Arts and science requirements

MCDB majors must also satisfy all of these requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Minimum Academic Preparation Standards (MAPS)

Students who graduated from U.S. high schools in Spring 1988 or later must satisfy MAPS requirements with high school or college courses.

Students are notified of MAPS deficiencies when they first enroll. MAPS appeals are handled by A&S, but the MCDB advisors can help to determine whether an appeal is likely to succeed.

One common situation to be aware of is that Community College preparatory courses that are not accepted by the University for transfer credit may nevertheless satisfy MAPS requirements.

Students who fail to take at least one course per semester to satisfy unmet MAPS requirements may face academic dismissal.

Foreign Language

The Foreign Language requirement (3 years in high school or 3 semesters in college, all in the same language) applies to all students, including those exempted from MAPS.

Students for whom English is a second language are not required to take language courses, but must verify their proficiency by presenting school records in a foreign language or by other means.

Tests are available to certify proficiency in a wide variety of languages. Please see your advisor if you have problems.

Core Curriculum

The A&S Core Curriculum requirements include coursework or demonstration of knowledge and skills in the following areas:

Foreign Language

Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Skills

Written Communication (two levels)

Critical Thinking

Historical Context

Culture and Gender Diversity

United States Context

Literature and the Arts (2 levels)

Natural Sciences

Contemporary Societies

Ideals and Values

Courses that satisfy Core Curriculum requirements are listed each semester near the back of the Registration Handbook (these are more current than those in the University Catalog).

Relationship of the Core Curriculum to the MCDB Major

MCDB majors are exempt from the Core Curriculum Natural Science requirement.

Calculus, which is required for the MCDB major, satisfies the QRMS requirement.

Critical Thinking requirement is usually satisfied with an MCDB elective course, although any approved Critical Thinking course may be used.

Many students are exempt from lower-division Written Communication, based on SAT or ACT scores.

This leaves a minimum of eight Core Curriculum requirements in seven different areas that all MCDB majors must satisfy with credits from outside of the major. (See Graduation Checklist)

A &S Minimum Grade Requirements

Any course with a grade of D- or better is credited by A&S as hours toward graduation, and can be used in the Core Curriculum.

Grades of C- or better are required in all major courses.

A grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.000 is required in all CU coursework and in the major.

Both grades count in the GPA when a course is repeated.

MCDB ancillary requirements are excluded from A&S rules for major courses.

Any student whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.0 is placed on academic probation. Failure to raise the cumulative GPA to 2.0 by the end of the next full semester results in academic dismissal.

Credit Hour Requirements

Graduation from A&S requires a total of 120 semester hours, of which no more than 30 hours can be non-A&S courses (Business, Engineering, Music, etc.). The rest must be from A&S or comparable transfer credit.

No more than 45 of the 120 hours can be from any one department (51 hours for Honors students).

Courses that are repeated for a better grade are not counted again (except for GPA calculations).

Upper-division Credits

A&S requires 45 hours of upper-division credit (courses numbered 3000 or higher) for graduation. There are only 36 hours of required upper-division courses in the MCDB major plus the Core (33 if one of the 6 hour HUMN courses is used for both parts of Literature and Arts). Thus, all MCDB majors must take additional upper-division courses to reach a total of 45 credits.