General Education Policies

Per the CSU General Education Breadth Requirements and University Policy F24-1.

1. All students must complete 43 units of approved GE courses with letter grades. If a requirement is waived without unit credit, additional approved GE courses must be taken to complete a minimum of 43 GE units.
2. All three areas of the following must be completed by all students: Core GE (34 units), UD GE (9 upper division GE units) and American Institutions (US123) (0-6 units).
3. Transfer students may fulfill all lower division core GE by completing the California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC). Having completed Cal-GETC requirements, the transfer student cannot be held to additional lower division core GE requirements.
4. All students must satisfy UD GE at SJSU regardless of GE completed at other institutions. Exceptions:
   • A complete 43 unit GE Certification from another CSU is submitted, showing lower and upper division completed.
   • Second baccalaureate students who earned their first bachelor degree from a regionally accredited institution in the U.S.
   • Student completes one or more approved upper division GE courses at another CSU, in person or online.
5. If a course is listed as a sequence (A-B), the entire sequence must be completed to satisfy the requirement.
6. Written Communication I (Area 1A), Critical Thinking and Writing (Area 1B), Oral Communication (Area 1C), Mathematics/ Quantitative Reasoning (Area 2), and Ethnic Studies (Area 6) courses each require a minimum grade of “C-” or better.
7. To find approved courses, check the Course Note Abbreviations listed for the requirement. This designator is printed by each GE class section in the MySJSU Schedule of Classes (access through One.SJSU.edu).
8. All GE courses must be on the approved list of the California Community College (CCC), California State University (CSU), or University of California (UC) for CSU Breadth Requirements or Cal-GETC where and when the course is taken.
9. The following GE courses require prerequisites to enroll:
   • Written Communication I (Area 1A), passed with a grade of “C-” or better, is prerequisite to Critical Thinking and Writing (Area 1B).
   • Completion of Core General Education and upper division standing are prerequisites to upper division GE courses. Completion of, or co-registration in, 100W is strongly recommended.
10. Subsequent to completion of all CSU General Education Requirements (at the lower and upper divisions), a student may not be required to satisfy additional general education requirements outside of the major program requirements.
11. Complete information on specific requirements and approved courses may be found each semester in the General Education Requirements  section of the catalog.