Revelle College, the first college on the UC San Diego campus, was named in honor of Roger Revelle, former University of California dean of research and director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Revelle is perhaps best known for his plenary research on greenhouse gases and his predictions of their effects.
The initiation of Revelle College in 1964 provided the faculty with the opportunity to design a complete undergraduate curriculum for some of the country’s best-prepared students. The faculty asked the fundamental question: What should an educated person know? The Revelle College general education requirements offer a specific but broad introduction to the academic disciplines of the university. A student graduating from Revelle College will have attained
Students are encouraged to meet the general education requirements and the prerequisites to the major early in their university career.
First-year students with advanced placement or international baccalaureate credits can use many of these credits to meet general education requirements (see Advanced Placement chart or International Baccalaureate chart.) Transfer students may meet many general education requirements before entering by following articulation agreements with community colleges and taking, at any institution, courses that Revelle College judges approximately equivalent in content to those at UC San Diego
The general education requirements are
The humanities requirement confronts students with significant humanistic issues in the context of a rigorous academic course. It is also an introduction to the disciplines of history, literature, and philosophy and provides training and practice in rhetorical skills and particularly persuasive written expression. Students may satisfy this requirement by completing the five-quarter interdisciplinary (history, literature, and philosophy) humanities sequence.
For course descriptions, see “Courses, Curricula, and Faculty: Humanities.”
Three quarters of mathematics are required, including two courses in calculus and one additional course chosen from an approved list. First-year student placement in mathematics courses depends upon the student’s mathematics preparation and choice of major. Students are urged to keep their mathematical skills at a high level by taking mathematics during their senior year in high school. (See “Courses, Curricula, and Faculty: Mathematics.”)
Natural sciences courses present current developments in the fundamental concepts of modern physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental sciences.
Students choose their five required natural science courses from the sequences depending upon their interests, prior preparation, and intended majors.
Students planning to major in a science must consult the appropriate departmental listing under “Courses, Curricula, and Faculty” to find the additional preparation needed for their major.
Two courses from the social sciences chosen from an approved list.
One course is required. It serves as an introduction to creativity in theatre and dance, music, or visual arts. (See “Courses, Curricula, and Faculty: Theatre and Dance, Music, and Visual Arts.”)
Revelle College students are required to demonstrate basic conversational and reading proficiency in any modern foreign language, or advanced reading proficiency in a classical language, or complete the fourth quarter of foreign language instruction with a passing grade.
Foreign language programs are currently offered in American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. For heritage speakers, language courses are available in Filipino, Hindi, Korean, Persian, and Vietnamese. Students who have preparation in other languages should contact the Revelle College academic advising office for information on the possibility of a proficiency examination.
FALL |
WINTER |
SPRING |
---|---|---|
FIRST YEAR |
||
UC Entry Level Writing Requirement or fine arts | Humanities 1 | Humanities 2 |
calculus | calculus | mathematics |
natural science | natural science | natural science |
foreign language |
foreign language |
foreign language |
SOPHOMORE YEAR |
||
Humanities 3 | Humanities 4 | Humanities 5 |
natural science | natural science | fine arts or major |
foreign language | social science | social science |
major | major | major |
Science majors may want to take part of the social science requirement in the junior year to allow time for additional science laboratories and/or calculus.
Transfer students may enter Revelle College by following community college articulation agreements, which can be viewed at http://www.ASSIST.org or by following the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC). However, Revelle College does not accept IGETC as satisfaction of all general-education requirements. Revelle College accepts IGETC certification, but students will still need to meet the full mathematics and science requirements. Science and mathematics majors will need these additional classes in preparation (or to meet prerequisites) for their major. The additional math and science classes can be taken at the community college or after transfer to UC San Diego. See details on our website at http://revelle.ucsd.edu/academics/university-education/index.html.
To graduate from Revelle College, a student must
All undergraduate majors offered at UC San Diego are available to Revelle College students. An exceptional student who has some unusual but definite academic interest for which a suitable major is not offered at UC San Diego may, with the consent of the provost of the college and with the assistance of a faculty adviser, plan his or her own major. The Revelle College individual major must be submitted no later than three quarters before the student’s intended graduation and be approved by the executive committee of the college before it may be accepted in lieu of a departmental or interdepartmental major. The faculty adviser will supervise the student’s work, and the provost must certify that the student has completed the requirements of the individual major before the degree is granted.
For a list of majors requiring additional screening for acceptance into the major, visit TritonLink https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/undergraduate-majors.html.
A minor is not required at Revelle College. However, if a student wishes to complete a department minor or a project minor and have it posted to the transcript, they may do so.
There are two types of minors available at Revelle College:
The current university guidelines for the minor require seven courses (twenty-eight units), of which twenty units must be upper division. (See “Undergraduate Minors and Programs of Concentration.”)
Particularly well-prepared students are invited to join a first-year student honors program, which includes weekly participation in small faculty seminars (REV 20). Acceptance into the honors program at admission is automatic for Regents Scholars, Jacobs Scholars, and Chancellor’s Scholars. New first-year students entering with a high school GPA of 3.8 or higher; reading and writing new SAT scores of 37; and math new SAT score of 35 or higher, will be invited to enroll. Admission to the program’s winter and spring quarter seminar is offered to those first-year students who achieve a 3.7 GPA in at least twelve graded units per quarter, taken at UC San Diego during the previous quarter.
Quarterly provost honors, honors at graduation, departmental honors, and Phi Beta Kappa honors are awarded. Outstanding graduating seniors are honored at graduation each year. An honors reception and awards ceremony are held in spring quarter for the top two hundred Revelle students (from all class levels). For additional information, see “Revelle Honors Programs” and “Honors.”
Students may participate in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP) and Opportunities Abroad Program (OAP) while still making regular progress toward graduation. Information on EAP/OAP is detailed in the Education Abroad Program section of the UC San Diego General Catalog. Interested students should contact the UC San Diego Study Abroad office in the Matthews Quad Building and visit the website at http://studyabroad.ucsd.edu. Financial aid recipients may apply aid to the program and special study abroad scholarships may be available.
Programs are now available for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. With careful planning students should be able to fulfill some general-education, major, and/or minor requirements while studying abroad.