Introduction & Curriculum Overview

At the heart of the Albion Experience is an intellectually stimulating commitment to the liberal arts. Albion’s core curriculum is a program of learning that begins with the First-Year Seminar and culminates with the conferral of the bachelor’s degree. The First-Year Seminar is designed to familiarize students with the liberal arts tradition in an intimate classroom environment that fosters open communication, nurtures critical thinking, and promotes improvement in writing and speaking. Albion is committed to delivering an undergraduate education featuring continuity, coherence, and focus, and which incorporates our students as teachers, facilitators and presenters.

Between the First-Year Seminar and graduation, students complete nine additional core courses: five Mode of Inquiry courses and four Category courses. Core courses provide analytic tools for understanding the world, offer rich and complex accounts of social life, encourage examination of these accounts, and contribute to a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of learning and living in a global community. In addition, courses are distributed across the four divisions of the College: fine arts, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics, and social sciences. The liberal arts core serves as the impetus and context for lifelong learning, preparing students for the phase after college when they must themselves provide education and expertise, while continuing to learn, collaborate, and facilitate at home, at work, and in a local and global community.

In addition to the core curriculum, all students are required to complete a major, which provides a depth of intellectual study that prepares students for graduate and professional school, and for a rich diversity of careers and life experiences. A major may be a conventional departmental major, a not-so-conventional interdepartmental major, or the unconventional individually designed major. A commitment to academic excellence within all academic departments ensures each student that fulfilling the requirements of their major will be a comprehensive and challenging scholarly experience. Other opportunities for in-depth exploration and clustering of courses include minors and concentrations.

Choice characterizes the general education requirements and the major: each Albion student is an adult, capable of making sensible decisions about their personal future, while, in so doing, accepting the potential to make mistakes. Therefore, Albion College provides academic advisers to first-year students to guide in planning their education. Advisers monitor academic progress and help each student to begin fulfilling their graduation requirements. After the first year, students are free to choose a faculty adviser who will help develop a program of study based on the student’s goals. Students will not be allowed to register if they do not meet with their adviser during each semester’s advising period.

It is ultimately each student’s responsibility to be aware of, and to fulfill, all graduation requirements. To assist students in this endeavor, Albion College provides an integrated system called Degree Works, available through their my.albion.edu student accounts, that shows up-to-date progress toward every requirement of the student’s degree. The Registrar’s Office is available to clarify student questions, resolve discrepancies, and confirm degree completion.

Curriculum Overview

The primary responsibility for meeting the College’s academic requirements rests with each student. This chart serves as a guide to the required and elective courses that fulfill the units needed for graduation. They are explained in greater detail on the following pages. The complete requirements for graduation are outlined in the Academic Regulations section of this catalog.

Core Requirement

I. Liberal Arts 101 (First-Year Seminar; 1 unit)

II. Modes of Inquiry (1 unit in each)

• Artistic Creation and Analysis
• Historical and Cultural Analysis
• Modeling and Analysis
• Scientific Analysis
• Textual Analysis

III. Category Requirements (1 unit in each)

• Environmental Studies
• Ethnicity Studies
• Gender Studies
• Global Studies

The Brown Honors Program core requirements are found in the Programs of Study section.

Units for Core: 10

Among the 32 units required for graduation, the following distribution of courses must also be fulfilled. These courses can count toward modes, categories, majors, minors and/or concentrations.

• Two units in humanities (can be from same department): English, Modern Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Honors
• Two units in mathematics or natural sciences (can be from same department): Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geological Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Honors
• Two units in social science (can be from same department): Anthropology and Sociology, Communication Studies, Economics and Management, History, Political Science, Psychology, Honors
• One unit in fine arts: Art and Art History, Music (including up to four 1/4-unit music ensembles), Theatre, Honors

Major Requirement

All students are required to complete an approved major.

Units for Major: 8-10

Minors

Students may choose to complete a minor.

Departmental and Interdisciplinary Minors

Concentrations

Students may also choose to complete a concentration designed to prepare them for specific careers. Some of these concentrations are linked to the College’s Institutes and Centers, and, in these cases, students must be admitted to the respective Institute or Center to participate fully in its curriculum. The available concentrations are listed below.

• Environmental Science
• Environmental Studies
• Human Services
• Law, Justice, and Society
• Neuroscience
• Public Policy and Service

Institutes, Centers, Programs

• Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program
• Center for Sustainability and the Environment
• Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service
• Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management
• Institute for Healthcare Professions
• Fritz Shurmur Center for Teacher Development

General Electives

Electives are courses that do not count toward a specific program (such as a major) but contribute toward the total units needed for graduation.

Units for Electives: 12-14

Writing Competency Examination

All students must also pass the writing competence requirement before they graduate.

Total Units for Graduation: 32