The goal of this requirement is to ensure that all students develop basic abilities to perform social scientific analyses of patterns of social interactions. Core-area courses in social analysis provide a broad introduction to the perspectives offered by one of the traditional social sciences. Courses will consider empirical and/or normative analysis, how social science knowledge differs from other kinds of knowledge, what constitutes data, the relationship between data and theory, and major conceptual perspectives. Where appropriate, courses will provide an understanding of and sensitivity to the diversity of American and/or other societies, an international perspective, and will address issues of social concern.
To meet this requirement, students must earn the equivalent of a full course in a single department. Students may not use fractional courses from multiple departments to meet the requirement.
Students choose one of the following core-area courses:
- ECON 211 Current Economic Issues
- ECON 251 Principles of Macroeconomics
- ECON 252 Principles of Microeconomics
- GEOG 111 Human Geography
- GEOG 113 World Geography
- POLS 104 American Government in Comparative Perspective
- PSYC 111 General Psychology
- SOCI 100 Introduction to Sociology
- SOCI 110 Social Problems