Core Program
As a liberal arts institution, Occidental College is committed to the principle that education is far more than training in a field or preparation for a specific career. We believe instead that education should be both broad and deep; that it should foster intellectual skills of agility, inquiry, synthesis, and the ability to move comfortably among multiple perspectives; and that students are active participants in the ongoing construction of knowledge that is higher education’s purpose.
The Core Program— a cross-disciplinary array of courses required of all students providing the intellectual foundation for Occidental's commitment to excellence, equity, service, and community—is the most direct expression of this commitment. This required curriculum, which involves successfully completing the requirements described
here, is to be completed by the end of the junior year of each student’s career at Occidental. Depending on the courses chosen by the student, completing all core requirements will require between 32 and 48 units of coursework.