Summary Information
Georgia Tech’s general education curriculum is designed to deliver foundational knowledge and skills to undergraduate students in all majors. For guidance in planning how to satisfy your general education requirements, please consult your academic advisor and refer to your DegreeWorks audit..
Students entering ON or AFTER May 1, 2024, will complete a “Core IMPACTS” general education curriculum in conjunction with their major degree program. Please see the sections below regarding the general educational requirements that apply to you.
Students who entered BEFORE May 1, 2024, will complete the general education curriculum following Georgia Tech's former “Core Area A-E” naming and distribution model (rather than the Core IMPACTS Area model) in conjunction with their major degree program. Please see prior versions of the Catalog regarding the general education requirements that apply to you.
Core IMPACTS Curriculum Overview
The Core IMPACTS curriculum is distributed across seven Areas, with curricular pathways and required hours for completing each Area (shown below). Each course offered in a Core IMPACTS Area centers on the same broad orienting questions and advances the same learning outcome(s) and career-ready competencies; a "syllabus statement" (linked below), containing the orienting question, learning outcome(s), and career-ready competencies, appears in the syllabus for each course offered in an Area.
Completing the Core IMPACTS curriculum enables students to pursue broad questions, attain learning outcomes, and develop career-ready competencies that are essential to their academic and career success and to their growth as individuals, professionals, and members of civic communities.
Core IMPACTS Areas | Area "Shorthand" | Hours Required | Syllabus Statement |
---|---|---|---|
Institutional Priority | “Institution” | 3 | Institution |
Mathematics & Quantitative Skills | “Mathematics” | 4 | Mathematics |
Political Science and U.S. History | “Citizenship” | 3 | Citizenship |
Arts, Humanities & Ethics | “Humanities” | 6 | Humanities |
Communicating in Writing | “Writing” | 6 | Writing |
Technology, Mathematics & Sciences | “STEM” | 12-14 | STEM |
Social Sciences | “Social Sciences” | 9 | Social Sciences |
Total Core IMPACTS hours | 43-45* |
*42 hours will be applied to satisfy your Core IMPACTS requirements; the additional hours will be applied to satisfy other requirements in your major degree program.
(text and background only visible when logged in)
Core IMPACTS Information and Resources
The information on this page will be continually updated with Core IMPACTS information and resources for use by students, academic advisors, faculty, academic leadership, and staff. Information and resources of particular interest to students and faculty are set forth below.
Students: Satisfying Requirements, Deadlines, Specified Courses
Satisfying Core IMPACTS Requirements
- Please see the Core IMPACTS general education curriculum section in the Catalog.
- Consult your DegreeWorks audit to view what requirements you have satisfied.
- Discuss with your academic advisor how you will satisfy outstanding Core IMPACTS requirements.
Associated Deadlines
You must complete your Core IMPACTS Writing and Mathematics requirements within your first 30 hours. Please consult your academic advisor with any questions about satisfying these requirements within your first 30 hours.
Specified Course Credit
You must satisfy the Core IMPACTS Writing requirement with ENGL 1101 and ENGL 1102. You must satisfy the Core IMPACTS Mathematics with either MATH 1552 or MATH 1712, as determined by your major degree program’s requirements or options.
For the other Core IMPACTS Areas, your major degree program may recommend that you select one or more specified courses to allow you to strategically and efficiently complete your Core IMPACTS requirements as well as make progress toward your major degree program requirements. You should therefore consult your academic advisor for guidance on choosing Core IMPACTS courses.
Faculty: Syllabus Statements, Obtaining Attribute, Assessment
Mandatory Inclusion of Syllabus Statements
Faculty in all University System of Georgia (USG) institutions must include syllabus statements setting forth the orienting question, learning outcome(s), and career-ready competencies specified for a Core IMPACTS Area in each syllabus for a course in that Area. Use the link(s) below to obtain the syllabus statement(s) to insert in your Core IMPACTS Area course syllabus.
*Note: Citizenship Area courses must include both the Citizenship and Social Sciences syllabus statements together with this note: "To determine the General Education Requirement or Georgia Legislative Requirements (GLRs) that this course will satisfy for you, please consult the Georgia Legislative Requirements website and your academic advisor."
Obtaining Core IMPACTS Attribute for a New or Existing Course
Faculty seeking to propose a new course for inclusion in a Core IMPACTS Area, or seeking approval to include an existing course in a Core IMPACTS Area, must follow the process set forth on the Registrar’s Office website.
- Go to the Curriculum Governance page on the Registrar's Office website.
- Scroll down to the ICC Website and login.
- Select the "Undergraduate" button.
- In the "Proposals" box, select "Create."
- In the "Courses" box, select "New Course with Attribute" or "Existing Course – Add Attribute."
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
The University System of Georgia (USG) will require each USG institution to assess student attainment of learning outcomes for each Core IMPACTS Area. Georgia Tech will design a new assessment plan for the Core IMPACTS general education curriculum in 2024-25. The career-ready competencies (CRCs) are developmental competencies that are mastered over time through the completion of the Core IMPACTS curriculum rather than by taking one course. The USG recognizes that faculty typically are contributing to students’ development of the CRCs, but it’s important to ensure that faculty are doing so in all Core IMPACTS Area courses and that students are aware that they are developing these valuable competencies by completing Core IMPACTS coursework. The USG anticipates a phased approach to assessing the CRCs. The first step is to ensure that faculty highlight the CRCs together with the learning outcomes in the syllabus for each Core IMPACTS Area course and that they develop the CRCs through their teaching practices. For this reason, USG requires inclusion of a syllabus statement including both the learning outcomes and the CRCs in all Core IMPACTS Area course syllabi.
Students and Faculty: Career-Ready Competencies
The specification of career-ready competencies “CRCs” *see below) helps students make connections between their learning in Core IMPACTS coursework and their future lives and careers. CRCs include skills essential to leadership in a complex, interconnected, and changing world. Georgia Tech’s general education courses have always developed these competencies, but the new specification of CRCs in the Core IMPACTS general education curriculum helps ensure that students recognize thee real-world skills they are developing in their general education coursework.
Critical Thinking | Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches to solving problems and making decisions. |
Ethical Reasoning | Assessing one’s own ethical values, recognizing ethical issues in a variety of settings, thinking about how different perspectives might apply to ethical dilemmas and considering the ramifications of alternative actions. |
Information Literacy | Recognizing when information is needed, and locating, evaluating, synthesizing and effectively using the needed information, while appropriately crediting the original source of information. |
Inquiry and Analysis | Exploring the world, and supporting informed conclusions through the collection, evaluation and use of relevant evidence. |
Intercultural Competence | Developing knowledge, skills and behaviors that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts. |
Perspective-Taking | Considering perspectives other than one’s own and allowing new information, differing opinions and others’ experiences to impress upon one’s thinking, understanding and appreciation of others. |
Persuasion | Using messages that are intentionally designed to appeal to another’s reason, emotions or both, in order to enact change. |
Problem-Solving | Designing, evaluating and implementing strategies to solve problems using data, knowledge and facts. |
Teamwork | Building and maintaining collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities. |
Time Management | Prioritizing and structuring tasks and resources to achieve an effective use of time while performing goal-directed activities. |