Anatomy of a Schedule

We look at many factors when when preparing your fall quarter schedule including:

• Answers given on the preference form
• Intended major(s)
• Anticipated credits from Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Running Start (RS) and other credits
• Participation in programs such as ROTC, NCAA athletics, Culture and Language Bridge, Core Honors, University  Honors, chorale, and others
• Placement in mathematics and language
• Availability of courses at a given time

Course work at Seattle University can be broken into three main categories Core, major and electives.

Core
These are the courses you are required to take to satisfy the University Core Curriculum.  Freshmen begin with Phase 1 of the Core Curriculum.  

These courses include:
ENGL 110:  College Writing
ENGL 120:  Introduction to Literature
PHIL 110:  Introduction to Philosophy & Critical Thinking
HIST 120:  Origins of  Western Civilization
HIST 121:  Studies in Modern Civilization
Mathematics
Lab Science:  Introductory classes in Chemistry, Biology,
Physics and Geology
Fine Arts:  Several  studio and lecture based classes in
Visual Art, Drama and Music
Social Science 1:  Introductory classes in Psychology,
Anthropology and Sociology 

Major 
These are the course requirements for a particular degree program.  Some of these requirements may also satisfy a Core requirement.  For example, if you are a Chemistry major, the chemistry courses required for your major will satisfy your lab science Core requirement.

Electives
Courses that are neither Core nor major but are taken to satisfy degree credit requirements or prerequisites for required courses.  First quarter freshmen are only placed in electives that are prerequisite for requirements.  For example, Math 134 is a requirement for engineering majors. However if engineering majors do not meet the requirements to start in MATH 134 they must take the prerequisite which is MATH 120.

Credits:  A typical quarter load for students is 15 credits.  More often than not this will mean taking three 5 credit courses.  Students may take up to 18 credits as freshmen, however there are a limited number of required 2-3 credit courses for new freshman.  12 credits or more is considered a full time load.