Components of the General Studies Program

All Berea College degrees include the following General Education Requirements:

• GSTR 110: Writing Seminar I: Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts (NOTE: credit for this course cannot be transferred in; however, transfer students who took College Composition while attending a regionally-accredited college or university as a degree-seeking student—and who earned a grade of B or higher in the course—can waive this requirement and take GSTR 210 in their first term of attendance.)
• GSTR 210: Writing Seminar II: Identity and Diversity in the United States (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
• GSTR 310: Understandings of Christianity (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
• GSTR 332: Scientific Knowledge and Inquiry  (credit for GSTR 332 cannot be transferred in or waived)OR the optional alternative of two approved Natural Science courses in two different disciplines, at least one of which must be approved as a Natural Science Laboratory course. To date, the following courses have been approved to meet this alternative (all of them approved to meet a Natural Science Laboratory course)—ANR 110, 130, BIO 100, 101, 110, CHM 113, 131, 134, PHY 111, 217, and 315.
• GSTR 410: Seminar in Contemporary Global Issues (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
• Practical Reasoning Requirement (two approved courses, at least one of which must be firmly grounded in mathematics or statistics)
• Six Perspectives Areas (see additional explanation below)—Arts; Social Science; Western History; Religion; African Americans’, Appalachians’, Women’s; and International (Language or World Culture option)
• Lifetime Health and Fitness: PEH 100 and Physical Activity Requirement
• Active Learning Experience (ALE)
• Developmental Mathematics Requirement
• Twenty (20) courses taken outside the major
• Convocation Requirement