Navigating general education requirements (at Penn and beyond!)

When I was whittling down colleges off my application list in high school, a big deciding factor for me was how many general education requirements each school had. Unlike liberal arts colleges, most universities require all undergraduates to take a few STEM courses, a few humanities/social sciences, alongside some sort of language.

 In the College, the sector and foundational requirements are our unique categories for gen. ed’s, alongside four semesters of a foreign language. Initially, I dreaded requirements like “formal reasoning and analysis” or “quantitative data analysis”, as it brought back flashbacks to high school chemistry and math classes. But as a junior on the cusp of finishing all the gen. ed’s, I’ve come to realize how doable they can be for three main reasons:

 1) The sectors and foundational requirements are multi-disciplinary. If STEM is not your strong suit, you can take math courses catered towards humanities majors like “Ideas of Mathematics” that imbues philosophy and history into its curriculum, or “Game Theory” which applies statistical concepts to board games. Vice versa, classes like “History of Medicine” or “American Public Health Policy” combine STEM concepts with social science. These are just a few examples of the many classes that bridge between different subject areas that fulfill similar requirements.

 2) The community. It’s very cheesy to say, but what is the one caveat of suffering through a course you don’t like? Making friends while doing it! I decided to take a high-level Korean language course in my first semester, and while it wasn’t productive for any requirement, I have no regrets. That class taught me that taking a smaller-sized course is a much more approachable way to make friends in your first semester. It’s also a method to get a lot closer to the professor who teaches it, as you’ll find that smaller classes invite greater discussion.

 3) You’ll discover why you like certain subjects over others. Coming in as a psychology major and then switching to history, it’s no surprise that after taking STEM courses I didn’t have a magical switch-up into becoming a chemistry major. Rather, my point is that experience is the best way to rule out which courses you like and don’t like, and being able to pinpoint a reason as to why will help you filter out career paths later on in college. I would have never realized my love for public health if I didn’t take a health communications course, which led me to do research in the Annenberg school for the past two semesters.

 All in all, the gen. ed’s are often unavoidable. But with great policies like double counting, students usually only have to take 6-7 courses to fulfill all the sectors and foundationals. Look for the positive in them, and make the most of the situation. Best of luck everyone!

 - Seyoon C.