About the Program

As New Jersey’s Public Liberal Arts College, Ramapo invites you to consider new perspectives on the world you’ve known and to prepare you for the next stage of your life. Here, you will be challenged by a variety of educational experiences: our school cores, minors, concentrations, study abroad, and other opportunities. You’ll pursue a major, one suited to your particular interests; at the same time, you will complete a general education curriculum, The Arch Program. Together, these programs ask you to step out from the community where you are now, to join our college community, and prepare you for citizenship in new communities—wherever your passions take you.

In preparation for the specific challenges of your major, The Arch Program curriculum asks you to think of yourself as a member of all of these communities. Drawing on the rich traditions of a liberal arts education, The Arch Program encourages you to see the connections—intellectual, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and empirical—we all share in our increasingly linked, increasingly global world.

Today, news, ideas, and wealth can circle the globe at the click of a mouse or the tap of a screen. This world needs citizens who honor where they came from and understand that no individual and no community stands alone. The products in our homes, the books on our shelves and screens, the knowledge in our minds—increasingly link us to hundreds of thousands of others.

The liberal arts teach us to cherish our curiosity and embrace the challenges of the coming world by pursuing a broad education—one that includes both a major and a rigorous general education program that puts that major into context. The student who navigates the channels between Ramapo’s many educational experiences sees the web of ideas, histories, financial links, political bonds, natural systems, and cultural exchange that forms the modern world we share today and links that world to civilizations past.

This world’s citizens must respond quickly to political, technological, and cultural change, be ready to shift careers, or reimagine themselves in an evolving field. A lifetime of learning is the passport to a productive, fulfilling future. The student who takes that path is ready to meet and shape tomorrow.

 GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS (10 COURSES)

KEYSTONE COURSES

• First Year Seminar
  • Speak effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
  • Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.
  • Use technology to communicate, manage, or solve problems.
  • Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.
• Critical Reading and Writing 102
  • Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
  • Write effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
  • Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.
  • Practice reflective inter/intra-personal skills.

• Studies in the Arts and Humanities
  • Write effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
  • Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression.
  • Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex problems.
  • Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.

• Historical Perspectives Category
  • Critically interpret history and society.
  • Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
  • Question assumptions about individual and group identity.
  • Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.

• Global Awareness Category
  • Demonstrate intercultural understanding required to effectively negotiate a diverse global society.
  • Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression
  • Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.

• Social Science Inquiry
  • Critically interpret history and society.
  • Apply mathematical concepts effectively.
  • Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
  • Question assumptions about individual and society.

• Quantitative Reasoning Category
  • Apply mathematical concepts effectively.
  • Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
  • Use technology to communicate, manage, or solve problems.
  • Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex problems.

• Scientific Reasoning Category
  • Apply methods of scientific inquiry effectively.
  • Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
  • Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex knowledge.

DISTRIBUTION CATEGORIES:  

Students take two of the following.  At least one course must be outside of the student’s school.

• Culture and Creativity
  • Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression.
  • Critically interpret history and society.
  • Question assumptions about individual and group identity.

• Values and Ethics
  • Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
  • Question assumptions about individual and group identity.
  • Practice reflective inter/intra-personal skills.

• Systems, Sustainability & Society
  • Apply methods of scientific inquiry effectively.
  • Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
  • Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.

EXPERIENTIAL COMPONENT

• Student Learning Outcomes:
  • Practice reflective inter/intra-personal.
  • Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.

Experiential opportunities purposefully embedded into select courses in addition to stand-alone activities. First Year Seminar, Studies in the Arts and Humanities, and Social Science Inquiry will include Experiential Components.

Writing Intensive Requirement

Every student at Ramapo College takes at least five Writing Intensive courses in order to graduate. The writing intensive courses in the general education curriculum are required:  Critical Reading and Writing II, and Studies in the Arts and Humanities. The other three courses are taken in the major.