Policies & Procedures

• View a complete list of GEP Oversight policy and procedure decisions for all years.
• Explore the list of course- or department-specific clarifications.
• Learn more about GEP exceptions for direct-entry students in the Pharmacy, OT, PT, and PA programs.

​​​​​​Saint Joseph’s University awards credit for Advanced Placement (AP) Examinations as outlined in the Required Score and Equivalency Chart linked below.  Credit is given only upon receipt of an official report from the College Board.  The AP course credit may count toward the 120 credits graduation requirement. A score of 4 or 5 on certain AP exams may fulfill General Education Program (GEP) requirements, as the linked chart indicates.

For more information, view the Advanced Placement Reference Credit Table.

• The First Year Seminar may be taken during either semester of the first year, but it must be taken during the first year.
• No student may take more than one First Year Seminar.
• Transfers students are not required to take a First Year Seminar.
• First Year Seminar courses may not be taken during the summer or intersession.
• A First Year Seminar may be certified as Diversity/Globalization/Non-Western but may not be certified in any other overlay area.
• The First Year Seminar does not have any course pre-requisites.
• A course taken for First Year Seminar credit cannot count for any other Signature or Variable GEP credit.
• The First Year Seminar may count toward the major but it may not be required by the major (with the exception of Education students and EDU 150).
• Students who fail to successfully complete a First Year Seminar during one of their first two semesters at SJU will be required to take an additional Philosophy or Theology/Religious Studies course as a replacement for the FYS.  This replacement course cannot count for any other major or GEP requirement.

• PHL 154 Moral Foundations and THE 154 Faith, Justice and the Catholic Tradition are prerequisites for Faith and Reason courses.
• Courses certified as Faith and Reason may also be certified as writing-intensive but may not be certified in any other overlay area.
• While some Faith and Reason courses are also approved as GEP Variable courses (e.g., Religious Difference or Art/Lit/Music,Theatre,Film), students may not satisfy both their Faith and Reason requirement and their GEP Variable requirement with a single course.

• Students with a double major are required to complete the ILC courses for the first major only.
• Students who change their major after completing the ILC requirement for their original major are not required to complete the ILCs that are specified by the new major. This means that if a student has completed one ILC course for the old major then he or she only needs to complete two ILC courses for the new major to meet the GEP requirement. If a student has completed two ILC courses for the old major then he or she only needs to complete one ILC course for the new major to meet the GEP requirement.
• Students who have completed their ILC requirements before changing majors may need to complete additional courses if those courses are considered essential to the new major. These courses would be additional requirements of the new major and not GEP ILC requirements.
• Courses outside of CAS may count for ILC requirements if and only if such courses counted for ILC requirements before the change to a credit-based graduation requirement.

• A single course may count for up to three overlay requirements, in the areas of (1) Ethics, (2) Writing, or (3) DGNW (if certified in each area). A single course may not double-count within the DGNW area (e.g., count for both Diversity and Nonwestern or for both Diversity and Globalization). Students may receive overlay credit in multiple overlay areas from a single course.
• Signature common core courses cannot be certified for overlay credit.  First-Year Seminars can be certified only in the Diversity/Globalization/Non-Western area.  Faith and Reason courses can be certified only in the Writing Intensive area.
• PHL 154 Moral Foundations is the prerequisite for ethics-intensive courses.
• ENG 101 Craft of Language is the prerequisite for writing-intensive courses.
• For the purpose of fulfilling the GEP requirements a course is normally understood as a semester unit to which a value of three or more credits is assigned. However, a two-credit course may be certified as writing intensive if, according to the writing-intensive committee, the course meets the certification standards and the nature and amount of writing instruction, assignments and pedagogy would be sufficient for the writing-intensive aspect of a three-credit, writing-intensive course.

• Departments and programs are free to decide whether GEP courses should also at the same time count toward the completion of the major or minor.
• ILC courses must be taken outside of the primary major, though they can in principle count toward a second major or minor.

Electives

• All majors outside of Education and the direct-entry programs must allow for 18 credit hours of free electives.

• Students must take this one-credit P/NP course during one of their first four semesters.
• The INT 151 requirement is effective beginning with students in the Class of 2027.