Policies Governing the Sector Requirement

• The lists of approved courses indicate 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.

Courses taken to fulfill the Sector Requirement must be taken for a letter grade, not pass/fail. Any passing grade, from A+ through D, is acceptable in order for a course to fulfill the Sector Requirement.

• Most students may double-count no more than one course toward both the Major and the Sector Requirement.
• Students who take a course from each of the Living World and Physical World sectors to fulfill their major requirements are permitted to count both courses toward the Sector Requirement. In this case students are permitted to double-count *two* courses toward the Major and the Sector Requirement. Majors in which this double-counting is permitted include (but are not limited to) Biological Basis of Behavior, Biology, Biophysics, and the Paleobiology concentration Earth Science.
• 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.
• The same course cannot be used to fulfill more than one Sector (i.e. the seven Sectors must be fulfilled using seven different courses).

• The Sector Requirement may not be satisfied with advanced placement credit (including A-Levels, I.B., and other similar credit based on external examination). In addition, credit awarded by departmental exam can also not be used to fulfill the Sector Requirement.
• Students who receive an advanced placement credit or waiver in a Living World or Physical World field (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science or Psychology) and who take a more advanced 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.