Skip to main content

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates | More Information

  • Library
  • Giving
  • Directories
  • Events
  • Directions
  • information for...
    • Current Students
    • Faculty and Staff
    • Parents and Families
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • Graduate Admissions
Home
  • About
  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Student Life
  • Alumnae/i

You are here

  1. Home ›
  2. Academics ›
  3. College Requirements

Academics

  • Academic Path
    • First Year Experience
    • The Emily Balch Seminars
    • THRIVE
    • Sophomore Plan
    • College Requirements
      • Physical Education Requirements
    • Course Guides
    • Majors, Minors, and Concentrations
    • Pre-Professional Opportunities
    • Digital Competencies
  • Academic Advising
  • Fields of Study
  • Undergraduate Research
  • Special Academic Programs
  • Bi-Co, Tri-Co, and Penn
  • Study Abroad
  • Learning Resources
  • Combined Degrees
  • Graduate and Postbaccalaureate Programs
  • Continuing Education
  • Global Bryn Mawr

College Requirements

Academics College Requirements Bryn Mawr College
A liberal arts education traditionally requires breadth as well as depth.

Bryn Mawr's collegewide requirements take an innovative approach to engaging students in a variety of fields and preparing them to live in a global society and within diverse communities. All students must demonstrate core quantitative readiness (or develop that readiness through the Quantitative seminar) and then use those skills in a Quantitative Reasoning course. All students must take at least one year of foreign language. And all students must take at least one course in each of four designated Approaches to Inquiry: Critical Interpretation, Cross-cultural Analysis, Inquiry into the Past, and Scientific Investigation. 

Within this structure, variety abounds. Students can fulfill their Scientific Investigation requirement through courses in Anthropology and Psychology as well as what they more commonly think of as science. There are intro-level courses on the Physics of extraterrestrial life and on the chemistry of art. Students choose from 10 languages, with some developing proficiency in a language they have already studied or already speak, or others taking on new languages.

For each of the Approaches, students may choose courses from a broad range of departments or programs. Significant numbers of students find a major, a minor or a concentration, or a career interest through taking a course to meet a requirement.

Approaches to Inquiry

  • Critical Interpretation: critically interpreting works, such as texts, objects, artistic creations and performances, through a process of close-reading.   
  • Cross-Cultural Analysis: analyzing the variety of societal systems and patterns of behavior across space. 
  • Inquiry into the Past (IP): inquiring into the development and transformation of human experience over time.
  • Scientific Investigation (SI): understanding the natural world by testing hypotheses against observational evidence.

Complete information on collegewide requirements can be found in the Undergraduate Catalog under the section on the Academic Program.

Follow Bryn Mawr College
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Apply
Learn About Admissions at Bryn Mawr
Undergraduate Dean's Office, Eugenia Chase Guild Hall, Lower Level
101 North Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010
Phone: 
610-526-5375
Fax: 
610-526-7560
deansoffice@brynmawr.edu
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • About
  • Academics
  • Admissions
  • Financial Aid
  • Student Life
  • Alumnae/i
  • Library
  • Giving
  • Directories
  • Events
  • Directions
  • Jobs

Report a website issue

Web Accessibility Policy

Privacy Policy

Bryn Mawr College 101 North Merion Ave Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899
(610) 526-5000

Copyright © 2021

Give Now