Should I change from "Gen-Ed" to "Common Curriculum"?
Beginning for the 2025-26 academic year, the University launched a new set of general education requirements, called the Common Curriculum for Leadership and Global Citizenship. New UConn students who begin at UConn summer or Fall 2025 (or later) follow Common Curriculum requirements. Continuing UConn students who begin at UConn Spring 2025 (or earlier) can continue to follow the General Education requirements OR, may opt to advance their career catalog year (with no impact to major catalog year or major requirements) to follow the Common Curriculum requirements. Students who do advance their career catalog year can return to their original catalog year at any time. But, generally, there is more flexibility built into the Common Curriculum requirements.
Based on our advising experience thus far with current continuing UConn students, you may benefit from advancing your catalog year (to change from gen-eds to common curriculum) if Fall 2025 is/was the start of your:
If you think you might benefit from advancing to the new common curriculum from current general education, follow the steps below, and utilize our virtual Drop-In Advising Hours if you have questions (we can help you best during Steps #2 and #5) -- you can always change back to gen-ed if you realize that works better for your plans:
Step 1 - Run Standard Advisment Report
Log into StudentAdmin to run your Standard Advisement Report (instructions here). Take note of your unsatisfied requirements in the top half of the report--Content Areas 1 through 4, as well as the School Required Courses section. These are the two sections most impacted by the change from general education to common curriculum.
Keep in mind this reports assumes everything you are enrolled in will be completed, so if you are enrolled for a future term in a Content Area course, or a School Required Course, it will be showing as satisfied.
Step 2 - Decide if it could benefit you to advance
If all gen-eds are done, and/or the gen-eds you have remaining are appropriately planned for, then no further action is required and you can continue with your current academic plan and requirements.
If, however, you have some gen-eds remaining, even as little as one (but one that perhaps you do not want to take), then you may benefit from proceeding through the remaining steps and advancing your catalog year. A good example of this change is that Business Psychology (PSYC 1100) is required in the old gen-eds, but is not specifically required in the new common curriculum, so advancing will remove PSYC 1100 as a specific requirement for a student majoring in Business. You can see a side-by-side comparison of the two sets of requirements on our General Education and Common Curriculum Requirements webpage.
You are welcome to utilize our virtual drop-in advising hours at this stage to help you make a decision, but keep in mind Advisors will NOT be able to tell you if you meet any of the new common curriculum requirements, only help you identify which general education requirements you still have remaining. You will likely benefit more from speaking with an Advisor during Step 5, when your progress on the new common curriculum is clear.
Step 3 - Submit request to advance career catalog year
Submit your request to change your career catalog year using the Change catalog year form on the Registrar's forms website. Don't worry, you can always change it back if you realize this is not going to benefit you in the long run.
For the question on the form where it asks "Please identify the advisor you consulted." you can simply indicate "School of Business Advising" if you didn't speak with someone specifically, as we expect many students to go through this process at various times.
Since the result of this step will change your Standard Advisement Report, take notes about what gen-eds and School Required Courses you had remaining so you can more easily compare.
Step 4 - Wait for confirmation
You will get a confirmation email once your form has been processed and your career catalog year requirement term has been adjusted. If it has been 5 business days since your request and you still have not heard back, and your Standard Advisement Report is still showing gen-eds, you can reach out to OneStop for follow-up.
Step 5 - Run *Updated* Standard Advisment Report
Once your catalog year change request has been processed, you can run your Standard Advisement Report (instructions here) again. Take note of your unsatisfied requirements in the top half of the report--the Common Curriculum section. You will also see a distinct Business Critical Required Courses section now, showing the same 7 critical courses (ACCT, ECON, ENGL, MATH, STAT) as well as COMM 1000/1100, which is considered a critical course for students in the common curriculum. This is the one School Required Course that remains in these new requirements, but there are no longer any other School Required Courses. Students who started in their Business major in Spring 2025 or earlier do not need to have COMM 1000/1100 done in their first four terms, even if they advance to common curriculum through this process.
Remember, this reports assumes everything you are enrolled in will be completed, so if you are enrolled for a future term in a TOI course, it will be showing as satisfied.
This is a great time to utilize our virtual drop-in advising hours if you need help making a decision. Advisors will NOT be able to see your progress on the gen-ed requirements, so please be prepared with notes about what gen-eds and School Required Courses you had remaining, but we can certainly help you navigate the new requirements in Student Admin and help answer questions about the new Common Curriculum.
Step 6 - Finalize Plan
If you determine you benefit from keeping the advanced catalog year and will stay with the common curriculum, then you are good to go! Make adjustments to your schedule if it suits you, but otherwise, no further action is required.
If you determine it is actually better for you to keep the gen-eds, then change your career catalog year back by submitting the Change catalog year form again, on the Registrar's forms website. Once processed, your Standard Advisement Report will revert back to your original requirements.