General Studies for Advisors

The following rule is new to the 2022-2023 catalog and not retroactive.

Course Count and Limits

“Courses that fulfill General Studies requirements and also fulfill degree program requirements, such as a major, minor or certificate, are allowed to count as meeting requirements in these areas. This means a course may count multiple times in a student’s degree plan. The credit hours for the course fulfill the credit hours in each area that the course is listed (major, minor, General Studies, etc.), but still only count once in the 120-credit hour minimum requirement for the awarding of a degree.

To ensure a well-rounded higher education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, student course selections cannot be confined solely to their major. Within each degree a student must take at least 33 credit hours outside of their major’s most recurrent prefix in order to graduate. For the purpose of this rule courses taken in a minor, a second or double major, ancillary course work or other academic program that does not carry the student’s most recurrent major prefix would count toward the 33 -credit hour total necessary to graduate.

In an interdisciplinary major, the academic prefix that comprises a majority of the credit hours in the major would be considered the most recurrent prefix. If there is not an academic prefix with a majority of credit hours, then the prefix that has the largest fraction of credit hours would be considered the most recurrent prefix for the purpose of this rule. In programs where there is a tie in the number of credit hours required per prefix, the department that owns the major for the purposes of the curriculum manual will be treated as the owner of the most recurrent prefix.

This rule means students may fulfill many degree requirements but still not have the necessary total 120 credit hours to complete a bachelor’s degree. Students are encouraged to meet with professors or academic advisors to consider coursework outside of General Studies, a major and minor, such as a double major, an additional minor or coursework in other interest areas, to ensure degree completion in a timely manner.”

Advisors: 

In rare instances where a General Studies course should count in the major and minor under the new course count policy, it’s not doing so properly in degree progress reports.  Due to coding limitations, only courses that are being counted in the General Studies section of the Degree Progress Report are coded to share with the major and minor, when really, any General Studies course should be able to count in multiple places.  For example, if a student took more than the required general studies courses in a category, Degree Works may not pick the course you were hoping your student would be double dipping in their major and minor.  The graduation office is able to make this adjustment for your student, so please contact them if you notice this.

Rules for the General Studies Program

To satisfy a particular general studies requirement, a course must appear on the list of approved general studies courses at the time of enrollment in the course.

• General studies courses need not be counted toward general studies requirements. They may be taken as electives or to satisfy requirements in the major or degree program.
• Students with partial credits (for example, resulting from credit transferred from institutions utilizing quarters or trimesters) may receive deviations of less than one hour in the general studies course categories requirements (written communication, oral communication, quantitative literacy, arts and humanities, historical, natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and global diversity), provided the student completes at least 33 semester hours of general studies coursework. (Note:  Approved by faculty senate April 6, 2022, will appear in the catalog in July (addendum) and implemented for students on 2022-2023 catalog)
• Courses taken for a pass/fail grade cannot be counted toward general studies.
• Students may use the multicultural course to satisfy two requirements: (1) Multicultural and (2) General Studies, or major or minor requirements.
• Students seeking a second baccalaureate degree will be considered to have fulfilled MSU Denver’s general studies requirements. However, departments may require that these students take additional coursework outside of the major.

All General Studies Rules can be found in the catalog using the “General Studies Requirements” link in the left hand navigation of the catalog.  Navigating among old undergraduate catalogs can happen using the drop down menu in the upper right corner of the catalog.

In the 2022-2023 catalog, all programs were put into a new template.  One key addition is a summary of requirements table at the bottom.  This table includes the credits from each of the sections above.  But where did the “Minor and Unrestricted Electives” or “Unrestricted Electives” number come from?

Remember, in the 2022-2023 catalog students can “double dip” General Studies courses in their major prefix in both General Studies and in the major.  They can also count General Studies courses not in the major prefix, but required for their major in both places.  Some students might take the recommended courses and double dip everything, making them more likely to have room for some free/unrestricted electives to get to 120 credits to graduate.  Some students might come in with other transfer courses in that category, or maybe they changed majors and did not take the recommended courses, leaving less room for free/unrestricted electives to get to 120 credits.  When building the new catalog templates we have a summary of credits at the bottom and one of the lines of that summary for programs less than 120 credits is a line called “Unrestricted Electives” for extended majors and for programs less than 60 credits, “Minor and Unrestricted Electives.”

• Remember, majors that require more than 60 credits (not including General Studies or Multicultural) are considered extended majors. Extended majors do not require minors and must contain at least 30 required upper division credits (to go toward the 40 required for graduation).  If the major requires more than 120 credits, we simply omitted this line entirely since there is no room for free/unrestricted electives.

How to calculate Unrestricted Electives:

Open this link of a visual aid in another tab/window to help you.  Then, creating a best case scenario for maximum double dipping, list the General Studies courses that are required by the major (required or in electives, recommended courses don’t count here).  Now add up these credits where the credits cannot exceed the category total (3 for Oral Communication, Quantitative Literacy, and Historical; 6 for Written Communication, Arts and Humanities, Social and Behavioral Science, Natural and Physical Science).  Now open this Excel spreadsheet and put your total General Studies credits double dipped in the cell (I have a red “9” as a placeholder).  Fill out the rest of the total required credits in your major using the purple text lines.  The spreadsheet will add up all of your required credits for a best case (maximum double dipping) and a worst case (no double dipping) to find the range of total credits required.  Finally, it will subtract the total from 120 credits to give you the range of unrestricted electives.  Questions can be directed to Keah Schuenemann.

A note on programs that require calculus:  Although it is somewhat rare, some students come in ready to take calculus as their first course with us.  Although Calculus is not on the General Studies list, we do have a longstanding rule that courses like Calculus that have general studies courses as prereqs will count towards General Studies.  If a student did come in ready to take Calculus, they would double-dip that course in General Studies and in their major, so we have been counting Calculus as a double dip.  This really becomes important in majors over 120 credits.  If 128 credits is required for your major, we certainly don’t want students who are ready for calculus to be penalized by not reaching 128 because they double dipped, so we would reduce your major minimum total credits accordingly.

In rare instances where a General Studies course should count in the major and minor under the new course count policy, it’s not doing so properly in degree progress reports.  Due to coding limitations, only courses that are being counted in the General Studies section of the Degree Progress Report are coded to share with the major and minor, when really, any General Studies course should be able to count in multiple places.  For example, if a student took more than the required general studies courses in a category, Degree Works may not pick the course you were hoping your student would be double dipping in their major and minor.  The graduation office is able to make this adjustment for your student, so please contact them if you notice this.

General studies courses are tagged with the General Studies category designations at the time the student takes the course, so the most recent list of General Studies courses is always the best way to make sure the class will count.  Catalog year is not relevant to this decision (except in the case of CHE 1100 and 1150, see Science Labs FAQ below).  Please pick a course that fulfills general studies at the time they take the course.  You can see the latest list on our webpage or you can trust that courses with general studies attributes in the schedule are tagged with general studies for that semester.

The course schedule found at https://www.msudenver.edu/catalog/#undergraduate-class-schedules- and the Advanced Search lets you search by General Studies Attribute.

The Degree Progress Report will show you which General Studies categories  courses have fulfilled and which still need to be taken.  For students who are new to MSU Denver, the Degree Progress Report for the new catalog year is usually created around August.  Students can still get a sense of what they need by generating a “What-If” report within their Degree Progress Report screen and chose the most recent catalog year available.

Some majors and minors require General Studies courses in the major, so they might find that it’s more efficient to take those courses for their General Studies requirements.

Beginning in 2023-2024 catalogs, the General Studies BIO lectures/labs have been separated for General Studies credit.  These classes are still co-reqs and need to be taken together, but, for example, if a student passes lecture but fails lab, the student will receive General Studies credit for the lecture only, or vice versa.

Physics lectures and labs DO NOT need to be taken together for Natural and Physical Sciences credit.

Chemistry lectures and labs DO NOT need to be taken together for Natural and Physical Sciences credit with this one exception:

Remember, courses are tagged with the General Studies category designation at the time the course was taken!

Fall 2012 to spring 2020, Modern Languages courses CHI 1020, FRE 1020, GER 1020, ITA 1020, and SPA 1020 (Elementary language II) courses counted as Oral Communication.

In fall 2020 and onward these 1020 courses became Arts and Humanities plus Global Diversity.

In fall 2020 and onward the Modern Languages 1010 courses (Elementary language I) CHI 1010, FRE 1010, GER 1010, ITA 1010, JPS 1010, SPA 1010 became Oral Communication.

The curriculum within these courses drastically changed in fall 2020 to account for the new learning outcomes in each category, so we discourage degree exceptions trying to change the designation based on catalog year lists.

Complex transfer questions around these courses should be directed to the chair of Modern Languages, not the Director of General Studies.

Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) became the Department of Communication Studies (COMM) in fall 2020 and updated several of their General Studies courses.

CAS 1010 Public Speaking became COMM 1010 Presentational Speaking. (Oral)

CAS 1710 Interpersonal Communication is similar to COMM 1100 Fundamentals of Oral Communication.  (Oral)

CAS 1020 Communication in Action was discontinued.  (Oral)

CAS 2770 Gender and Communication was renumbered to COMM 2010. (AHUM)

CAS 3740 Speech and Thought in a Digital Age was renumbered to COMM 3060. (SBS)

CAS 3760 Diversity and Communication in the US was renumbered to COMM 3000. (SBS + MC)

• Math course prerequisites are listed here: Math Course Prerequisites
• Math placement testing information, including study guides and review sessions for students, is available here: Placement Testing Information
• If you’re unsure whether a course taken at another institution would satisfy a math prerequisite, check the transfer course equivalency page, or have the student submit a transfer course evaluation request: Transfer Course Evaluations.

University policy states that students “may enroll in an individual, MSU Denver course a maximum of two times, unless the course is designated as repeatable. The department offering the course may approve additional attempts.” The Math & Stats department will grant additional attempts, with permission from the student’s major department. This is department policy, and the basis for it is that a student’s major department should at least be aware that their student requires a third (or subsequent) attempt at the math course. This is an opportunity for the student to receive additional advising that is specific to why the math course is required and important for their major. The Math & Stats department will provide students with advising that includes resources for success in the repeated course, but major advisors are in the unique position to provide students with guidance specific to the student’s area of study.
Math Course Repetition Approval forms and instructions are available here: Math Course Repetitions