Policies Governing the Sector Requirement: Class of 2010 and Later

To satisfy the Sector Requirement, students must take one course in each of the sectors.

Courses fulfilling the Sector Requirement

The list of approved courses indicates all courses that fulfill the Sector Requirement.

Sector VII may be satisfied by taking one course from the Sector VII list or an additional Living World or Physical World course.

In addition to the courses listed in the various sectors, students may use freshman seminars and BFS seminars to fulfill the various sector requirements. One freshman seminar may be used in this way as a substitute for a course on the relevant sector list. Up to two Benjamin Franklin seminars or one Benjamin Franklin seminar and one freshman seminar may be used. Follow these links to see the sectors to which these courses may be applied.

Non-College courses approved for the Sector Requirement are counted as College courses in calculating total credits needed for graduation.

Distributional courses may not be used to fulfill the Sector Requirement.

Grade type

Courses taken to fulfill the Sector Requirement must be taken for a letter grade, not pass/fail.

Double counting courses

Students may double count no more than one course toward both the Major and the Sector Requirement. Biochemistry, Biological Basis of Behavior and Biology majors, as well as Geology majors with a concentration in Paleobiology, may double count two courses toward both the Major and the Sector Requirement: one each in the Living World and Physical World sectors. Students who are double majoring may count one course from each major toward the Sector Requirement.

There is no limit to the number of courses that may be double-counted between minor and General Education requirements.

Advanced Placement and Other Equivalent Credits

The Sector Requirement may not be satisfied with Advanced Placement credit (including A-Levels, I.B., and other similar credit based on external examination).

Students who receive an Advanced Placement credit or waiver in a Living World or Physical World field (Physics B or C, Chemistry and Biology, Environmental Science or Psychology) and who take an additional course at Penn in that subject, may use the additional course to fulfill the relevant sector. In Psychology, the additional course must have an odd number.

Pre-College credit, transfer credit, credit away and credit earned studying abroad may be counted toward the Sector Requirement only when departments award credit using the number of a Penn course approved for the Sector Requirement.