General Education Requirements

General Education Requirements

Bates college emphasizes a broad-based liberal arts education, encompassing the social sciences, humanities, mathematics, sciences and the arts. There are no core courses required of all students , however, there is a structured menu of options allowing students to extend, focus and connect areas of interest.

Students enroll in two General Education Concentrations (GECs) outside their major exposing students to a variety of disciplines. A GEC is a group of four linked courses. A GEC may focus on one topic or area of inquiry, with courses coming from different disciplines, or a GEC may focus on a topic within a single department , program, or major. The faculty is developing an array of GECs. Some interdisciplinary examples being considered are: Sound, Hearing and Music; Legal Studies; Coastal & Watershed Systems; Architectural Studies: Urbanism and Constructed spaces; Diasporas; Evidence: Documentation & Reality; Indigenous Responses to Globalization; and sports, competition and Culture.

Three goals serve the larger liberal arts objectives:

1. Teach every student how academic disciplines complement one another, providing a sophisticated perspective on how to pursue knowledge.

2. Teach every student to write correctly and persuasively.

3. Give students college-level instruction in the methods and findings of the sciences and in quantitative analysis.

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  Bates provides an environment that allows a student  to achieve. I remember coming into my first year having little confidence about my writing ability. After one of the first writing assignments, my professor suggested that experience was invaluable. We talked about my ideas and how I could change my paper to more clearly convey them. The instructor offered to read a second draft that afternoon. I returned a number of times during all of my four years. The assistance I received not only helped me get better grades in that class, but also gave me the organization and confidence to succeed in writing throughout my college career.