Exemptions + Exceptions

The Council on General Education recognizes two broad categories of exemptions to General Education requirements: individual exceptions and formal exemptions. Students may petition for an individual exception to a General Education requirement, normally with the substitution of a specific alternate course to satisfy that requirement. All General Education student petitions must be approved by the student’s academic adviser and the Associate Vice Provost for General Education. Appeals may be made to the Vice Provost of the University.

The Council on General Education has approved formal exemptions that apply to specific groups of students, as follows:

1. Beginning with fall 1997 entry, any student who matriculates with forty-two (42) or more term-credit hours in transfer will be exempt from any six (6) hours from the combination of Perspectives and Cultural Formations. Transfer students majoring in any engineering program who have already satisfied the Perspectives/Cultural Formations requirement on entering the University are exempt from the Human Diversity Co-Curricular requirement. Additionally, transfer students majoring in an engineering program who have completed a yearlong course, both semesters of which satisfy the same single Perspectives category, will be allowed to count that sequence toward two different Perspectives categories. This exception may extend to, at most, two yearlong courses so long as a minimum of three Perspectives categories is satisfied overall.

2. When the total number of hours required to satisfy the General Education and major requirements for a single major, along with the major’s supporting course requirements, exceeds 122 term-credit hours, students in such majors will be exempt from three (3) hours of Perspectives and an additional three (3) hours taken from either Perspectives or Cultural Formations. Free electives – courses that do not satisfy any General Education, major, or supporting course requirements – are not included in this calculation.

Majors that qualify for this exemption are:

a. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering
b. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a Premedical Specialization
c. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering
d. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering
e. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering
f. Lyle School of Engineering Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering
g. All Meadows School of the Arts majors leading to the Bachelor of Music degree
h. All Meadows School of the Arts majors leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art, Dance, or Theatre

3. Students graduating with an undergraduate engineering degree from the Lyle School of Engineering who take a second major in a Dedman College program leading to a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree will be allowed to fulfill the General Education requirements for the Dedman College program as the General Education requirements apply to the engineering degree alone. In particular, all individual and formal General Education requirement exemptions that are allowed for the engineering program (see qualifying degrees in Item 2 above) will be allowed for the Dedman College program.

4. Each student may qualify for one 6-hour exemption. For example, if a student transfers in with 42 or more credit hours, qualifying for a 6-hour exemption, and then also declares an Engineering or Fine Arts major that qualifies for a 6-hour exemption, the student may only receive a 6-hour total exemption.