General Education
(60 credits minimum)

General Education Core (GEC) is an EOU requirement category that all students, especially those with transfer credit, need to understand. These courses are listed online in the EOU Academic Catalog.

Most colleges and universities with a strong liberal arts or liberal studies emphasis, such as EOU, have "general studies" or "general education" requirements. Those categories, though, differ from one institution to another.

EOU's General Education Core (GEC) category works in the following ways:

Philosophically, it designates courses that fill a niche between rudimentary and specialized courses. GEC courses assume that students possess the background knowledge that rudimentary courses provide, and focus on generalized areas of study in which specialization may occur.

Technically, GEC courses are a strictly defined set of courses determined by the faculty of each department or program. The faculty decides what courses mark the level of generalized study described in the previous paragraph.

If your transferred courses do not count for GEC credit, this is not an insult to your achievement in those courses: non-GEC transfer course credits may contribute to the major and toward graduation.

Major Coursework
(60 credits minimum)

The term Major Coursework refers to all coursework that contributes to an academic major, including both required and elective courses. You may find information about how to put together major coursework in the Academic Catalog, and your adviser will help you with this every step of the way.

Major coursework may, in many cases, be transferred in from another school you have attended. This provides an opportunity for you to carry forward a serious academic effort you made in one school into your study at EOU and not have to start from scratch.

Electives

Electives are courses that are neither General Education requirements nor required courses for majors.

This does not mean that they are "fluff"! You may find, in fact, that all the electives you take at EOU are part of your major coursework.

Institutional Mathematics Requirement

The EOU Math Competency Requirement allow students to demonstrate the application of mathematics at the college level.  See EOU Academic Catalog for details.

Foreign Language (BA)

Demonstration of proficiency in a Foreign Language is required for a Bachelor of Arts Degree. See EOU Academic Catalog for details.

EOU Writing Requirement

All Eastern Oregon University students are required to demonstrate proficiency in writing by meeting the University Writing Requirement (UWR). Each major lists certain courses that meet this requirement.  EOU's writing requirement is a means of verifying that its students achieve a sufficient mastery in academic writing.

2.0 Cumulative
and Eastern GPA

When you graduate from EOU, your final GPA will consist of your GPA at EOU and any GPA from previous college study recorded on your transcript. EOU's Registrar calculates the resulting cumulative GPA.

Total: 180+ Credits

Of the 180+ Credits:

• 60 of 180+ credits must be upper division
• 120 of 180+ credits may be lower division and may all come from a community college
• 45 must satisfy Residency Requirement, with 30 of those credits at the upper division level.

The Residency Requirement does not mean that you have to live on EOU's campus or in Oregon. For DDE students, "residency" refers to courses taught by EOU faculty through EOU.