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General Education Requirements

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The Trinity Plus Curriculum

Trinity’s distinctive liberal arts curriculum offers students the chance to engage with diverse perspectives and connect across academic divisions. Graduation requires a minimum of 35 credits, with 32 earned from divisional classroom courses and up to 3 from academic or co-curricular activities: the Trinity “Plus”. Trinity “Plus” credits encourage students to consider their post-Trinity plans and focus on practical learning beyond the classroom, expanding research, and real-world experience. Students fulfill their “Plus” through various academic and co-curricular options or a faculty-designed Experiential Certificate.

Fostering intellectual curiosity and core competencies, Trinity’s general education curriculum is designed to give each student the freedom to explore academic interests, discover passions, and acquire the breadth of knowledge integral to a liberal arts education. These courses must be taken for a letter grade; they may not be taken on a Pass/Low Pass/Fail basis. Our general education curriculum has six key components:

  1. First-Year Seminar: All students take a first-year seminar or participate in a Gateway Program, introducing them to the intellectual life of the College and reinforcing essential academic practices, including the capacity to write compellingly and read critically, conduct research and analysis, and communicate effectively and collaboratively

  2. Foundational Skills: To ensure that all students have the basic tools needed for success in today’s world, students demonstrate writing proficiency, quantitative literacy, and competency in a second language.

  3. Distributional Breadth: Since one of the hallmarks of a liberal arts education is breadth of knowledge, students take at least one course in each of these fields: the arts, humanities, natural sciences, numerical & symbolic reasoning, and social sciences.

  4. Writing-Intensive Courses: In reinforcing writing and critical thinking skills throughout a student’s academic life, all students complete at least two writing-intensive courses, including the first-year seminar.

  5. Global Engagement: To have the knowledge and skills to thrive in a diverse global context, all students complete a course with a “global” focus or participate in a study-away program.

  6. Identity, Power, and Equity: To examine the intersections between individual experience and marginalized social groups, including those based on race, ethnicity, indigeneity, religion, ability, sexual orientation, and/or gender expression.