Understanding General Education Requirements
Overview
To view the California State University general education (GE) requirements and your progress toward meeting them, click General Education Requirements on the dashboard.
What are General Education Course Requirements?
GE requirements are a set of foundational courses designed to provide students with a well-rounded education. California State University has six different Areas of Study that encompass all requirements.
Areas of Study
Note: to learn which GE courses your community college offers, visit ASSIST.org and use the transferable course search (CSU GE-Breadth Certification Courses) or review your community college’s course catalog.
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Area |
Requirements |
|---|---|
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Area A: English Language Communication and Critical Thinking |
Complete one course in each category for a minimum 9 semester/12 quarter units.
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Area B: Scientific Inquiry and Quantitative Reasoning |
Complete one course each from biological science, physical science, and mathematics, plus a laboratory activity (B3) related to one of the science courses, for a minimum of 9 semester/12 quarter units.
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Area C: Arts and Humanities |
Complete one course from the arts and one from the humanities, plus one additional course in either arts or humanities, for a minimum of 9 semester/12 quarter units.
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Area D: Social Sciences |
Complete two courses dealing with human social, political and economic institutions and behavior, and their historical background, for a minimum of 6 semester/9 quarter units.
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Area E: Lifelong Learning and Self-Development |
Complete one course for a minimum of 3 semester/4 quarter units. Course content may include topics such as student success strategies, human behavior, sexuality, nutrition, physical and mental health, stress management, and information literacy. Courses in this area focus on the development of skills, abilities and dispositions.
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Area F: Ethnic Studies |
Complete one course for a minimum of 3 semester/4 quarter units. Example ethnic studies courses may include African American, Asian American, Latina/o American or Native American Studies.
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What are “Golden Four” GE courses?
The “Golden Four” refers to four courses in the GE subareas. To transfer into the CSU, you must complete and pass each of these courses with a minimum grade of C- :
- A1 - Oral Communication
- Examples: oral, public speaking, argumentation & debate
- A2 - Written Communication
- Examples: composition, composition & literature
- A3 - Critical Thinking
- Examples: critical thinking, logic, argumentation & debate
- B4 - Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning
- Examples: statistics, college algebra, precalculus, calculus
Fulfilling General Education Requirements
The information you enter in the Academic History section is automatically matched to the GE requirements.
For example, here's a course that was entered into the Academy History section:
And here's how that course was automatically matched to a GE requirement:
Changing General Education Requirements
Occasionally, you may need to update a course that was automatically matched to a GE requirement.
- Click EDIT ASSIGNMENTS in the upper-right area of the General Education Progress page.
- Use the drop-down to change the course matched to the GE requirement.
If you need to use several courses to satisfy your Area E requirement (e.g., you have three 1-credit courses instead of a single 3-credit course), follow these steps to satisfy Area E:
- Adjust one of the Area E courses to 3 credits.
- Adjust the other Area E course(s) to 0 credits.
- Fulfill the Area E requirement using the course with 3 credits.
If you use Jumpstart to copy your coursework into the Cal State Apply application, you must edit these credits back to their correct values within the application.