Common Curriculum and General Education Requirements
All business majors require that a minimum of 60 credits are earned from non-Business coursework. General Education courses, and the new Common Curriculum courses taken in non-Business departments, count towards this requirement and are an essential component of a School of Business student’s experience. The new Common Curriculum (starting the 2025-26 catalog year) provides academic breadth with a set of intellectually rigorous and challenging courses that foster skills and attributes associated with leadership and global citizenship.
School of Business Critical Required Courses
Required for all Business majors, to be completed in the first four terms:
ACCT 2001 Principles of Financial Accounting
COMM 1000 The Process of Communication or COMM 1100 Principles of Public Speaking*
ECON 1201 Principles of Microeconomics**
ECON 1202 Principles of Macroeconomics
ENGL 1007 Seminar and Studio in Writing and Multimodal Composition, ENGL 1010 Seminar in Academic Writing, or ENGL 1011 Seminar in Writing through Literature***
MATH 1070Q Mathematics for Business and Economics****
MATH 1071Q Calculus for Business and Economics****
STAT 1000Q Introduction to Statistics I or STAT 1100Q Elementary Concepts of Statistics
*The Accounting Department recommends Accounting majors take COMM 1100 Principles of Public Speaking
**According to the catalog, "students may not earn credit for both ARE 1150 and ECON 1201." It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that all students currently in, or seeking admission to, the School of Business take ECON 1201, and not ARE 1150, so as not to run into credit restriction issues. Should a student take ARE 1150, that student will need to request a permission number to enroll in any Business course that uses ECON 1201 as a pre-requisite, and will run into enrollment errors as a result. The School of Business strongly recommends students take ECON 1201.
***Students who place into ENGL 1003 or 1004 as a prerequisite for ENGL 1007/1010/1011 (placement based on GPA, SAT, or TOEFL score) can use the ENGL 1003/1004 credits towards elective credits. Students who transfer in both ENGL 91002 and ENGL 91003, for at least six credits combined, will have their ENGL requirement met automatically. The First-Year Writing office at the University of Connecticut conducts Writing Course Equivalency Reviews for transfer students who have completed coursework equivalent to UConn’s First-Year Writing courses (ENGL 1007/1010/1011) at another accredited institution. Transfer student may review eligibility and procedures to initiate a request on the Department of English website.
****Other approved math sequences include 1131Q & 1132Q; 1131Q & 1070Q; 1151Q & 1152Q; and 1151Q & 1070Q. See the undergraduate catalog for the full list. Unless students are planning on pursuing mathematics further (through a minor, additional degree, etc.) School of Business students should plan to take the MATH 1070Q and 1071Q sequence.
School of Business Second Language Requirement
Required for all Business majors, to be completed by graduation but recommeded earlier:
- Passed the third year level course in high school in a single foreign language, ancient or modern
- Two units/levels of a single foreign language in high school PLUS an added year of college courses at a more advanced level in a single foreign language
- Completion of two years (four semesters) through the college Intermediate Level
Beginning for the 2025-26 academic year, the University is launching 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. Generally, there is more flexibility built into the Common Curriculum requirements, read more below.
Common Curriculum Requirements
Catalog year 2025-26 and later
Topics of Inquiry and Competencies require 21 credits from at least six departments, including a focus area (three 3-credit courses in a theme or one TOI). Business Criticals can fulfill some TOIs.
Business students can choose any course to satisfy this TOI (minimum of 3 credits required).
Business students can choose any course to satisfy this TOI (minimum of 3 credits required). This requirement can be fulfilled by the Business Critical COMM 1000.
Business students can choose any course to satisfy this TOI (minimum of 3 credits required).
Business students can choose any course to satisfy this TOI (minimum of 3 credits required).
Business students can choose any course to satisfy this TOI (minimum of 3 credits required). This requirement can be fulfilled by the Business Criticals COMM 1000, ECON 1201, and ECON 1202.
- Quantitative (Q) Competency (satisfied by School of Business Criticals)
- Writing (W) Competency
- In addition to completing ENGL 1007, 1010, or 1011 all UConn students must take at least two writing-intensive (W) courses. School of Business students must complete either BUSN 3003W, or BUSN 3004W (as listed on their major plan of study) PLUS an additional writing-intensive (W) course of their choosing. Please visit our Registration FAQs page on tips for how to search for "W" courses offered each term.
- Students can “double dip” to satisfy the additional writing-intensive course if a TOI course is taken as a writing-intensive (W) course, such as ANTH 1000W or HIST 1501W. See FAQs below for more details. Business student in the Honors program can confirm if the thesis course in their major will count as their additional writing-intensive course on the Honors Advising page.
- Second Language Competency (satisfied by School of Business Second Language Requirement)
- Information, Digital, and Media Literacy (IDML) (satisfied by TOI coursework)
- Dialogue Competency (satisfied by TOI coursework)
General Education Requirements
Catalog years 2024-25 and prior
Content Areas and Competencies require a minimum of two courses from each Content Area. This includes the specific School of Business required courses (listed below) outlined in your Plan of Study under both General Education and Business Critical requirements.
One course from the following list:
Courses above satisfy Content Area 1: Arts & Humanities. Substitutions are not made for any other courses taken at UConn.
HIST 1501 and 1502 are recommended for students who have not completed high school level courses in American Government and American History.
One course from the following list:
Courses above satisfy Content Area 1: Arts & Humanities.
*PHIL 1106 and 1107 can “double dip” to satisfy the Business Philosophy AND the Business International or Business Diversity School of Business requirements. However, students may not be able to double dip across University Content Area requirements. See FAQs below for more details.
^PHIL 1109, a course offered starting 2022, will substitute for and satisfy this requirement automatically. Substitutions are not made for any other courses taken at UConn.
One course from the following list:
Students transferring in COM 171 from a Connecticut Community College will have the Business Communications requirement met, but must submit a Substitution/Course Evaluation Request Form upon admission to the School of Business for processing.
*Only COMM 1000 satisfies Content Area 2: Social Sciences. Substitutions are not made for any other courses taken at UConn.
COMM 1100 is recommended for Accounting majors. COMM 1000 is recommended for students interested in pursuing a COMM minor.
Substitutions are not made for this requirement. Advanced Placement (AP) credit for PSYC 91000 does not satisfy this requirement. Students who transfer in PSYC 1101 must still complete PSYC 1100.
One course from the following list:
- ANTH 1000/W
- ANTH 3153W / HRTS 3153W
- CLCS 2201
- GEOG 1700
- GEOG 2000
- HRTS 1007
- NRE 2600E
- PHIL 1106*
- POLS 1202
- POLS 1207
- WGSS 2124 (formerly offered as WGSS 1124)
*PHIL 1106 can “double dip” to satisfy the Business Philosophy AND the Business International or Business Diversity School of Business requirements. However, students may not be able to double dip across University Content Area requirements. See FAQs below for more details.
Courses above satisfy Content Area 4: Diversity and Multiculturalism – International. Substitutions are not made for any other courses taken at UConn.
POLS 1202 is recommended for students who have not completed a High School level course in American Government.
An additional Content Area 4 course. This update was made January 2025.
Courses taken abroad (1993/2993/3993 course numbers) may be considered for a substitution of this requirement. Students must submit the syllabus for the course and request evaluation via the Substitution/Course Evaluation Request Form. Despite this possible opportunity, it is recommended students plan to take all courses and requirement as outlined on the plan of study and not rely on course substitutions for planning purposes.
- Environmental (E) Literacy
- Laboratory Science Requirement (CA3-LAB)
- All UConn students must complete at least one Content Area 3: Science and Technology – Laboratory Course. Note that students who complete both ERTH 1052 and one of ERTH 1010, 1051, 1055 or 1070 may request that the prerequisite be converted to a CA 3 Laboratory course by contacting Degree Audit directly.
- Writing (W) Competency
- In addition to completing ENGL 1007, 1010, or 1011 all UConn students must take at least two writing-intensive (W) courses. School of Business students must complete either BUSN 3003W, or BUSN 3004W (as listed on their major plan of study) PLUS an additional writing-intensive (W) course of their choosing. Please visit our Registration FAQs page on tips for how to search for "W" courses offered each term.
- Students can “double dip” to satisfy the additional writing-intensive course if a Business required course is taken as a writing-intensive (W) course, such as ANTH 1000W or HIST 1501W. See FAQs below for more details. Business student in the Honors program can confirm if the thesis course in their major will count as their additional writing-intensive course on the Honors Advising page.
- Social Science (CA2)
- Most students will have this requirement met by taking a School of Business requirement that is also a Content Area 2. Check your Standard Advisement Report to confirm.
Common Curriculum FAQs
Reference Common Curriculum FAQs for Students website, and more information will be posted here as more information is available.
No. Students who are not currently in the School of Business should use the Plan of Study and the information on this page to plan accordingly, and take courses that will satisfy their Topics of Inquiry (TOIs).
The exception to this is if a student needs ACCT 2001 (Financial Accounting) reviewed for eligibility to apply to the School of Business as a current UConn student. Non-Business students may submit the syllabus for review through the Substitution/Course Evaluation Request Form.
Yes, if it is equivalent, this is an option for students. Please visit our page with instructions for Current Business Students Transferring Credit.