One thing you will come to realize in your college application process is that nearly every university names their “Gen Ed” curriculum something different. At the University of New Hampshire, it’s called the Discovery Program, and its courses encompass just about every academic area on campus.
For starters, all first-year students participate in an introductory writing course to get you writing at a college level, along with quantitative reasoning and inquiry classes to develop your critical thinking skills. The Discovery Program also includes coursework in key academic categories: the biological sciences, physical sciences, fine and performing arts, humanities, historical perspectives, world cultures, social science, and environment, technology and society. Do not panic! You will find that there is room to apply these broad categories to your interests and major. For instance, I took calculus for my quantitative reasoning course and Introduction to Biology: Evolution, Biodiversity and Ecology for my Life Sciences course, both of which counted toward my requirements in the neuroscience program. This is not a universal situation but you will likely find some overlap between the Discovery Program and your major.
My favorite part of the Discovery Program is that it forces you out of your box without adding the stress of many additional classes. You get to cross off the sections you study every day and switch gears toward an area you had never thought about before. As I became an upperclassman in the neuroscience program, I was very focused on rigorous science courses, including biochemistry, organic chemistry, neurobiology and more. However, last semester, I enrolled in Introduction to Film Studies to fulfill my humanities requirement. Once a week, I shut off my “science brain” and turned my attention to the small details of film. I watched many famous films like “Psycho,” “Sin City,” “The Godfather” and more. Not only was it fun to watch movies once a week with my classmates, but I can also say it has changed how I watch movies and given me a deeper understanding of every film I come across.
My favorite Discovery course I took is called Contemporary Conservation Issues and Environmental Awareness. The class fulfilled my requirement within the environment, technology and society category. I have been passionate about sustainability my whole life, but I had never before taken a college-level course on the subject. This course, and my passionate professor, opened my eyes to a whole new world of sustainability. Learning more about the topic only increased my passion and gave me a new host of topics to be an advocate for. While taking this course my first year at UNH, I was also surrounded by all of the sustainability initiatives on campus and in Durham. I felt so involved in this effort that I was inspired to make sustainability a big part of my life moving forward. I have since earned a minor in Environmental Conservation and Sustainability that will fuel my mission for change – and it’s all because of the Discovery Program!
Your academic advisor will help you plan out all of your Discovery Program requirements when you come on campus, but in the meantime check out this page for lots more awesome info.
