General Education

Convinced that there are several areas of knowledge and experience that ought to be central to the academic experience of every undergraduate student, Binghamton University has adopted a comprehensive General Education curriculum. This curriculum has broad goals. It is intended to help students develop:

• an appreciation of and capacity for effective personal expression;
• knowledge about various intellectual traditions;
• an understanding of and respect for different peoples and civilizations;
• knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world, achieved through active engagement with the methods and philosophy of natural science;
• logical thinking, balanced skepticism, and tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty;
• a knowledge of and appreciation for the arts and creative expression;
• skills needed to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources;
• skills needed to understand and use basic research techniques
• skills needed to perform the basic operations of personal computer use.

Students must fulfill requirements in the following categories:

• Language and Communication
  • Composition (C) and Oral Communication (O) or Joint Composition/Oral Communication (J)
  • Foreign Language (FL1, FL2, FL3)
• Creating a Global Vision
  • Global Interdependencies (G)
  • Pluralism in the United States (P)
• Liberal Arts
  • Aesthetics (A)
  • Humanities (H)
  • Laboratory Sciences (L)
  • Social Sciences (N)
  • Mathematics (M)
• Physical Activity/Wellness
  • Combination of Physical Activity (Y), Wellness (S), or Both Physical Activity/Wellness (B)

General Education Requirements

For more information on the General Education requirements, please go to the Requirements page.

For a list of courses meeting General Education requirements offered for a specific semester, please visit the Schedule of Classes.