Undergraduate Core

Undergraduates at DePaul take their general education courses in the Liberal Studies Program or the Honors Program. The only exception is students in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.¹

Liberal Studies

The Liberal Studies Program (LSP) is the general education program for students in the eight undergraduate colleges at DePaul. It is designed to develop students' writing abilities, computational and technological proficiencies, and critical and creative thinking skills while also introducing students to subject matter across a variety of disciplines. The LSP aligns with values central to DePaul’s unique Catholic, Vincentian, and urban mission.

The LSP is organized into two kinds of curricular experience: the Core and the Learning Domains.

The Core is intended to serve as a sequential set of common experiences – a kind of through-line of student development – ranging from first-year courses focused on the city and the campus (Discover/Explore Chicago) and fundamental skills of writing and quantitative reasoning, through focused anti-racism engagement and experiential learning to a Senior Capstone near the end of the degree.

The Learning Domains introduce students to a breadth of knowledge across seven categories. These include: Arts and Literature (AL), Historical Inquiry (HI), Math and Computing (MC), Philosophical Inquiry (PI), Religious Dimensions (RD), Scientific Inquiry (SI), and Social Cultural and Behavioral Inquiry (SCBI).

University Honors Program

The Honors curriculum replaces the Liberal Studies requirements for students in the Honors Program. Honors students complete the same number of general education courses as students in the Liberal Studies Program, but the course requirements are different. The Honors curriculum stresses seminar-based coursework, interdisciplinary learning, and advanced research opportunities for highly motivated students.

¹

School of Continuing and Professional Studies undergraduate students complete general education requirements through the Liberal Learning competence area. Additional information about how to meet these requirements can be found in the Degree Requirement section for SCPS undergraduate programs.