Program: LAS General Education Requirements - University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Apr 02, 2025

2024-2025 Catalog

The college requires all students to complete an English writing requirement, a reasoning proficiency requirement, oral communication and the language other than English requirements. Assuming that a student does not test out of the writing and reasoning requirements, the total number of credit hours needed to complete the college general education requirements is 45. This requirement is in addition to the University Compass Curriculum requirement of 24 credit hours. There may be courses that can satisfy multiple requirements. Consult the Campus Wide Requirements: Compass Curriculum page and an advisor to determine the full extent of your requirements.

The College of Letters, Arts & Sciences will accept transfer courses from the community college “general education core” and substitute these credits for credits required within the 120 hours needed for the BA or BS degree in whatever manner is most advantageous to the student. The College will also accept non-core academic courses in transfer, i.e., courses that are not considered to be vocational or technical in nature.

Students with diagnosed disabilities that hinder their ability to fulfill LAS General Education Requirements should contact Disability Services and the LAS Dean’s office.

English Rhetoric and Writing and Writing Portfolio Requirements

To qualify for a bachelor’s degree from the Univerisity of Colorado Colorado Sprins, a student must complete C01 and C02 core writing requirements and demonstratre writing porfolio competence. See English First-Year Rhetoric and Writing Program for details.

Quantitative and Qualitative Reasoning Proficiency Requirement

Well-educated people should be able to think at a certain level of abstraction and to manipulate symbols. The quantitative and qualitative reasoning proficiency requirement has two principal objectives. The first is to provide students with the analytical tools used in core curriculum courses and in their major areas of study. The second is to help students acquire the reasoning skills necessary to assess adequately the problems that confront them in their daily lives.

Students completing this requirement should be able to do the following:

Construct a logical argument based on the rules of inference.
Analyze and interpret numerical data.
Obtain exact results when appropriate.
Apply mathematical methods to solve problems in their university work and in their daily lives.

Four Ways to Fulfill Requirement

1. Pass the UCCS Reasoning Skills Test (RST). This RST is offered by the University Testing Center, which can be reached at (719) 255-3554. The RST requires a fee to be paid in advance, and credit hours are not awarded to those who meet the requirement by passing the RST.

2. Successfully complete one of the following:

3. Successfully complete both of the following

4. Successfully complete one of the following pairs (A&C: math course and statistics/logic course or B&C: the required test scores and a statistics/logic course):

EITHER: a) Complete
MATH 1040 - College Algebra
(or a mathematics course that has college algebra as a prerequisite) OR b) Score 87% or higher on the College Algebra placement test AND score 50% or higher on the Business Calculus placement test
AND c) Complete one of the following courses.

Oral Communication Requirement

LAS students are required to take a course with a substantial component involving oral communication. This course may be within a student’s major department, as an elective, or as an approved general education (area requirements) course. Approved courses for the oral communication requirement are as follows:

Language Requirement

All LAS students must meet a language requirement equivalent to two college level semesters of beginner level instruction in a language other than English before graduation.

A) The language requirement can be met as follows:

Newly admitted students can fulfill the requirement by having completed two units (two years) of a language other than English at the high school level or having completed two semesters of language instruction at their previous college or university.
Students that have successfully completed IB or AP language classes in high school will have fulfilled the requirement, as will students with a CLEP score of 55 and above in foreign language tests.
Students can demonstrate a proficiency level equivalent to two semesters of the same language or determine their level of placement in a language course by taking the placement examination administered by the Language Technology Center.

B) Students with a deficiency must fulfill the requirement by successfully completing the 1010 and 1020 levels of any language offered under the Languages and Cultures programs. Minimum passing grade C(-).

Options:

ASL 1010 - American Sign Language I
ASL 1020 - American Sign Language II
GRK 1010 - Beginning Classical Greek I
GRK 1020 - Beginning Classical Greek II
LAT 1010 - Beginning Latin I
LAT 1020 - Beginning Latin II
FR 1010 - Beginning French I
FR 1020 - Beginning French II
GER 1010 - Beginning German I
GER 1020 - Beginning German II
JPNS 1010 - Beginning Japanese I
JPNS 1020 - Beginning Japanese II
SPAN 1010 - Beginning Spanish I
SPAN 1020 - Beginning Spanish II

Or any alternative Beginning 1010 and 1020 Foreign Language courses offered by the Department of Languages and Cultures.