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Blue GER (Fall 2023 and later)


Success at Emory

All first-year students in Emory College are required to complete a set of three courses, jointly helping them achieve “Success at Emory” during their first year at Emory. This timed requirement supports the transition to Emory by helping students to develop skills for academic and personal success. It builds community among incoming students while familiarizing them with the liberal arts process and showcasing the importance of health and well-being.

Students must complete:

  • ECS 101 - (1 course taken on an S/U basis)
  • HLTH 100 -  (1 course taken on a letter-grade basis)
  • PE [PED] - (1 course)

Timeframe: This area must be completed by the end of the first-year.

Exploration Courses

Exploration courses ensure that students take courses in a variety of fields, across the liberal arts curriculum. These courses are the foundation of the general education experience, giving students experience in a variety of academic areas at the outset of their studies at Emory, and introducing them to different intellectual approaches, tools, and evidence.  Because this area serves as foundation for students’ academic work students must complete these requirements in their first four regular semesters at Emory.

Students must complete:

  • Humanities and Arts [HA] (1 course)
  • Natural Science [NS] (1 course)
  • Quantitative Reasoning [QR] (1 course)
  • Social Science [SS] (1 course)

Timeframe: All courses in the exploration area must be completed by the end of the second year.

Expression & Communication

Communication-intensive courses are designed to improve communication skills through frequent writing, speaking, listening, and designing across academic and non-academic situations. Teachers across discourse communities encourage, guide, and communicate high standards to students through instruction and example. Communication-intensive classes focus on both the product and the process of developing appropriate and effective communication skills. Learning to be an ethical communicator is a focus of the courses, and instruction (materials, assignments, feedback) is designed to foster this growth in students.

Students must complete:

  • First Year Seminar [FS] (1 course)
  • First Year Writing [FW] (1 course) - may be fulfilled with AP, IB or other appropriate test credit
  • Continued Communication [CC] (2 courses)

Timeframe: The First Year Seminar and First Year Writing courses must be completed by the end of the first-year. The two Continued Communication courses must be completed by graduation.

Belonging and Community

Building Community courses foster connections, relationships, and understanding within and between diverse communities by encouraging students to reflect upon those to which they belong and those with whom they interact on many levels, from local to international settings. During their first three years at Emory, students are required to take one Race and Ethnicity course and two Intercultural Communication courses. 

Students must complete:

  • Intercultural Communication [IC] (2 courses in a single language other than English, beginning at a student’s level of fluency) - 1 course may be fulfilled with AP, IB or other appropriate test credit
  • Race and Ethnicity [ETHN] (1 course) 

Timeframe: This area must be completed before a student gains senior standing.

Experience and Application

Exploration through “hands-on” experience and application has been shown to dramatically enhance overall student learning and provide students with an opportunity for synthesis and reflection. Learning by doing provides deeper, more enduring knowledge, and allows students to wrestle with the difficulties of reaching a conclusion or result. 

These opportunities for hands-on exploration will involve intentionally designed, inquiry-driven, and sustained learning opportunities in which students reflect upon and use their knowledge through questioning, creating, and applying what they have learned from their academic courses. In addition, these experiences may identify new areas of knowledge students need to acquire, which can inform subsequent course selections. These experiences could range from enhanced laboratory courses to archival research, to community-engaged learning, to study abroad, to independent research, to public scholarship, to the applied arts, to relevant internship experiences. Emory courses or programs approved for this GER automatically count toward this opportunity; students may apply for experiences outside of Emory University or Emory experiences that are not approved to fulfill this requirement.  Applications will require that the student demonstrate a sustained, significant engagement that involves application of skills and knowledge gained at Emory.  For the general education credit to apply to these individualized experiences, the student will also need to submit a reflection document about the experience after it occurs.  Approval must be sought BEFORE beginning the engagement, and the reflection piece needs to be completed within 3 months of the end of the engagement. 

Students must complete:

  • Experience and Application [XA] - (1 course or approved non-credit experience)

Timeframe: This area must be completed by graduation.

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