: 611B
General Studies focuses on developing knowledge and skills across traditional disciplinary boundaries resulting in an interdisciplinary cornerstone for academic and career pursuits. A General Studies major allows you to develop a path for transfer into a variety of majors or that will enhance your career competitiveness and further your academic and personal goals. General Studies has flexible program requirements within core areas that encourage you to synthesize knowledge and approaches on inquiry from various disciplines allowing you to bring creative, multi-disciplinary problem-solving, and critical thinking approaches to a range of modern problems.
The General Studies degree is a flexible curriculum that fosters intentional exploration of academic and career goals through academic coursework and supportive advising. Using interdisciplinary application of practical and intellectual skills through General Education courses and your selected core area of focus, the General Studies program creates a flexible, integrated framework for you to engage in complex problems related your chosen focus of study while promoting specific disciplinary content and skills. The General Studies program promotes personal responsibility and civic engagement by providing an academic framework in which you will explore contemporary and enduring questions, integrate learning across disciplines, and develop knowledge, skills, and motivation to frame issues and questions presented in the academic experience in the context of a broader community. This program can be completed either on campus or online.
In the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics area, you will select courses and build a degree that will allow you to explore across traditional areas in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This area of study is ideal for students planning to transfer into four-year programs in the Health Sciences, planning to apply for Montgomery College’s Health Science programs, or desiring to explore a variety of areas before selecting a focused degree path. Additionally, the area allows you to develop communication, quantitative and qualitive reasoning, the scientific method and interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving, teamwork and leadership skills -all highly valued proficiencies in academic fields and the workforce.
In this core, students will develop an intentional academic plan that reflects personal, academic, and career goals emphasizing the following discipline areas or individual courses:
- Astronomy (ASTR)
- Biology (BIOL)
- Chemistry (CHEM)
- Data Science (DATA)
- Computer Science (CMSC)
- Electrical Engineering (ENEE)
- Engineering Science (ENES)
- Geology (GEOL)
- Mathematics (MATH)
- Meteorology (AOSC)
- Networking (NWIT)
- Nutrition (NUTR)
- Physical Science (PSCI)
- Physics (PHYS)
Students may elect to take any of the following individual courses as part of their STEM core requirements to enhance their selected academic focus; however, transferability of these courses should be carefully reviewed:
- Architecture Technology (ARCH 101 )
- Biotechnology (BIOT 110 )
- Computer Application (CMAP 120 )
- Environmental Horticulture and Sustainable Agribusiness (HORT 100 )
NOTE: This core may not be appropriate for students intending to transfer to another institution for a life sciences, engineering, or mathematics degree program; students should meet with an advisor before selecting this core.
General Degree Requirements
In order to complete this degree, students must
- complete of a minimum of 60 credit hours including:
- 31 credit hours of General Education program requirements ***
- 15 credit hours in STEM core courses with a minimum of 3 credit hours at the 200 level
- up to 11 elective credit hours as needed to complete 60 credit hours
- complete a minimum of 15 credit hours at the 200 level
- have a 2.0 GPA or higher.