Guidelines and Timeline

Guidelines for Pathways

• All majors in the College of Arts & Sciences and Leavey School of Business who enter as first year students (and transfer students who matriculate with less than 44 units of transfer credit) complete four Pathway courses (at least 16 units). If a Pathway includes courses less than four units, more than four courses will be necessary.
• All engineering majors complete three Pathway courses (at least 12 units). If a Pathway includes courses less than four units, more than three courses will be necessary.
• Transfer students who matriculate with 44 or more units of transfer credit complete three Pathway courses (at least 12 units). If a Pathway includes courses less than four units, more than three courses will be necessary.
• All courses for the Pathway must be completed at SCU.
• No more than the equivalent of two 4 or 5 unit courses may be in the same subject   (e.g., ANTH, BIOL, ENGL, TESP). The remaining courses and units to complete the Pathway must be from a different subject. 
  • For example, if a student in the College of Arts and Sciences completes two full courses or the equivalent units (between eight and ten units) in ANTH, the remaining two courses (or combination of courses worth at least eight units) must be in a different subject. These additional courses/units can be in more than one subject (e.g. one could be in BIOL and another in TESP)
  • A student in the School of Engineering (or a transfer student who entered with 44 or more units) who completes two courses or the equivalent in one subject (between eight and ten units) would need to complete a minimum of four units in a different subject.
• Please note that ENVS, ETHN, CHST, PHSC, and WGST are exempt from the above two-course rule because courses in these areas are inherently interdisciplinary.
• A student’s Pathway may contain no more than two courses in either the Cultures & Ideas sequence (C & I 1, 2, and 3) or the Religion, Theology, & Culture sequence (RTC 1, 2, and 3).
• Only one course in a Pathway may be a Foundations course (normally taken the first year). Note: C&I 1 and 2 are Foundations courses, but C&I 3 is not; RTC 1 is a Foundations course, but RTC 2 and 3 are not.
• Some courses will be appropriate for more than one Pathway, but students will complete only one Pathway.
• Students may apply no more than one study abroad course toward their Pathway.
• Any course a student wants to include within a Pathway must have been approved for the Pathway. A list of approved courses is available on the Core website.