Degree Requirements

B.G.S. Degree Requirements

To earn the Bachelor of General Studies degree, students must complete the following requirements:

  1. Overall credit hour requirement and limitations. Students must complete a minimum of 120 credit hours. At least 81 credit hours must be earned in courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences. Students may select the remaining 39 credit hours either inside or outside the College, but no more than 30 of these credit hours can come from any single school outside of the College. Also, for those courses selected within the College, no more than 42 credit hours can come from any single subject area.
  2. Foundations Requirement. Students must complete the College's Foundations Requirement in English Composition and Mathematical Modeling. 
  3. CASE Intensive Writing requirement. Students must complete the College's Intensive Writing requirement. 
  4. CASE Breadth of Inquiry requirement. Students must complete the College's Breadth of Inquiry requirement. 
  5. CASE Culture Studies requirement. Students must complete the College's Culture Studies requirement. 
  6. CASE Critical Approaches to the Arts and Sciences requirement. Students must complete the College's Critical Approaches to the Arts and Sciences requirement. 
  7. CASE Public Oral Communication requirement. Students must complete the College's Public Oral Communication requirement.
  8. Concentration requirement. Students must complete a concentration consisting of at least 30 credit hours in one of the College's Breadth of Inquiry areas (Arts and Humanities, Social and Historical Studies, or Natural and Mathematical Sciences). The following also apply to the concentration:

    1. Courses must have the appropriate CASE Breadth of Inquiry designation at the time the course is taken;
    2. A minimum GPA of 2.000 must be attained for all courses in the Breadth of Inquiry area.
    3. 12 credit hours in the concentration must be taken at the 300- or 400-level;
    4. At least 15 credit hours in the concentration must be completed on the IU Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program; and
    5. Courses used to fulfill the concentration must include those from at least two (2) College departments.
  9. Upper-division hours requirement. Students must complete at least 36 credit hours at the 300- or 400-level. 12 of these hours must be completed in the concentration (see 8c).
  10. Residency requirement. Following completion of their 60th credit hour toward degree, students are required to take 36 credit hours of College course work on the IU Bloomington campus or in an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program. Also, students will need to complete 15 credit hours of College course work in the concentration on the IU Bloomington campus (see 8d).
  11. GPA requirements. To be eligible for graduation, students must have a minimum 2.000 cumulative GPA. They must also have at least a 2.000 GPA in the concentration (see 8b).