foundation for lifelong learning. Both the CLA and the CSM curricula emphasize the development of critical reading, analytic thinking, quantitative reasoning, and effective writing capabilities. In addition, students explore major areas of knowledge through course work in several areas described below under Distribution I and Distribution II.

The Major

To ensure that the breadth of learning developed through general education is balanced by in-depth understanding in at least one field, each student is required to complete a major program involving ten to twelve courses. Students should declare a major no later than the beginning of the semester immediately following the accumulation of 60 graduation credits. Transfer students who enter the university with 60 or more earned credits should declare a major during their first semester of residency. The major programs are designed to help students prepare for graduate school, for employment, or for thorough exploration of an area of personal interest. The College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science and Mathematics offer a total of 37 major programs, some of which are interdisciplinary, and many of which contain a number of alternative tracks. Students wishing to develop major programs of their own design may do so with faculty guidance through a special Individual Major Option.

Elective Courses and Programs

In addition to general education courses and major programs, students may complete their graduation credits with courses selected freely from any CLA or CSM department. Alternatively, students may complete their elective credits by taking organized course sequences: minors within departments, interdisciplinary and career-oriented programs of study, and programs offering certificates. Such programs, taken through the elective portion of the curriculum, can add further coherence to the undergraduate experience. These offerings are listed in the introductory pages of each college’s section of this publication.

Diversity

In recent years many academic institutions have turned their attention to issues of human diversity within our pluralistic society in order to prepare students educationally for critical understanding of today’s world. The composition of the student body and faculty at the University of Massachusetts Boston clearly reflects the diversity of the city, and of the nation as a whole. The campus and the university represent a community dedicated to inclusion, civility, and the understanding and appreciation of individual differences. Among the university’s many diversity-related programs, its curriculum makes diversity a part of every student’s education, by requiring two courses, one of which focuses on diversity in the United States, and the other on international diversity.