Bachelor's Degree Requirements

The Core Curriculum

For a summary of the bachelor's degree requirements see table. Undergraduate bachelor's study at UAF is characterized by a common set of learning experiences known as the Core Curriculum. The core provides students with a shared foundation of skills and knowledge that, when combined with specialized study in the major and other specific degree requirements, prepares students to better meet the demands of life in the 21st century. Through the baccalaureate core experience, every UAF student is expected to achieve:

• multidimensional competency in written and oral English -- including comprehension of complex materials and creation of clearly organized presentations of soundly reasoned thought in both oral and written form;
• a solid grasp of quantitative reasoning and mathematical application;
• an intellectual comfort with the sciences -- including the scientific method, frameworks that have nurtured scientific thought, traditions of human inquiry and the impact of technology on the world's ecosystems;
• an appreciation of cultural diversity and its implications for individual and group values, aesthetics and social and political institutions;
• an understanding of global economic interdependence, sense of historical consciousness and a more critical comprehension of literature and the arts;
• a better understanding of one's own values, other value systems and relationships between value systems and life choices.

If you completed your bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution, you will be considered to have completed the equivalent of the baccalaureate core when you have been officially accepted to an undergraduate degree program at UAF.

Course Classifications for the Baccalaureate Core

Courses that may be used to satisfy general baccalaureate core requirements have course numbers ending with "X." For example, English F111X, Communication F141X and other "X" courses meet specific core requirements. See the requirements for the baccalaureate core for a listing of other specific core courses. Courses meeting the upper-division writing intensive and oral communication intensive requirements for the baccalaureate core are identified in the course description of the catalog with the following designators:

O -- oral communication intensive course
W -- writing intensive course.

Two courses designated "O/2" are required to complete the oral communication intensive requirement.

Baccalaureate Core

Courses used to meet a science or mathematics core requirement may also be used to satisfy the major and/or minor degree requirements. Other core courses may not be used to meet any other requirements for a degree.

Requirements

Communication (9 credits)

ENGL F111X--Introduction to Academic Writing (3)
ENGL F190H may be substituted.

Complete one of the following:

• ENGL F211X--Academic Writing about Literature (3)
• ENGL F213X--Academic Writing about the Social and Natural Sciences (3)

Complete one of the following:

• COMM F131X--Fundamentals of Oral Communication: Group Context (3)
• COMM F141X--Fundamentals of Oral Communication: Public Context (3)

Perspectives on the Human Condition (18 credits)

Complete all of the following four courses:

• ANTH F100X/SOC F100X--Individual, Society and Culture (3)
• ECON F100X or PS F100X--Political Economy (3)
• HIST F100X--Modern World History (3)
• ENGL/FL F200X--World Literature (3)--12 credits

Complete one of the following three courses:

• ART/MUS/THR F200X--Aesthetic Appreciation: Interrelationship of Art, Drama and Music (3)
• HUM F201X--Unity in the Arts (3)
• ANS F202X--Aesthetic Appreciation of Alaskan NativePerformance (3)--3 credits

Complete one of the following six courses:

• BA F323X--Business Ethics (3)
• COMM F300X--Communicating Ethics (3)
• JUST F300X--Ethics and Justice (3)
• NRM F303X--Environmental Ethics and Actions (3)
• PS F300X--Ethics and Society (3)
• PHIL F322X--Ethics (3)--3 credits

Or complete 12 credits from the above courses plus one of the following:

• Two semester-length courses in a single Alaska Native language or other non-English language
• Three semester-length courses (9 credits) in American Sign Language taken at the university level.--6 - 9 credits

Mathematics (3 credits)

Complete one of the following:

• MATH F103X--Concepts and Contemporary Applications of Mathematics (3)
• MATH F107X--Functions for Calculus* (4)
• MATH F161X--Algebra for Business and Economics** (3)
• STAT F200X--Elementary Probability and Statistics (3)
  * No credit may be earned for more than one of MATH F107X or F161X.

Or complete one of the following:*

• MATH F200X--Calculus I** (4)
• MATH F201X--Calculus II (4)
• MATH F202X--Calculus III (4)
• MATH F262X--Calculus for Business and Economics (4)
• MATH F272X--Calculus for Life Sciences (4)--3 - 4 credits
  *Or any math course having one of these as a prerequisite
  **No credit may be earned for more than one of Math F200X, F262X or F272.

Natural Sciences (8 CREDITS)

Complete any two (4-credit) courses.

• ATM F101X--Weather and Climate of Alaska (4)
• BIOL F100X--Human Biology (4)
• BIOL F103X--Biology and Society (4)
• BIOL F104X--Natural History (4)
• BIOL F111X--Human Anatomy and Physiology I (4)
• BIOL F112X--Human Anatomy and Physiology II (4)
• BIOL F115X--Fundamentals of Biology I (4)
• BIOL F116X--Fundamentals of Biology II (4)
• CHEM F100X--Chemistry in Complex Systems (4)
• CHEM F103X--Basic General Chemistry (4)
• CHEM F104X--Beginnings in Biochemistry (4)
• CHEM F105X--General Chemistry (4)
• CHEM F106X--General Chemistry (4)
• GEOG F111X--Earth and Environment: Elements of Physical Geography (4)
• GEOS F100X--Introduction to Earth Science (4)
• GEOS F101X--The Dynamic Earth (4)
• GEOS F106X--Life and the Age of Dinosaurs (4)
• GEOS F112X--History of Earth and Life (4)
• GEOS F120X--Glaciers, Earthquakes and Volcanoes (4)
• GEOS F125X--Humans, Earth and Environment (4)
• MSL F111X--The Oceans (4)
• PHYS F102X--Energy and Society (4)
• PHYS F103X--College Physics (4)
• PHYS F104X--College Physics (4)
• PHYS F115X--Physical Science I (4)
• PHYS F116X--Physical Science II (4)
• PHYS F175X--Astronomy (4)
• PHYS F211X--General Physics (4)
• PHYS F212X--General Physics (4)
• PHYS F213X--Elementary Modern Physics (4)--8 credits

Library and Information Research (0 - 1 CREDIT)

Successful completion of library skills competency test or LS F100X or LS F101X prior to junior standing--0 - 1 credit

Upper-Division Writing and Oral Communication

Complete the following at the upper-division level:
Two writing intensive courses designated (W) and one oral communication intensive course designated (O), or two oral communication intensive courses designated (O/2) (see degree and/or major requirements)

Total credits required--38 - 39 credits