General Education Courses

Students enrolled in four-year college degree programs are typically required to take at least some general education classes. General education courses aim to teach you diverse skills that can help you be productive and knowledgeable, regardless of your area of study.

While every post-secondary institution has its own general education requirements, many focus on the following subject areas:

• English
• History
• Liberal arts and humanities
• Math
• Science
• Social sciences

General education courses are built into most degree programs because they can help you expand your knowledge in many ways. They can:

• Provide useful knowledge and skills that can positively impact the way you work.
• Improve your soft skills such as conflict resolution and communication, which can be applied to everyday life as well as the workplace.
• Help you develop a global perspective to see the world through different viewpoints.
• Allow you to experiment with different fields of study that may result in discovering a hidden passion.
• Help you become a more well-rounded employee.
• Increase critical thinking skills that can help you solve problems and evaluate information more effectively.

The general education courses you take during your first year of college will depend on the degree program you enroll in. For example, students enrolled in our Bachelor’s in Information Technology and Networking program will need to take a physics class and an environmental sociology class, whereas Business Management students will need to take principles of ethics and algebra for college students. To complete their degree programs, information technology students must finish 51 general education credits while business management students must complete only 40 GE credits.

How long it takes to complete your general education classes will depend on a number of factors:

• The general education requirements for the degree program you are enrolled in.
• How many classes you take per 8-week session.
• Whether you are enrolled year-round or take breaks between classes.

On average, you can expect to complete most or all of your gen ed courses within your first one to two years of college.

General education credits are credits you earn by taking GE courses. The number of credit hours each individual course is worth may vary, and is established based on an estimate of how much class and study time it will take for you to complete the course. Typically, a general education course is worth two to three academic credit hours. Degree programs require a minimum number of credit hours needed in order to graduate, such as 120 or more, and of the credit hours required to compete the degree a certain amount will need to be GE credits. To explore the credit hours required for each course and program at DeVry, view our Academic Catalogs.