General Information for Advisees

General Education Requirements for Biology Majors

The general education requirements can be divided into three groups: courses that meet the Skills requirements, liberal arts and sciences distribution requirements, and other special requirements (constitution, intergroup relations, international issues/culture).

The skills requirements for most students are English 101/102 plus option A or option B courses. Option A requires Speech 103, Philosophy/Math 106, and either CS/CMIS 108 or Statistics 107/244. Biology majors should take 244. Option B is required if you want a B.A. degree, and requires a year of a foreign language, plus one course of Ph/M 106, CS/CMIS 108, or Stat 107/244.

The liberal arts and sciences (fine arts and humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics) general education requirements can be interpreted a little differently for biology majors. Students are required to take five courses at the introductory level (two 111's in two areas and one in the third area) and three distribution courses (above 111; one in each area). Because biology majors are required to take supporting coursework in chemistry, physics and math, the Natural Sciences and Math (NSM) area of the general education requirements can be one in which the student takes two introductory and 1 distribution courses (not counting biology courses).

As a result, biology majors need to take 5 liberal arts and sciences courses, three introductory (111) courses and two distribution (above 111) courses. The three 111's should be divided between fine arts and humanities (art, music, philosophy, English literature, theater, etc.), and the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, economics, etc.). One distribution course should be in FAH and the other in SS.

Courses taken to meet most general education requirements can double count to meet another general education requirement--see the back of the catalog to see which courses double count. For example, History 111a, 111b, 112a, and 112b are both social sciences and meet the international issues/cultures requirement. Geography 111 or Anthropology 111 are not only introductory social science courses, but also satisfy the international issues/culture requirement. Speech 103 is both skills and intergroup relations. Sociology 304 and 308 are both social sciences and intergroup relations. Some interdisciplinary studies courses also meet the international issues/culture requirement and some don't.

If you are a transfer student, check that area of this document. There are some new rules regarding general education requirements for transfer students as a result of the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI), effective fall, 1998. I will provide an interpretation of them as soon as I make sense of them and check to make sure I am presenting the information correctly.

Checklists for completion of course requirements (These are the ones I use during advisement appointments.)