The Gettysburg College Curriculum
The Gettysburg College Curriculum has four core components:
Modes of Inquiry
All students must take five distinct courses in which they produce works representative of the arts, formal sciences, humanities, laboratory-based natural sciences, and social sciences. These courses may also overlap with those that students take to satisfy requirements in the Perspective and Social Change area or their major.
- Arts (1 course)
- Humanities (1 course)
- Formal Science (1 course)
- Natural Science with lab (1 course)
- Social Science (1 course)
Classes counting for First-Year critical skills and/or Gettysburg Seminars may not count toward Modes of Inquiry. Classes counting for the Modes of Inquiry courses may also satisfy one of the Perspectives and Social Change requirements.
Perspectives & Social Change
By fulfilling these requirements, students will gain an increased awareness of how cultural contexts and identities intersect and shape perspectives and behaviors, understand how power and oppression are manifested in one’s lives and communities, and develop skills to communicate across diverse groups of people.
- Non-Native Language (2 courses in sequence in the same language). All students will take a two course sequence in the same language. AP Credit can be used for one of these courses. International students whose native language is not English may petition the Academic Standing Committee regarding this requirement. Those students who may be seeking information regarding accommodations should contact the Center for Student Success.
- Identities and Culture (1 course). Identities and cultural contexts impact one’s worldview and perspectives. The ability to meaningfully engage with culturally different others and recognize how thoughts and behaviors could be socio-culturally grounded will help students to develop intercultural competence. All students will take a course that considers how identities and cultural contexts (within and/or outside the U.S.) intersect with, reflect, and shape one’s perspectives and experiences. This course will develop students’ analytical and reflective abilities to help them understand how cultural worldview frameworks are developed and increase their cultural self- awareness.
- Race, Power, and Equity (1 course). All students will take a course that considers the institutional, structural, and cultural components of race, power, and inequity. The course goes beyond recognition of racial differences to explore power structures behind racial differences.
Your Gettysburg education doesn’t end with the Academic Program. Knowledge and enduring skills at Gettysburg College are practiced and deepened through our Guided Pathways program, which provides students with an intentional approach to their co-curricular experiences. Every incoming student will have the opportunity to align their interests with on-campus experiences within a thematic Guided Pathway.
Classes counting toward First-Year Critical Skills and Gettysburg Seminars may not count toward Perspectives & Social Change.
Gettysburg Seminars
- First-Year Seminar (first year, 1 course). The Gettysburg Curriculum begins with our first-year seminars, which offer small, intense intellectual communities that foster active learners engaged with a wide range of topics.
- Sophomore-Year Seminar: Communities & Change (sophomore year, 1 course) During their sophomore year students take a course in which they consider the structures and processes that facilitate local, national, and/or global community engagement and learn how they can be agents of change.
First-Year Critical Skills
- First-Year Writing (1 course) - May be satisfied by an FYS with an attribute of FY Writing OR other courses approved for this category. During their first year, all Gettysburg students take a course that introduces them to the foundational concepts and skills they need to develop as flexible, effective communicators. Students can expect to create texts for a variety of audiences and purposes and to use writing not just as a means of communicating but as a means of thinking and learning.
- First-Year Data & Society (1 course) - May be satisfied by an FYS with an attribute of FY Data & Society OR other courses approved for this category. Gettysburg students take a course in their first year in which they learn basic skills of data literacy and discuss the process of data collection and the use (and misuse) of quantitative information. Students learn about these topics within the context of issues of social importance and will understand the tools of data analysis as well as the limitations that are often encountered when gathering and interpreting data.
The Gettysburg Curriculum
The Gettysburg Curriculum aims to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to navigate a rapidly changing global environment and seeks to inspire our students to lead lives of meaning, service, and consequence.
There are two hallmarks of the Gettysburg Curriculum:
- We ask students to be self-reflective, to write and think in ways that express a growing self-awareness about the progress and impact of their education.
- We ask students to make connections in what they are learning, to see relevant implications across courses, to achieve an education that is more than a transcript of self-contained courses.
While completing their studies at Gettysburg College, students must complete 32 course units, a major field of study (including a major capstone experience), and the following curricular requirements.. For Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education, students must complete a total of 36 course units.
Guidelines
The Gettysburg Curriculum includes specific guidelines for fulfilling academic requirements. Gettysburg Seminars can also count toward First-Year Critical Skills, such as First-Year Writing. However, courses taken for First-Year Critical Skills or Gettysburg Seminars cannot be applied toward Modes of Inquiry or Perspectives & Social Change.
Some courses may fulfill both a Mode of Inquiry and a Perspectives & Social Change requirement.
First-Year Critical Skills may be completed through designated First-Year Seminars or other approved courses.
Individualized study courses and internships do not count toward curriculum requirements. If a course is categorized under both Identities & Cultures and Race, Power & Equity, students may only use it to fulfill one requirement, and two distinct courses must be taken for these areas.
Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory graded courses do not fulfill Gettysburg Curriculum requirements. For questions about First-Year Critical Skills or Gettysburg Seminars, students should contact Professor William O’Hara at wohara@gettysburg.edu.
For students who entered Gettysburg College prior to Fall 2025
The curriculum is structured around four key elements:
Multiple Inquiries
Gettysburg College students are required to engage in multiple forms of inquiry -- in the humanities, the arts, the social sciences, and natural sciences -- in a self-conscious and intentional way. We expect students to learn a variety of approaches, to apply them aptly, and to understand their value and their limitations.
Integrative Thinking
We believe our graduates should know how to integrate what they have learned. It is not enough to have compartmentalized knowledge. Integrative thinking is required to create solutions, to develop new ideas, to exert leadership.
Communication Skills
Today we are all drowning in information. An effective education must teach students how to evaluate information, to marshal relevant evidence persuasively, and to communicate effectively -- in person, in writing, and in technologically enhanced ways.
Informed Citizenship
We want our graduates to be at home in the world and to be engaged citizens with a global perspective. Understanding and valuing forms of difference, entering another worldview through language, study in another land -- these are valuable in shaping a sense of engagement in the world.
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