Christ at the Core Requirements

The Shared Core consists of the following courses that every Wheaton undergraduate student takes:

• Holistic Human Flourishing - CORE 131 is earned by attending Passage or by registering for the on-campus course the first semester on campus.
• First Year Seminar – a CORE 101 course taken by all first-year students their first semester. Explore the different topics available and choose one that looks interesting to you!
• Old Testament – choose: BITH 211, ARCH 211, BITH 221, or BITH 312.
• New Testament – choose: BITH 213 or ARCH 213 or BITH 317
• Christian Thought – BITH 315 (or BITH 374 for majors/minors or BITH 376 for those who attend Wheaton in Chicago)
• Advanced Integrative Seminar – choose any 300-level CORE course. The course you choose will also likely carry a thematic core as well. 
• Capstone – This will overlap with your major requirements and is typically taken during your senior year. (You can recognize it because it's usually the course with the 494 course number in the major requirements.)

Every Wheaton student must meet requirements for the following Core Competencies (note: many students take a course at Wheaton to meet the Core Competency requirements, but there are alternate pathways toward competency):

• First Year Writing – Met through taking ENGW 103: First Year Writing or transfer credit.  See the current college catalog for information on meeting the First Year Writing requirement in alternate ways.
• Oral Communication – Met through taking COMM 101 Public Speaking (2 hours) or COMM 252 Argumentation and Debate (4 hours) or via transfer credit. Students may also meet this requirement by passing the oral communication competency exam, offered through the communication department. Information on how to take the oral competency exam will be sent to you during the fall semester. This requirement does not have to be met your first semester. 
• Modern and Classical Languages – Met through completing a 4-credit Wheaton College language course at the Intermediate level, through examination, or via transfer credit.  Not sure what language to study? Check out this Modern and Classical Languages Matrix to determine what language might fit well with your major.  Questions about the language competency requirement can be addressed to the Department of Modern and Classical Languages

The Thematic Core consists of ten themes that must be completed in order to graduate. The ten themes are often referred to by their abbreviations:

• Applied Abstract & Quantitative Reasoning (AAQR)
• Diversity in the United States (DUS)
• Global Perspectives (GP)
• Historical Perspectives (HP)
• Literary Explorations (LE)
• Philosophical Investigations (PI)
• Scientific Issues & Perspectives (SIP)
• Scientific Practice (SP)
• Social Inquiry (SI)
• Visual & Performing Arts (VPA)
  • One 4 hour VPA tagged course
    -OR-
  • Two 2 hour courses listed as VPAV (visual art), VPAM (music), or VPAT (theater). Pick two of these three tags.

You can find courses in the course schedule that are identified as meeting requirements for one or more of these themes (yes, some courses meet requirements for two themes with one course!) You can see which requirements a course meets in the far right column labeled “attributes" in the course schedule; we like to call these "tags" too (e.g., "PSYC 268 has an AAQR tag.") For more tips on understanding the information in the course schedule, see our Reading the Course Schedule guide.

The Thematic Core requirements can be met with a combination of courses in your major (maximum of 3), courses in your minor (if completing a minor), transfer credit (maximum of 4 themes can be met with transfer credit) and the required Advanced Integrative Seminar course from the Shared Core. Each Major Academic Plan (MAP) notes the CATC Thematic Core courses that are met through the major.