Frequently Asked Questions

Bucknell University is a liberal arts institution. We are offering an education that prepares you for the growing complexity and diversity you will encounter in a rapidly changing world. This educational approach introduces students to a broad range of knowledge (including courses from natural sciences and math, social sciences, and arts and humanities) while providing deeper disciplinary knowledge in your major. Because you will engage with a diverse selection of courses that teach you multiple disciplinary skills, you will not only be better prepared for any profession or intellectual task that you set for yourself, you will also leave your undergraduate career as a more thoughtful, compassionate and engaged citizen of the world.

Yes, there are many courses that can transfer to Bucknell as a College Core Curriculum designation. Some will need to go through an approval process, but some of them will already have been approved. A list of previously approved courses for CCC designation is available. The Office of Global and Off-campus Education will be happy to help with this as well.

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There is a very clear process that students can follow in order to get their abroad/transfer courses approved for credit.

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Most courses in the College Core Curriculum do not double count, however there are a few exceptions.

• Integrated Perspective courses can count toward the major if approved by the appropriate department.
• Certain Integrated Perspectives (IP) courses are approved for multiple designations when they are taught abroad. However, only one designation will count per student. (This is to ensure that students who have already taken a IP class at Bucknell will be able to fulfill a different requirement when they are enrolled in a Bucknell In program abroad.)
• Non-learning goal courses can count toward Tools for Critical Engagement course requirements. Examples include Diversity in the US; Global, Environmental Connectionsl; and Quantitative Reasoning. These cannot be used toward a learning goal course or an Intellectual Skills course.
• All CCC courses can count toward the major with the exception of the Foundation Seminar.

Spanish 101 and 102 do not count as a CCC language requirement. Spanish 103 and above will count.

No, credit for these required classes cannot be transferred.

There is no specific timetable for the completion of your CCC course requirements, but we encourage you to take them early — not because this will “get them out of the way,” but because it will introduce you to a range of skills and disciplinary approaches that you might never have encountered before. This will allow you to make informed decisions about your future major, but also it will give you some intellectual depth as you develop in your chosen field of study.

The Integrated Perspectives course was designed for sophomore students in order to encourage interdisciplinary ways of thinking before becoming too focused on a chosen major. However, due to study abroad, scheduling and transfer issues, some students will end up taking this course in their junior year. We should strongly discourage you from taking this course in your senior year.

In order to change a designation for a course on a transcript, you should request permission from your adviser and go over the possible impact that this change will make on your academic progress report by looking at the College Core Curriculum adviser report your adviser can access on Banner Web. If the change seems appropriate, the adviser should contact the registrar’s office and request the change to your progress report.

AP courses cannot count toward most CCC courses. AP courses can only count toward the non-learning goals requirement (for example, non-learning goal natural science and math, arts and humanities, or social science).

Non-learning Goal courses may be designed to have learning goals that meet the requirements of the major but not the CCC. They are still very important classes.

The Writing Program at Bucknell is not a part of the CCC. You can visit the Writing Center and get help with your writing at any time.

You can only get credit for a requirement retroactively if the course was approved for this requirement at the time that you took the course. CCC designations are not retroactive.

Some designations for courses are approved based on the instructor teaching it. This means that sections of the same course may be approved for different designations in the same term. Courses from semester to semester may also carry different designations, so carefully check the designations listed for the section you are taking.

There are no automatic designations. All courses must be submitted for approval by the College Core Curriculum Committee.

Non-learning goal courses will receive designation based on the department in most cases.

There is a very clear process that students can follow in order to get their abroad/transfer courses approved for credit.

Ideally, all IP classes will have a 200 catalogue number in order to distinguish these required CCC courses from other departmental ones.

The CCC Adviser Report is a very helpful tool. This will indicate what other CCC designations courses that the student has completed can count for in the CCC. The report is a grid and will show an "X" in the requirement that the course is presently satisfying, and an "O" in any other requirement the course could satisfy instead. This information would be based on what the course could satisfy during the particular term that the student took the course. This report is available on the APR of all student advisees.

View a sample academic progress report

You can propose a College Core Curriculum Course here.

Request a Scholarly Summer Grant:Guidelines (pdf) and application

Request a Curricular/Instructional Development Grant:Guidelines (pdf) and application

On all student academic progress reports in Banner Web, you will find a tab at the top of the page labeled "Comments." This is an ideal way to keep track on your conversations with students and keep a record of the decisions you have made together. Students can see these comments.

View a sample academic progress report.