Students may use a single course to fulfill more than one requirement across the curriculum. This is known as double counting. Different policies apply to different components of the curriculum
Policies Governing Double Counting Courses
Courses may be double counted between a Foundational Approach and the Sector Requirement, and between a Foundational Approach and the major, but not among two or more Foundational Approaches.
This means that the Writing, Quantitative Data Analysis, Formal Reasoning and Analysis, Cross-Cultural Analysis, Cultural Diversity in the U.S. and Foreign Language Requirements must all be fulfilled using separate courses.
- Each major has a designated Sector that will be auto-completed upon the declaration of the major. Once a student declares a major, the Sector that is associated with that major will be automatically completed. This allows the course taken to explore the the major to be used in the degree audit in Path@Penn.
- One course cannot be used to fulfill more than one Sector (i.e., each of the sectors must be fulfilled using a different course).
- Students that declare more than one major will see one Sector per major auto-completed upon declaration. If a student declares a second major that shares a sector requirement with the first major and they take a different sector course in the second major, the second major advisor will make an exception to complete a second sector.
- Students in majors that allow courses from both the Living World and Physical World to fulfill their major requirements will have both Sectors auto-completed—one each in the Living World and Physical World sectors. Majors in which this double counting is permitted include, but are not limited to, Neuroscience, Biology, Biophysics and Earth Science.
- Major departments may have additional rules limiting double counting between more than one major.
- There is no limit to the number of courses that may be double counted between General Education Requirements and requirements for a minor.
- Courses being used to fulfill the Language Requirement Substitution may not also be used to fulfill a Sector nor any Major Requirement.
- Once a student declares a major, the Sector that is required within the major will be automatically completed. This allows the course you took to explore the major returns to the major section of your degree audit in Path@Penn.
- For those majors that have both Living World and Physical World requirements, at declaration both requirements will be automatically completed.
- If a student declares a second major that shares a sector requirement with the first major and they take a different sector course in the second major, the second major advisor will make an exception to complete a second sector.
In any submatriculation program, a maximum of 4 c.u. at the graduate level may be included toward both the B.A. and the M.A. These four courses may be part of the Major Requirement or the electives of the undergraduate program, but may not include courses in independent study. Some graduate programs may permit fewer than four courses to be double counted.
For students in the B.A./J.D. submatriculation program, no more than eight courses in all can be double counted toward both degrees.