The Common Course of Study

The Lafayette Common Course of Study (CCS) is an outcomes-based curriculum and includes goals that will be assessed on a continuing basis. The result is an organic general education program that will evolve and change as we review how well we are accomplishing what we aspire to teach our students.

Courses can be used to meet more than one requirement, but students must complete at least seven unique courses, the FYS, the five distribution requirements, and the quantitative reasoning requirement. Not every course in the catalog necessarily fulfills a CCS requirement. 

First-Year Seminar, taken in the fall semester of the first year, is designed to introduce students to intellectual inquiry by engaging them as thinkers, speakers, and writers.

Distribution Requirements, require the completion of: one course with a Humanities (H) designation, one course with a Natural Science with lab (NS) designation, one course with a Social Sciences (SS) designation; and two additional courses in two different divisions outside the student’s home division. Courses may be selected from Engineering, including courses designated as Science and Technology in a Social Context (STSC); Humanities; Natural Science w/lab or Natural Science w/STSC; and Social Sciences.

Courses designated as Science and Technology in a Social Context (STSC) are courses in science or engineering without a lab in which students will address a scientific or technological issue of timely importance.

Quantitative Reasoning Requirement (Q), is to be satisfied by one course in which students learn to use mathematical methods to solve problems, represent and interpret quantitative information, and critically analyze mathematical results.

Writing Requirement (W), is to be satisfied through the First-Year Seminar and three additional W-designated courses that use process writing methods with at least one course in the major and at least one course outside the major.

Global and Multiculturalism (GM), requires the completion of two separate courses, a GM1 and a GM2, that examine the structure of identity, diversity, and differences in domestic and global contexts.

Values Requirement (V), is to be satisfied by a course where students construct and evaluate answers to questions of moral and political concern.

Elementary Proficiency in a Second Language (EPSL), requires the completion of a year (or less depending on the entry level, 102 or higher) of study of a language. Students may be exempted via advanced placement credit or testing.