Arcadia Undergraduate Curriculum

Students can review all this information by consulting their Academic Plan on Self-Service. 

The First-Year Seminar course forms the basis of your Learning Community. As part of the course, students also participate in experiences that connect them to the Arcadia University campus, other students, faculty and the surrounding community. Through the coursework and the experiences, we all form a “community of learners.”

Learning Community activities differ depending in the subject of the First-Year Seminar, but they often involve activities around campus and around the metropolitan Philadelphia area. Individual instructors determine which Learning Community activities are required and which are optional. Typically, students are responsible for no or very minor costs relating to Learning Community activities.

Yes. University Seminars sometimes also fulfill a major requirement at the discretion of the individual department.

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, the First-Year Seminars (which is a required Integrative Learning Experience) also satisfy at least one Area of Inquiry. 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.

Undergraduates need a total of 128 credits to graduate from Arcadia University—the equivalent of eight semesters of 16 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.

No. The University Seminar program offers a rotating and evolving set of seminars each semester. Many University Seminars are often offered on a regular basis (for instance one a year or once every other year), but new University Seminars are frequently added to the offering and University Seminars offered in the past will not necessarily be offered again.

University Seminars should be taken any time after the completion of the First-Year Seminar and before beginning on one’s Senior Capstone Experience.

If a student does not successfully complete their First-Year Seminar, they do not take another one. Instead, they would complete three Integrative Learning (IL) requirements.

A student is unable to take both a First-Year Seminar and University Seminar in the same semester. They are allowed to take a US after they have completed their FYS requirement.

The Global Connections experience can be fulfilled in the following different ways:

• by studying abroad in a foreign country
• by studying away at a pre-approved American university with which Arcadia has an exchange program
• by taking a special designated Glenside-based course that provides a sustained cross-cultural experience
• through a “hybrid” experience that combines short-term international experiences and semester-long local or online experiences
• through an individualized experience

The Global Connections Reflection is typically a 2-credit online course in which the student must enroll during their Global Connections Experience. The Global Connections Reflection asks the student to document and analyze the Global Connections Experience.

A Global Connections Experience (whether done by studying internationally, studying away domestically, or by participating in a Glenside-based course with this designation) focuses on students immersing themselves in a sustained cross-cultural experience.

Courses designated with the Crossing Boundaries Intellectual Practice explore critical themes including those related to the interdependence, interconnectedness and inequality among and within nations, thereby preparing for their Global Connections Experience when taken before and/or following up on and further exploring those themes when taken afterward. In addition, some Preview and ID courses have added a local or online cross-cultural experience that goes across the semester and can count as a GCE. Moreover, individual students may propose adding a local experience to a Preview/ID course by submitting a proposal for a Hybrid Individualized Global Connections Experience form to the Director of Global Connections.

Students can fulfill the Global Connections Experience and Reflection (GE/GR) requirements by

1) studying abroad,

2) taking a GCE-designated course in Glenside,

3) studying away at a pre-approved domestic exchange institution.

EN101 needs to be completed by the end of a student’s first year.

Yes.

No, a Research Writing (RW) course will not double count as a Writing (W) requirement. Students will take four (4) Writing courses: EN101, RW, and two W courses. While the RW course does not double count, a second RW can count as one of the W courses.

 Yes.

Yes. The Senior Capstone Project is the culminating experience within a student’s major.

In most cases, yes; however sometimes students may work out arrangements with the chairpersons of the two major departments in which a single, combined Capstone project integrates the academic content of both majors and therefore is permitted to count in both majors.

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