College of Letters & Science
Terms & Concepts
- BABS07: Nickname for the 2007 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree requirements. The name is used as a convenient way to refer to the changes to the liberal arts curriculum in L&S.
- B.A. or BA : Short for Bachelor of Arts degree
- Breadth: Required courses that promote exploration in the traditional disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and empirical sciences.
- B.S. or BS: Short for Bachelor of Science degree
- C-course: Under the previous curriculum, any course outside of L&S that was sufficiently like an L&S course to count as an L&S course for the 100-credit rule. All C-course courses become LAS courses under BABS07.
- Criteria for LAS credit: Courses requested for Liberal Arts and Science (LAS) credit should encourage students in one or more of the three "habits of the mind" of liberal arts education, as specified by the College of Letters and Science. Detailed Information (pdf)
- CURRIC71: Nickname for the 1971 L&S liberal arts curriculum. Despite going through revisions between 1971 and 2000, the basic structure and philosophy of the L&S curriculum during that time can be traced to the 1971 curriculum documents. CURRIC71 continues to live for students as BABS07 takes effect. CURRIC71 is slated to expire in 2012.
- Curriculum: An integrated course of academic studies. The word is used interchangeably to mean several things: all courses at the university, all courses accepted for credit within a degree, the requirements for degree, and the philosophy behind the educational requirements.
- DARS: Short for Degree Audit Reporting System, it is the official audit of degree completion for L&S. DARS is available through your MyUW student account and should be checked at least once per semester. It is recommended to use DARS in consultation with your academic adviser. Others schools and colleges at UW-Madison also use DARS.
- Declare: In L&S, students must inform the College of their intent to complete a degree, major, and/or certificate program. For the BABS07, this is accomplished via the BABS07 Online Declaration Form. Declaring BABS07 does not declare you for a specific major or certificate; that process is done in the academic department that administers the program (e.g., the History department for the History major).
- Degree: L&S offers several degrees. The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science are the most commonly awarded degrees. The degree requires a major, but is not synonymous with the major; a liberal arts degree is a broad educational credential that connotes skill and knowledge across many areas, your major being only one of several. Your diploma will list your degree, not your major.
- Depth: Required indicating a mastery of challenging work, especially in a chosen major field.
- Free Electives: Under BABS07, any course that is not LAS credit is a Free Elective if it is approved as UW-Madison, college-level course. The vast majority of courses offered at UW-Madison are either LAS or Free Electives. The exceptions are remedial and non-transferable courses from another institution.
- geBLC: The column in the Timetable that lists the attributes of every course. Each letter represents a feature of the university or L&S curriculum:
- g: University General Education Requirements (a,b,q,r)
- e: University Ethnic Studies Requirements (e)
- B: L&S Breadth (L,H,S,B,P,W,X,Y,Z)
- L: L&S Level (E,I,A,D)
- C: L&S Liberal Arts & Science credit (C)
- Goals of a liberal education:
- Education of the complete person
- Education for citizenship
- Education for a productive life
- Education for the love of learning
- more information
- Habits of mind of a liberally educated person:
- skilled written and verbal communication, excelling in formulating and expressing a point of view, reflecting and questioning current knowledge through reading, research and consideration of the views of others
- the ability to draw flexibly upon the modes of thought characteristic of the major areas of knowledge and to apply them to individual and community problems
- knowledge of our basic cultural heritage as a multifaceted and often contested history
- deep understanding of at least one subject area as a coherent body of knowledge with identifiable methodologies, and as a historical process of knowledge-formation
- the experience of oneself as a part of a community within which these values are negotiated with respect and are cultivated as durable qualities of personal and social life.
- Liberal Arts and Science (LAS) credit: Courses that meet the criteria for liberal arts and science study are designated with a C-course in the C column of the geBLC. BABS07 requires 108 LAS credits for degree completion. The criteria for LAS credit were articulated in the L&S Curriculum Committee to help academic departments seeking LAS credit for their courses.
- Major: A focus of study in a particular field. L&S offers 134 majors and major options. The B.A. and B.S. degrees require that at least one major be declared and completed as part of the degree. The major, therefore, is one of several degree requirements.
- Matriculate: To enroll in a college or university as a candidate for a degree.
Academic Dean: L&S employs several academic deans to serve students, departments, faculty, staff, and the university as a whole. Academic Deans are experts in academic policy, university regulations, student development and advising, and a host of other specialties. Click here if you want to initiate contact with an academic dean.
- NO course: Under CURRIC71, courses that did not count at all were called "NO" courses.
- Requirement: A mandatory component of the degree. Used in conjunction with degree (i.e., degree requirement) it means what the College requires of all students in that degree program. Used with major, it refers to the mandatory course work of a chosen field for depth.
- Resident/Residence credit: Credits taken at UW-Madison or through a UW-Madison study abroad program. Credits that are not in residence include work transferred from another institution, work taken on another institutions study abroad program, AP credit, exam credit, CLEP, IB credit, and retro-active language credit. Another way to think about it is that residence credit is any credit earned via a UW-Madison course experience.
- T-course: Courses accepted by L&S for CURRIC71, up to a limit of 20 credits. These courses are offered from other schools and colleges at UW-Madison, or may have been awarded in transfer from another institution. They are designated with a T-course in the C column of the geBLC column of the Timetable.
- Tools: required courses to ensure proficiency in written and verbal communication, critical thinking, analytical and quantitative reasoning, language arts, cultural and historical awareness, and research methods.
- University General Education Requirements (UGER): Requirements adopted by the university for Summer 1996. All students matriculating to any post-secondary instruction Summer 1996 and later must complete UGER. UGER includes:
- Communication A & B
- Quantitative Reasoning A & B
- Ethnic Studies
- UGER Breadth: Humanities/Literature/Arts, Social Science, and Natural Science