ABCD-GEs at USC Pt.1
As the academic year begins, whether students are beginning their first year at USC or are just a few semesters away from graduating, registering for the right (and fun) classes is always top of mind.
USC’s degree requirements may differ for each student, but one thing is the same: General Education (GE) courses. But wait – what are GE’s?
GEs are required courses that students take within the humanities, arts, social sciences, and natural sciences. These courses provide a foundational interdisciplinary education designed to create informed, adaptable, and engaged citizens.
At USC, students can meet the following ten required courses within eight different categories. Fun fact: there are some courses that can satisfy requirements in two categories!
The six Core Literacy categories are:
GE-A: The Arts (1 course)
GE A allows our students to discover, explore and interpret the rich and multi-faceted history and traditions of different forms of art.
GE-B: Humanistic Inquiry (2 courses)
Students will engage closely with works of the imagination—in words, sight, and sound—understanding what it means to live another life and see over the horizon.
GE-C: Social Analysis (2 courses)
GE C requires our students to examine how individual and collective actions, shaped by identity factors, such as gender, race, and class, influence and are influenced by economic, political, and social contexts globally and historically.
GE-D: Life Sciences (1 course)
Taking a course in the life science will help our students understand fundamental scientific concepts and methods, emphasizing science's societal impact, enabling you to formulate testable hypotheses and distinguish sound reasoning from unsupported claims.
GE-E: Physical Sciences (1 course)
Through GE E, we expect our students to solve scientific problems and understand how scientific knowledge is obtained and evaluated, with hands-on experiences in cutting-edge research through life and physical sciences courses and faculty-led labs and field programs.
GE-F: Quantitative Reasoning (1 course)
GE F will encourage our students to examine the analysis and manipulation of data and information related to quantifiable objects, symbolic elements, or logic in order to help you navigate the complexity and sophistication of the modern world.
The Global Perspectives GE requirements prepare students to be socially responsible, respect diverse cultures and understand how race, class, and gender influence power and the connection between global issues and local challenges. The categories to fulfill in Global Perspectives are:
GE-G: Equity in a Diverse World (1 course)
Deepen your understanding of citizenship and moral agency in a global society by exploring the roles of race, class, and identity in conflicts and inequality, while addressing social responsibility and equity in contemporary contexts.
GE-H: Traditions and Historical Foundations (1 course)
Examine the historical and cultural foundations of contemporary and past societies by studying enduring and influential literary, political, economic, philosophical, legal, ethical or religious traditions.
With ten different courses across the eight categories that must be fulfilled, you may ask yourself: what are your options on unique and engaging classes? Well, we’ve compiled a small list of some interesting GE courses we came across that you might enjoy.
GE-A: The Arts
ACAD 309g Dreams & Madness: The Art of Japan’s Golden Age of Animation
This course takes an in-depth look at the art, politics, and cultural impact of several Japanese filmmakers including Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai.
CTCS 192gm Race, Class, and Gender in American Film
This course analyzes issues of race, class and gender in contemporary American culture as represented in the cinema.
MUSC 200gmw The Broadway Musical: Reflections of American Diversity (also satisfies GE-G)
This course examines the uniquely American genre that serves as a catalyst for inquiry into human diversity, cross-culturalism, and significant social and political issues.
GE-B: Humanistic Inquiry
AMST 201g LGBTQ America
This course examines how U.S. sexual identity and experience are represented in the 20th and 21st century and introduces the interdisciplinary field of LGBTQ Studies.
ENGL 176g Los Angeles: the City, the Novel, the Movie
This course explores the culture, vibrancy, heritage, mythology, variety, and pathology of a city that was born in hopes and captured the world’s imagination.
HIST 220gp Murder on Trial in America (also satisfies GE-H)
This course examines high-profile murders and murder trials in order to explore major social, political, and cultural issues from the colonial period to the present.
JS 258gp Food, Faith and Conflict
This course investigates how food and food traditions create and cross religious and social conflicts between Jews, Christians and Muslims by exploring faith, practice, thought and ethics.
REL 324g Sex and the Bible: Gender, Sexuality, and Scripture
This course analyzes the role the Bible has played in debates about sex, gender, and sexuality in Western history.
GE-C: Social Analysis
AMST 140gw Borderlands in a Global Context (also satisfies GE-G)
This course provides an interdisciplinary survey of theory and borderland site cases, national sentiment, linguistic and cultural conflicts, and explores local, regional, and national identities in cultural contact zones.
ANTH 338g Cultures of Food: The Anthropology of What We Eat and Why
This course focuses on the field of food studies, as a historical and cross-disciplinary study of the place of food in culture and society.
HIST 225g Film, Power, and American History
This course examines U.S. motion pictures as both a response to and comment upon major events, problems, and themes in 20th century America.
PSYC 367g Stress, Health, and the Mind-Body Connection
This course investigates psychological, biological, and behavioral processes affecting physical health, including stress, coping with disease, health behaviors, and socioeconomic and cultural influences on health.
SOCI 215g Sociology of Wall Street
This course examines Wall Street as a: market for allocating investment; arbiter of prices; place to work; and a powerful force directing the activities of corporations everywhere.
GE-D: Life Sciences
BISC 115Lxg The Biology of Food
This course explores molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, nutrition and the history of biology through the study of food, focusing on food’s relationship to the biological world.
BISC 230Lgx The Biology of the Brain
This course examines the structure and function of the mammalian brain including the role of the brain in regulating behavior, both in normal and diseased states—in relation to the mind and in comparison with machine forms of intelligence.
HBIO 205Lgx The Science of Sport
This course evaluates the physiological and nutritional basis of human performance and factors that facilitate and limit athletic achievement.
PSYC 165Lg Drugs, Behavior and Society
This course investigates the integrative systems perspective of drugs, including their historical, economic, and cultural importance, psychopharmacology, addiction, relationship to crime, and therapeutic use in treating psychological disorders.
GE-E: Physical Sciences
CHEM 205Lgx Chemical Forensics: The Science, and Its Impact
This course examines the scientific principles underlying forensic approaches to the investigation of crimes and its societal impact on law, culture and media.
GEOL 240Lg Earthquakes
This course seeks to understand the causes of earthquakes and the nature of large faults; earthquake hazard and risk; and world’s great earthquakes, in addition to understanding the Richter scale.
GE-F: Quantitative Reasoning
BUAD 310g Applied Business Statistics
This course utilizes the implementation of statistical methods for business analysis; data exploration and description; sampling distributions; estimation; hypothesis testing, simple and multiple regression; model building and extensive computer applications.
HP 370g Introduction to Epidemiology: Methods and Applications
This course examines the primary goals and methods of epidemiology, the study of factors that influence health and disease in individuals and populations.
GE-G: Equity in a Diverse World
AMST 150gw The American War in Viet Nam (also satisfies GE-B)
This course examines the ways that different nations and cultures have remembered the Vietnam War or the American War as it is called in Vietnam.
DANC 333gw Origins of Jazz Dance (also satisfies GE-A)
This course explores the role that vernacular dance and music play in the creation of Jazz Dance, taught in lecture format; it also examines practical studies in Jazz Dance, from recreational to professional settings.
HIST 210gw How to Be An American: Global Histories of U.S. Citizenship (also satisfies GE-B)
This course investigates the history of United States citizenship from its origins to the present day, with particular attention to the relationship between law and culture.
JOUR 200w The Power and Responsibility of the Press
This course explores the role of journalism and social media in society—its influence on government, technology, business, national security, sports, science and entertainment.
THTR 488mw Theatre in the Community
This course investigates the theory of theatre as a moving political, social, economic and spiritual force of change within the local community.
GE-H: Traditions and Historical Foundations
LAW 275p The Origin and Evolution of American Civil Rights Law
This course analyzes the development of U.S. constitutional and statutory mechanisms designed to fulfill the promise of equality under the law.
PHIL 288gp Love and its Representation in Western Literature, Film, and Philosophy (also satisfies GE-B)
This course examines the key works that have shaped European and American cultural inheritance, with a special focus on the nature of love.
Remember that General Education courses are not just requirements; they are opportunities to explore diverse fields and engage with the world around you. With that said, stay tuned for part two, coming soon!
Written By: Leslie Escobedo, Assistant Director – Office of Undergraduate Admission