top of page

how to navigate GEs

  • Writer: subin
    subin
  • May 28, 2020
  • 3 min read

Coming in to UC Davis, I was so confused on how GEs worked. What classes are you supposed to take? And how do you know if it satisfies the requirements? In this post, I'll be going over these questions. (DISCLAIMER: I am an NPB major which is part of the College of Biological Sciences so the information I provide is for majors in my college)


GEs

This is the GE chart students use for the College of Biological Sciences or CBS.


There are 2 different components: Topical Breadth and Core Literacies. Within Topical Breadth, there are 3 categories: AH, SE, and SS. You don't need to worry about SE since you are a CBS major and your major courses tend to fulfill this box. Therefore, you need the AH + SS units to equal to 32 in order to satisfy the Topical Breadth component of your GE requirement. You also need at least 12 units in both AH & SS. This means you can't take 11 units of AH and 20 units of SS.


In Core Literacies, you see that the boxes for QL, SL, Additional OL/WE, and VL are all fulfilled because of major courses you take as a CBS major. Therefore, it's only necessary to take 6 units of WE, 3 units of ACGH, 3 units of DD, 3 units of WC, along with the English Composition Requirement.

For the English Composition Requirement, you need to take 4 units of lower division and 4 units upper division English. Here are the courses you can take to fulfill the requirement:

Lower Division:

  • AP LIT/AP LANG score: 4,5

  • COM 1-4

  • ENL 3

  • UWP 1 (including 1V or 1Y)

  • UWP 18

  • UWP 19

  • NAS 5

Upper Division:

  • UWP 101, 102 series or 104 series

You can also test out after taking 70 units. I would be careful when testing out of the English Composition Requirement or P/NP the courses because some graduate schools (medical school, dental school, etc) may require a year of English with letter grading.


How to Choose What Classes to Take for Satisfying GEs:

When you see a course on Schedule Builder: you can see what GE credits the class fulfills by looking at the section "New GE courses." For WMS 050 (the class shown in the screenshot), it fulfills AH, DD, SS, VL, ACGH, and WE. However, you won't get all of the credits for all of the categories by taking this course. You can get credit for Topical Breadth AND Core Literacies for a single course. But if a course is certified in more than one Topical Breadth area, you may count the course units toward only one Topical Breadth area. Same goes for Core Literacies.


So for WMS 050, the course satisfies Topical Breadth Components: AH & SS AND Core Literacies Components: DD, VL, ACGH, & WE. Therefore, you can choose the credits to go towards EITHER AH or SS for the Topical Breadth Component. Same with Core Literacies, you'll only get credit for one of the following: DD, VL, ACGH, OR WE. Therefore, the resulting credits you receive from the course could be 4 units in AH and 4 units in WE. Or 4 units of SS and 4 units of ACGH. etc. You get the idea.


Here are some good tools for finding GEs:

You can also Pass/No Pass GEs and still receive GE credit for them. However, the class won't affect your GPA. But make sure you're aware of the P/NP restrictions and requirements for graduate schools before you do so.


Hope this article was helpful! Here's more information:

 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page