Undergraduate Program Requirements

Undergraduate Programs

• Areas of Study

This section includes course descriptions, general information and specific course and credit requirements for the University Core, undergraduate majors, minors and other programs of study.

Core Curriculum Requirements

The Baldwin Wallace Core Curriculum prepares students to think from the perspectives of multiple scholarly disciplines and cultural points of view. Students begin with Foundations: First-Year Experience (FYE), Math, English, and Wellness. At the Perspectives level, students choose from a menu of courses that offer training in different modes of disciplinary analysis and expression, including scientific method, mathematical reasoning, social scientific analysis, historical analysis, religious and ethical thinking, literary analysis, and aesthetic understanding. They also take courses that offer international and diverse perspectives. At the Extensions level, students reinforce their skills in writing, quantitative reasoning, and interdisciplinary thinking. Each core course provides students with an opportunity to hone a Core Skill or Competency in Effective Communication, Critical Thinking, Quantitative Literacy, Cultural Knowledge and Competence, or Civic Learning.

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Core

Level One: Foundations

First-Year Experience (FYE 100 )

First Year Experience helps students become acclimated to the academic life of the university and introduces them to the resources and life of the campus community. FYE is required of all entering first-year students, including those first-year students who complete college credit as part of their high school curriculum (i.e., College Credit Plus/dual enrollment prior to high school graduation). Transfer students who have completed more than 15 transferable credit hours after they graduated from high school are exempt from the FYE 100  requirement.

Mathematics

MTH 101 , MTH 105 , MTH 108 , MTH 120 , MTH 121 , MTH 140 , MTH 141 , MTH 142  or MTH 151 . Students majoring in Dual Primary Education and Mild/Moderate Educational Needs take MTH 111  (4 credits) and MTH 113  (4 credits) for core. Prerequisite: Registration into these courses (except for MTH 101 , MTH 105 , MTH 108 , MTH 111 , MTH 113 , or MTH 161 ) requires students to have scored at least 22 on the quantitative portion of the ACT, a SAT Math Section Score of 550 or higher, or a SAT Math Test Score of 27.5 or higher. For students with both ACT and SAT scores, the higher placement will be used. Students who wish to challenge their ACT- or SAT-based placement, or students entering Baldwin Wallace University without ACT or SAT test scores, must take a mathematics placement test in order to take their MTH core course. Students interested in taking the Mathematics Placement test can contact the department chair, Dr. Brent Strunk, of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at bstrunk@bw.edu. Students should complete their MTH core requirement during their first two semesters at BW if they meet the prerequisite upon entry, or within their first three semesters if the prerequisite must be completed first.

*Exception to requirement: Students who received credit for AP Statistics or AP Calculus are exempt from the MTH core requirement and will receive credits as follows:

English Composition

Foundational English Composition courses ensure that students have the writing skills necessary to succeed in entry-level university courses. ENG 131  - Workshop in Exposition and Argument. Prerequisite: ENG 111  or placement. Students placing into ENG 131  should take it within their first two semesters at BW. Students required to take ENG 111  should take it during their first semester at BW, and should take ENG 131  no later than their third semester at BW.

English Composition placement determined by ACT and SAT scores as follows:

Wellness

Foundational Wellness courses help students learn about the core elements of wellness: emotional, occupational, physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual. Students are required to take 2 credits to fulfill the Wellness requirement with core-designated (W) activity, technique, or health and wellness-related courses.  The W course requirement could be completed at any time and up to one credit hour can be transferred into BW.

Level Two: Perspectives

Students must complete perspectives courses as outlined below.  Each Perspective offers students a disciplinary technique of analysis, problem-solving, or expression, or a cultural point of view. Students who complete the Perspectives level of the BW core curriculum become more powerful, flexible thinkers and performers.

A. One course from each of the following Humanities groups:      

i. Aesthetic Understanding provides students with a foundation for understanding the creative process and the manifestations of aesthetic expression. The courses taught in this Perspective promote Aesthetic Understanding by teaching students how to analyze and engage in critical inquiry about the fine arts and explore the ways that art asks and solves the problems of humanity within its cultural contexts.

ii. Historical Thinking. These courses provide students with foundational skills for interpreting human artifacts within their historical-cultural contexts and understanding our human heritage. The courses taught in this Perspective promote historical literacy by teaching students how to acquire knowledge of the past, contextualize historical developments, investigate causation, analyze historical texts and artifacts, and compare interpretations.

iii. Philosophical & Religious Traditions. These courses provide students with a foundation for understanding the ideas and experiences that shaped a diversity of worldviews, cultures and styles of reasoning. Courses taught in this perspective explore universal questions about reality, life, death, God, knowledge, ethics and meaning while promoting critical inquiry, sound reasoning and close reading of philosophical, religious and related texts. These courses develop students’ ability to follow, evaluate and compare arguments and interpretations and to construct arguments and interpretations of their own. As students acquire knowledge about influential ideas and experiences, these courses guide them to reflect on their significance for their own lives as they clarify and enlarge their own worldviews.

iv. Creative Expression and Communication. These courses provide students with foundational skills in various forms of human expression. Courses in this Perspective emphasize the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills needed to develop and express both messages and themselves to others through media within the Humanities disciplines of Creative, Visual or Performing Arts; World Languages, or Presentational Speaking.

B. Two Social Science courses from at least two separate departments. Social Science courses teach about the characteristics of individuals and groups, human interactions and decision-making processes, cultural diversity and social structures. Students learn how to collect and interpret qualitative and quantitative data and how to apply theories of individual or social behavior.

C. Two Natural Science courses, one of which must be a lab science. Natural Science courses teach the scientific method, explore the composition and operation of the natural universe, and/or apply our understanding to real-world problems.

D. One Diversity course (with a ‘D’ designation). Diversity (D) courses go beyond the mere acknowledgment of difference to address the systematic silencing of marginalized people as we work toward creating a more just world. Diversity encompasses multiple dimensions, including but not limited to race, ability, nationality, ethnicity, religion/faith, geographic origin, class, sexual orientation and identities, gender, gender identities and expressions, and age. D courses promote students’ critical engagement with issues arising from the historical exclusion of oppressed voices. By interrogating systems of power that suppress diversity, these classes seek to advance BW’s mission statement of preparing students to become contributing, compassionate citizens of an increasingly global society. As such, courses with a diversity designation enhance student awareness of current and past injustices, as well as the potential role of diversity in enriching society. Upon completion of D courses, students will be given the foundation to:

• Develop questions about the ways in which systems of power influence individual and group identity, and how these identities shape perceptions of systemic power within social, economic, or historical contexts.

• Analyze how individuals, organizations, and institutions create, perpetuate, adapt to, or challenge inequality.

• Demonstrate how their intersectionality impacts their thinking and problem-solving within a broad range of contexts. 

E. The International (“I”) core requirement requires students to engage with a cultural perspective different from that of dominant American (U.S.) culture(s). In an increasingly global society, it has become more important for people to be able to think from multiple frames of reference so that they can see global issues from more than one cultural perspective. Students will have the opportunity to learn about and engage with a non-US culture or cultures in order to understand their languages, histories, customs, values, cultural institutions and artifacts, and/or sociopolitical structures.

Students must fulfill one of the following three options:

1. World Languages: Two semesters of one world language excluding World Languages & Literature courses taught in English.

2. Study Abroad: Earn academic credit in a BW-approved Global Explorations study abroad program.

3. International Coursework (courses with an ‘I’ designation): Choose two courses from two different departments. Courses that fulfill the International Studies requirement must meet at least one of the following criteria:

a. Perspective: Courses that explore cultural, social, economic, and political approaches to issues affecting one or more cultures outside of the United States.

b. Analysis: Courses with a comparative, multidisciplinary, or interdisciplinary focus on specific cultures, communities, civilizations, or global systems that do or do not include the United States.

c. Application: Courses that engage in hands-on exploration, international collaboration, or project-based learning activities in a culturally responsive and self-reflective way.

F. One Interdisciplinary course. Interdisciplinary courses train students to integrate questions, methods, and materials from two or more disciplines of the Natural Sciences, Humanities, or Social Sciences. 

Level Three: Extensions

Students must complete one course designated as writing extension and one course designated as a quantitative extension. Writing Extension courses reinforce the writing skills students learned in their Foundations-level composition courses. Quantitative Extension courses reinforce the mathematical skills students learned in their Foundations-level Math core course and apply those skills to a discipline.

Click for a specific list of courses that apply toward the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Core.

Course Letter Designations:

Areas of Study