Arcadia’s Undergraduate Curriculum provides a distinctively global, integrative, and personal learning experience that prepares you to contribute and prosper in a diverse and dynamic world. The Undergraduate Curriculum is designed to ensure that all Arcadia students:
Explore the Globe.
Experience other cultures in addition to reading about them. Arcadia provides you the opportunities to study around the world, the nation, and the region. You go where you want to go.
Design Your Own Path.
Arcadia’s flexible curriculum allows you and your adviser to design an academic path specially tailored to your interests and enthusiasms.
Make Intellectual Connections.
At Arcadia, your courses and academic experiences make the connections—across disciplines and cultures, between theory and practical applications, between the classroom and the community—that help you understand how the world works.
Develop an Expertise.
Choose a major from over 45 fields of study and work with Arcadia’s acclaimed teaching faculty to become an expert in your field.
Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements for First-Year Students
To graduate from Arcadia University, undergraduates who enter as traditional first-year students must do three things:
- Complete a total of 120 credits.
- Complete the requirements of their chosen major.
- Complete the Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements as follows:
(Note: Undergraduate Curriculum requirements are defined by courses rather than credits. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of courses.)
Integrative Learning Experiences
- First-Year Seminar/Learning Community – Usually taken during the first semester. In most cases, if a student does not successfully complete the First-Year Seminar, a third Integrative Learning Experience will be required.
- Global Connections Experience and Reflection – Participate in this Global Connections Experience and a simultaneous Global Connections Reflection at any point during your Arcadia career. A Global Connections Experience is a sustained, semester-long, cross-cultural experience. Typical ways of fulfilling the Global Connections Experience include: study abroad; taking a Global Connections Experience-designated course in Glenside; study away at a pre-approved domestic exchange institution. Your GCR/GCE experience should be completed before your last semester at Arcadia.
- Two additional Integrative Learning Experiences – These two Integrative Learning Experiences are in addition to the First-Year Seminar and Global Connections Experience. Typical ways of fulfilling this requirement include: taking University Seminars (all University Seminars carry the Integrative Learning designation), participating in additional Global Connections Experiences beyond the required one, or completing 4-credit GFS travel courses (note that a GFS course cannot meet both the IL and GE/GR designations).
- Senior Capstone Project – Complete this project in the final year as a part of the chosen major.
Areas of Inquiry
Students take courses that allow them to explore these four theme-based Areas of Inquiry:
- Creative Expressions (1)
- Cultural Legacies (2)
- Natural and Physical World (2, at least 1 of which must have a laboratory component)
- Self and Society (2)
Intellectual Practices
Students sometimes develop Intellectual Practices in standalone courses dedicated solely to these practices. More often they are developed in courses throughout the University that concentrate on the given Intellectual Practice in the context of other subject matter.
- Crossing Boundaries (2) – Take two Crossing Boundaries-designated (CB) courses from those offered in various departments. Students may not fulfill both of their Crossing Boundaries requirements while off campus for a study abroad or study away semester.
- Modern Language – Complete the introductory (102) level of a modern language. Students who place into the 200 level (or above) of a language are waived from the Modern Language requirement.
- Quantitative Reasoning (2) – Take one Mathematics course (QRM) beyond MA 100 and also take one additional Quantitative Reasoning-designated (QR) course from those offered in various departments or a second Mathematics course beyond MA 100 .
- Visual Literacy (1) – Take one Visual Literacy-designated (VL) course from those offered in various departments.
- Writing (4) – Complete EN 101 Thought, Expression, and Advocacy in the first year and complete a Research Writing-designated (RW) course by the end of the second year from those offered either in the major or the English Department. In addition, complete two additional Writing-designated (W) courses from those offered in various departments. Many Capstone courses carry the W designation.
- Combating Anti-Black Racism (2) – Take two Combating Anti-Black Racism-designated (CABR) courses from those offered in various departments.
Students entering Arcadia University in the following programs, who remain in good academic standing in these programs, shall satisfy the Undergraduate Curriculum requirements of the 57+ Credits Transfer Student Category plus one First-Year Seminar (FYS):
- Engineering 3+2 with University of Pittsburgh and Washington University.
- Pre-Optometry 3+4 with Salus University
- Bachelor of Fine Arts / Art Education (BFA with a concentration and certification in Art Education from Arcadia)
Should an Engineering 3+2 or Pre-Optometry 3+4 student be withdrawn from their accelerated program for whatever reason such that the student is completing all 120 undergraduate credits at Arcadia, then the student will be required to fulfill all Undergraduate Curriculum requirements as if the student entered as a typical First-Year student. Similarly, should a BFA with a concentration and certification in Art Education switch out of the program then the student will be required to fulfill all Undergraduate Curriculum requirements as if the student entered as a typical First-Year student.
Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements for Transfer Students
Transfer students are considered for Academic Dismissal when cumulative GPA is below a 1.00 for the first-semester of their first year at Arcadia University. After the first semester at Arcadia University, transfers are evaluated based on their total cumulative credits earned (transfer and Arcadia University).
To graduate from Arcadia University, undergraduates who enter as transfer students must do three things:
- Complete a total of 120 credits.
- Complete the requirements of their chosen major.
- Complete the Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements for transfer students, which depend upon the number of credits initially transferred. As follows: All students must complete EN 101 , if they do not have an equivalent course.
(Note: Undergraduate Curriculum requirements are defined by courses rather than credits. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of courses.)
For Transfer Students who entered beginning Fall 2023 with:
Transferring Fewer Than 18 Credits or Fewer:
(Not including AP exam credits and dual enrollment college credits)
- Treated as First-Year Students. Need to complete all Integrative Learning Experiences, Areas of Inquiry, and Intellectual Practices.
Transferring 19-56 Credits:
- 1 Global Connections Experience & Reflection
- 2 additional Integrative Learning requirements
- 1 Senior Capstone
- Areas of Inquiry – 1 of each
- Creative Expression
- Cultural Legacies
- Self & Society
- Natural & Physical World with lab
- Completion of the 102-level of a Modern Language
- 1 Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics (Math beyond MA 100 )
- 2 Writing-designated courses
- 2 Combating Anti-Black Racism-designated courses
Transferring 57 or More Credits:
- 1 Global Connections Experience & Reflection
- 1 additional Integrative Learning requirement
- 1 Senior Capstone
- Areas of Inquiry – 1 of each
- Creative Expressions
- Cultural Legacies
- Self & Society
- Natural & Physical World with lab
- 1 Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics (Math beyond 100)
- 1 Writing-designated course
- 1 Combating Anti-Black Racism-designated course
Core-to-Core transfer students:
- 1 Global Connections Experience & Reflection
- 1 Senior Capstone
How the Undergraduate Curriculum Works
Most Arcadia Undergraduate Curriculum (AUC) requirements focus on educational ends rather than particular means to those ends (e.g., specific courses). As a result, students have significant flexibility in determining how and with what courses these requirements may be satisfied. Some courses students complete within their chosen majors also will satisfy Undergraduate Curriculum requirements. In addition, courses taken within one’s major and elsewhere throughout the University may, when appropriate, fulfill multiple Undergraduate Curriculum requirements simultaneously.
Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements and Students’ Chosen Majors
Students’ chosen majors are their primary pathways through the rest of Arcadia’s Undergraduate Curriculum since courses taken to fulfill a chosen major also fulfill some of the required Integrative Learning Experiences, Areas of Inquiry, and Intellectual Practices. However, which Undergraduate Curriculum requirements are fulfilled by major courses differs by major. Therefore, each student works with his/her/their academic adviser – who is a faculty member from the student’s major department – to determine which Undergraduate Curriculum requirements the student will fulfill in major courses and which requirements they will fulfill in courses outside the major.
How Courses Can Fulfill Multiple Undergraduate Curriculum Requirements
Courses both within and outside students’ chosen majors sometimes fulfill multiple Undergraduate Curriculum requirements simultaneously. For example, it is fairly common for courses around the University to satisfy both an Area of Inquiry and an Intellectual Practice. Similarly, all University Seminars (which all satisfy one of the required additional Integrative Learning Experiences) also satisfy at least one Area of Inquiry and at least one Intellectual Practice.
Understanding Courses and Credits
Undergraduates need a total of 120 credits to graduate from Arcadia University – the equivalent of eight semesters of 15 credits each. However, Undergraduate Curriculum requirements are defined by courses rather than credits. Most courses that fulfill Undergraduate Curriculum requirements carry 4 credits. For example, most courses that fulfill an Area of Inquiry or Intellectual Practice requirement carry 4 credits. However, there are some exceptions. The Global Connections Experience is often fulfilled through a semester abroad or through a semester-long domestic exchange with a partner university. When done away from campus (either internationally or domestically), the “experience” is connected to the semester as a whole that one is away from campus, rather than connected to a specific course. The Global Connections Reflection is often fulfilled by completing a specific 2-credit Reflection course during one’s Global Connections Experience. In addition, 3-credit courses also sometimes may fulfill Undergraduate Curriculum requirements when appropriate.
Courses Taken at Other Institutions
Students also can fulfill curricular requirements through courses taken through study abroad/study away, Advanced Placement, college courses completed during high school, International Baccalaureate or summer courses at other institutions. These courses carry the same designations as their equivalents within the Arcadia University system when available. If not available, students may petition to have a course count for a particular designation.
Additional Information on Components of the Undergraduate Curriculum
Integrative Learning Experiences
Arcadia’s Undergraduate Curriculum provides an integrative and global experience for all Arcadia University undergraduate students throughout their academic careers. All students participate in three types of required Curricular Experiences – First-Year Experience, Global Connections Experience and Reflection, and the Senior Capstone Project. In addition, most students take one or more University Seminars, which count toward the additional Integrative Learning requirements.
First-Year Experience
The First-Year Experience begins at Orientation in late August. Fellow students, faculty and staff help you to get comfortably settled in on campus. Here you begin learning about the academic, co-curricular and personal opportunities available to you at Arcadia. And you are provided all the information, support, and resources needed to make a successful transition to college life.
The academic core of the First-Year Experience revolves around the First-Year Seminar—a small, interactive class where you explore special topics that interest you. Choose from dozens of different First-Year Seminars, all of them—along with a required first-year Thought, Expression, and Advocacy writing course—designed to spark intellectual curiosity and to begin developing the academic tools and habits you need to thrive in the Arcadia classroom.
That first semester you also participate in a Learning Community with the instructor and the other students in your First-Year Seminar. Together you take advantage of academic and cultural opportunities on Arcadia’s campus and around the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In your Learning Community, you make friends with fellow first-year students who share your interests and you learn about and contribute to the wider Arcadia community.
In the spring semester, most first-year students travel during spring break in March with Arcadia faculty and staff mentors to one of more than a dozen international sites for Spring Preview. The Spring Preview trip is part of a 2-credit course in which students get academic grounding in the place and thematic subject of the course in Glenside in addition to the one-week travel component. Spring Preview is open to any first-year student and new transfers. In order to participate in Spring previews, students must be in good disciplinary standing.
Global Connections Experience and Reflection
The Global Connections Experience and Reflection provide all Arcadia students the opportunity to explore new places and cultures. In a sustained cross-cultural experience, you meet people and learn about a society different from that in which you have lived previously. In addition, during your Global Connections Experience you participate in a supervised reflection—typically by compiling an electronic portfolio—in which you document and analyze your experiences.
Where you go for your Global Connections Experience is up to you.
You might choose to go to a foreign country. Every major provides a pathway to study abroad that suggests locations and times in which study abroad particularly enhances your academic development. Arcadia students often study abroad for a semester, but others study abroad for a summer or for an entire year. Your Global Connections Experience also might occur in the United States. Many students also fulfill their Global Connections Experience by taking a Global Connections Experience-designated course in Glenside. A variety of Arcadia courses that engage in extensive service learning as well as other local experiences, such as student teaching and internships, also carry the Global Connections designation when they occur in approved cross-cultural settings. It is also possible to design an individualized Global Connections Experience in consultation with the Director of Global Connections.
Students complete the Global Connections Reflection simultaneously to the Global Connections Experience. When students are completing their Global Connections Experience away from Glenside they typically take a 2-credit online course (GCR 101 ) that assists students in reflecting on the interconnections, interdependence, and inequality they encounter during the experience. When students are completing their Global Connections Experience as part of a Glenside-based course, the Global Connections Reflection is usually embedded within that course.
University Seminars
University Seminars at Arcadia University offer an opportunity to engage in unique integrative learning experiences, as they are designed to make intellectual connections among academic disciplines and between scholarly ideas and the world beyond the classroom. These fun and informative courses will expose you to ideas such as the intersection between science and popular culture, past and contemporary representations of the hero figure, the exploration of societal issues in science fiction films and novels, and so much more. Many University Seminars also take you out of the classroom and into the culturally and intellectually rich Philadelphia region to explore in action the ideas and concepts you are studying.
A wide range of University Seminars are offered each semester, and all University Seminars count toward the Integrative Learning (IL) requirements.Taking University Seminars also helps you to work toward fulfilling other Arcadia Undergraduate Curriculum requirements. University Seminars fulfill at least one Area of Inquiry and at least one Intellectual Practice.
Senior Capstone Project
The Senior Capstone Project is the opportunity for you to bring four years of coursework and academic and personal experiences together by engaging in an extended project in your major. What you do for your Senior Capstone Project depends on both your chosen field of study and your own personal interests. Each major department designs the parameters of the project to help you develop an expertise and synthesize the learning you’ve done at Arcadia. And you select the focus of your research, scholarly or creative activities. Then when you’ve completed your Senior Capstone Project at the conclusion of your final year, you tell the world about your work during our campus-wide celebration of senior projects. Faculty members, family, and friends come out to learn about and enjoy the product of your academic labors. Art and Design majors host an exciting group exhibition. Majors in some departments give oral presentations describing their research and engage in lively discussion sessions. And those in other departments create visual displays of their work for interactive public poster fairs.
Areas of Inquiry
Arcadia students take courses exploring four theme-based Areas of Inquiry that ensure you develop a broad, well-rounded education. Most courses at Arcadia satisfy one Area of Inquiry requirement. Some interdisciplinary First-Year Seminars and University Seminars satisfy more than one. The four Areas of Inquiry are Creative Expressions, Cultural Legacies, Natural and Physical World, and Self and Society.
Creative Expressions
Students participate in the creative process through the expression and application of their original ideas and imagination. These project-based courses—typically in the fields of fine arts, performing arts, and creative writing—explore and develop ideas by means of production, review, revision and presentation.
Cultural Legacies
Students study human experience and expression through the exploration of the history and interpretation of past cultures and cultural texts. By examining aspects of past cultures such as their politics, religions, ethical systems, and literary and artistic production, students engage in asking and answering questions about understanding the past.
Natural and Physical World
Students learn about and participate in answering questions about the natural and physical world. This includes applying observation and experimentation based on physical events that are predictable and quantifiable. These courses explore both the process and outcome of scientific inquiries.
Self and Society
Students explore the multiple forces that create, shape and sustain the development of self-identity, and they examine how individuals and groups live together, form societies, and distribute resources and power. Students focus on understanding the mechanisms and processes that shape who we are and what we can become and analyze how and why societies and social institutions function, evolve, and include and exclude.
Intellectual Practices
Arcadia students develop five Intellectual Practices that provide the tools to understand, interpret and communicate in a complex, global society. Intellectual Practices are sometimes developed in stand-alone courses dedicated solely to these practices. But more often they are developed in courses throughout the University—some in your major, others outside of it—that concentrate on the given Intellectual Practice in the context of other subject matter. The six Intellectual Practices are Combating Anti-Black Racism, Crossing Boundaries, Modern Languages, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual Literacy, and Writing.
Combating Anti-Black Racism
Students will explore basic terms, principles, and approaches connected to Anti-Black racism study. This will afford them the opportunity to apply this knowledge throughout the course as they consider the relationship between course content, the field of study, and anti-Black racism.
Crossing Boundaries
Students examine issues related to interconnectedness, interdependence, and inequity within and among nation-states of the world. Crossing Boundaries-designated courses also explore issues of social justice, social welfare, and economic rights across national and social boundaries.
Modern Languages
Students complete the introductory level of a language other than English, which may require up to two courses depending on your prior experience.
Quantitative Reasoning
Students develop the ability to ask and act on questions related to the analysis of data, the application of mathematical models, or the cultural and political roles of mathematical thinking.
Visual Literacy
Students focus on the viewing and interpretation of visual information and images from a variety of sources as well as the expression of meaning through visual means.
Writing
By emphasizing how expression enhances learning, understanding, and communication, students focus on the craft and process of written presentation through revisions based on critical commentary.
Global Connections, Experience, and Reflection
There are many ways to fulfill the Global Connections Experience – as close by as the Won Buddhist Temple in Glenside or as far away as Capetown, South Africa. In each case, students are engaged in a sustained, semester-long cross-cultural experience and are involved in ongoing reflection during the experience (typically through enrolling in GCR 101 ).
Although many students fulfill the Global Connections Experience by studying abroad, there are a few domestic options that also fulfill this requirement. Several Global Field Study courses carry this requirement as well.
In addition to these domestic exchange possibilities, students can participate in Glenside-based courses that have an experiential component in order to fulfill the Global Connections Experience. If a student participates in a course-based experience, they are expected to complete 15 additional experiential hours either in the same community as the course-based experience or in a context or organization that addresses the same issue or topic the student is exploring. Listed below are some courses that fulfill this requirement; students should check course availability each semester:
International Students
- Eligible international students can meet the GE/GR requirements by enrolling in GCR101 and using their student status alone as the Global Experience (GE) only within the first two semesters as an Arcadia student. This period will also coincide with the first two semesters during which the student is a first-time resident in the United States.
- Eligible international students who have been in the United States for more than one academic year (and do not choose to study abroad further while at Arcadia) must either take a course on the Glenside campus with a GE/GR designation or propose a local global experience project and enroll in GCR101 (concurrent to the project). This aligns with the current policy for U.S born student residents not studying abroad.
Individualized Experience
It is also possible to design an individualized Global Connections Experience in consultation with the Director of Global Learning, but this should be a last resort. The University is in the process of designing opportunities that combine short-term study away with a local or online sustained experience.
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