General Education Requirements

The General Education (GE) curriculum at Thurgood Marshall College is designed to provide students with:

The academic skills and basic knowledge to pursue any major.
Flexibility to enhance the curriculum with unique educational experiences.
The opportunity to enhance your critical writing skills through our unique freshman writing sequence focusing on contemporary American society and culture.
A broad liberal arts and science background relevant to today’s society.

Each of the General Education requirements is outlined below, along with a list of approved courses to satisfy that requirement.

Dimensions of Culture (3 courses)

Students are required to complete a three-quarter core sequence entitled Dimensions of Culture: Diversity, Justice, and Imagination. This three-course core sequence must be taken for a letter grade.

As a three-course sequence, DOC 1: Reading Diversity, DOC 2: Arguing Justice, and DOC 3: Imagination offer intensive instruction in university-level expository writing. Students entering as first-years are expected to fulfill this writing requirement within the first two years of residency and must complete the DOC sequence at UCSD (no exceptions).

All students must satisfy the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) before enrolling in DOC 2 and DOC 3. First-year students who do not take DOC 1 in fall quarter are advised to complete DOC 1, 2, and 3 in their second year.

Learn more about the Dimensions of Culture program

DOC 1 - Diversity (4 units)
Fall Quarter only

DOC 2 - Justice (6 units)
Winter Quarter only

DOC 3 - Imagination (6 units)
Spring Quarter only

Natural Science (3 courses)

Students are required to complete a total of three (3) Natural Science courses: one in Biology, one in Chemistry, and one in Physics.

*Students are encouraged to select Natural Science courses that can overlap with sciences courses in their major.

Biology

ANTH 2
COGS 17
BILD 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 20, 22, 26, 30, 36, 38

Chemistry

CHEM 4, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6AH, 6BH, 6CH, 11, 12, 13

Physics

PHYS 1A/1AL, 1B/1BL, 1C/1CL, 2A, 2B, 2C, 4A, 4B, 4C, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
SIO 1, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50

Mathematics, Statistics and Logic (2 courses)

Students are required to complete two (2) courses for Mathematics, Statistics and Logic. Students have three options to complete this requirement from the approved list of courses:

Option A: Complete two courses in the Mathematics/Advanced Statistics category.

Option B: Complete one course in the Mathematics/Advanced Statistics category and one course in either the Introductory Statistics category or the Computer Programming & Logic category.

Option C: Complete one course in the Introductory Statistics category and one course in the Computer Programming & Logic category.

*Students are encouraged to select Mathematics, Statistics, and Logic courses that can overlap with mathematics, statistics, and logic courses in their major.

Mathematics, Advanced Statistics

Biology (BIEB) 100
MATH 3C
MATH 4C
MATH 10A, 10B, or 10C
MATH 20A, 20B, or 20C
MATH 180A or 181A

Introductory Statistics

Cognitive Science (COGS) 14A
Human Developmental Sciences (HDS) 60
Political Science (POLI) 30
Psychology (PSYC) 60
Sociology (SOCI) 60

Computer Programming & Logic

CSE 8A or 11
CSS 1
Linguistics (LIGN) 17
MAE 5, 9 or 10
Philosophy (PHIL) 10 or 12

Humanities and Cultural Studies (2 courses)

Students are required to complete two Humanities and Cultural Studies courses from the approved list of courses in domestic and global cultures.

Humanities and Cultural Studies

African American Studies (AAS) 10
Ethnic Studies (ETHN) 1, 2, 3 or 20
History (HILD) 7A, 7B, 7C, 10, 11, 12 or 14
Latin American Studies (LATI) 10, 50
Literatures in English (LTEN) 27, 28 or 29
Literatures in Cultural Studies (LTCS) 50, 52
Study of Religion (RELI) 2
Global South Studies (GSS) 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, or 26 (formerly Third World Studies [TWS])

Fine Arts (1 course)

Students are required to complete one Fine Arts course among the list of approved courses in Music, Theatre & Dance, or Visual Arts.

Fine Arts

Music (MUS) 4 - 19, 20, *80
Theatre/General (TDGE) 1, 5, 10-12
Theatre/History (TDHT) 21, 22, 23
Visual Arts (VIS) 1-3, 20-22 or 84

*MUS 80 must be taken for 4 units to count toward the Fine Arts GE.

Disciplinary Breadth (4 courses)

Students are required to complete four 4-unit Disciplinary Breadth courses - two (2) of which must be upper-division - outside the major field of study. At least one of the upper-division courses must include significant writing.

Transfer students with IGETC or UC Reciprocity only need to complete two (2) upper-division courses. Transfer students without an articulation agreement, please see an Academic Counselor.

One of the required upper-division courses must come from the Significant Writing list [PDF].
All students, regardless of major, can satisfy Disciplinary Breadth GE requirements through Public Service coursework. For more information, please visit the Academic Opportunities page.
Courses used for Disciplinary Breadth cannot overlap with courses used towards the Major.

Please select your major below to determine which departments you may choose from to satisfy the Disciplinary Breadth requirements.