[Skip to Content]

General Education Requirements

Overview

Both the State University of New York and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education require students in all undergraduate programs to prepare students in a breadth of general education requirements. The general education program must include the study of quantitative and scientific reasoning, written and oral communication, critical analysis and reasoning, information literacy and technological competency, and values, ethics, and diverse perspectives.

SUNY Waiver

On the basis of their upper-division status and the prescriptive nature of relevant accreditation requirements, the SUNY Office of the Provost has waived several SUNY General Education requirements for Undergraduate programs at Upstate Medical University.

This waiver was granted on the following specific terms:

  1. All bachelor's degree programs are upper division only. Students meeting Upstate's program prerequisites enter with a minimum of 60 credits, having met most of the knowledge and skill areas required by SUNY GenEd. The remaining GenEd requirements will be completed through their program of study at Upstate.
  2. Mathematics is either met as a pre-requisite requirement (College of Health Professions) or by taking a course in statistics (College of Nursing).
  3. Course requirements within the programs include an upper division course in Professional Writing (Basic Communication), upper-division courses in health care ethics and research (Critical Thinking), as well as demonstrating competence in the use of computer-based medical records and informatics systems (Information Management).
  4. Programs are accredited by external agencies that prescribe the majority, in some cases all, of the curriculum. Requiring additional courses in these upper-division curricula would increase students' time-to-degree.

What Does This Mean to Prospective Students?

If a student completes all courses required for admission to a baccalaureate program in the College of Health Professions or the College of Nursing, they will have completed all of the SUNY and Middle States Gen Ed Requirements by the time they graduate from Upstate.

Top