General Education Requirements

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.

Transfer Students: Please see the 'GE Requirements for Transfer Students' section below before enrolling in DOC 1, DOC 2, or DOC 3.

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.

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 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.

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

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 Advisor.

Guidelines:

• 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. 

Note: For students who are declaring a noncontiguous double major (majors from two different academic disciplines), they must complete just one Upper-Division Disciplinary Breadth with Writing GE. The course can be from any discipline and must appear on our pre-approved Significant Writing list.

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

Lower-Division General Education Requirements: No coursework required.

Upper-Division General Education Requirements: Upper-Division Breadth GEs

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

Guidelines:

• 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. 

Note: For students who are declaring a noncontiguous double major (majors from two different academic disciplines), they must complete just one Upper-Division Disciplinary Breadth with Writing GE. The course can be from any discipline, but it cannot overlap with any requirements for the double major. The course must also appear on our pre-approved Significant Writing list.

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

Lower-Division General Education Requirements:

• Complete the remaining one or two missing IGETC requirements for a letter grade with a D grade or better or for Pass/No-Pass grade with a Pass grade.
  • Students with a missing Area 6 (Language Other Than English) requirement must meet with an academic advisor to discuss options to complete the requirement.

Upper-Division General Education Requirements: Upper-Division Breadth GEs

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

Guidelines:

• 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. 

Note: For students who are declaring a noncontiguous double major (majors from two different academic disciplines), they must complete just one Upper-Division Disciplinary Breadth with Writing GE. The course can be from any discipline, but it cannot overlap with any requirements for the double major. The course must also appear on our pre-approved Significant Writing list.

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

Lower-Division General Education Requirements: No coursework required.

Upper-Division General Education Requirements: Upper-Division Breadth GEs

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

Guidelines:

• 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. 

Note: For students who are declaring a noncontiguous double major (majors from two different academic disciplines), they must complete just one Upper-Division Disciplinary Breadth with Writing GE. The course can be from any discipline, but it cannot overlap with any requirements for the double major. The course must also appear on our pre-approved Significant Writing list.

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

Lower-Division General Education Requirements: 

Transfer students without IGETC, Partial-IGETC or UC Reciprocity are considered Articulation and can satisfy lower-division GEs in one of the following ways:

GE Completion

• Completion of all lower-division GE requirements at a non-UC four-year campus or an out-of-state two-year campus prior to transferring to UCSD.
• Must obtain a Letter of GE Completion from the originating campus to be waived from all lower-division GEs at Marshall College.
• Please meet with an academic advisor at Marshall College for additional information.

GE Petition(s)

If you do not meet the above criteria, you must meet with an academic advisor at Marshall College to review your transfer courses. They will determine, on a course-by-course basis, which lower-division GE requirements you have fulfilled as well as the lower-division GE courses still needed. It is very likely that you will need to petition some of your transfer courses for GE credit.

Thurgood Marshall College Requirements:

Students will need to complete missing GE requirements that may include:

• Dimensions of Culture (DOC)*
• Mathematics, Statistics, and Logic
• Natural Sciences
• Humanities/Culture
• Fine Arts
• Disciplinary Breadth (up to four courses)

Upper-Division General Education Requirements: Upper-Division Breadth GEs

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

Guidelines:

• 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. 

Note: For students who are declaring a noncontiguous double major (majors from two different academic disciplines), they must complete just one Upper-Division Disciplinary Breadth with Writing GE. The course can be from any discipline, but it cannot overlap with any requirements for the double major. The course must also appear on our pre-approved Significant Writing list.

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