Science Core Requirements

 
   

Core Program

The course content in physical, life, and engineering sciences must total a minimum of 24 credit hours, including at least eight credit hours of mathematics. (Course prefixes MATH and MATP, including Calculus I).

Students must take at least 16 credit hours of their science core at Rensselaer.

To ensure that students have some depth in their Science Core, students must take at least two courses within a single area other than Mathematics. For this purpose the course prefixes PHYS (physics) and ASTR (astronomy) are a single discipline, as are MATH (mathematics) and MATP (mathematical Programming, probability, and mathematical statistics). No more than one course of the Science core may be taken as Pass/No Credit.

The following courses meet the Physical, Life, and Engineering Sciences requirement:

Any course with the following prefixes:

 

ASTR

ASTRONOMY

BCBP

BIOCHEMISTRY/BIOPHYSICS

BIOL

BIOLOGY

CHEM

CHEMISTRY

CISH

COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES HARTFORD

CSCI

COMPUTER SCIENCE

ERTH

EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

MATH

MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

MATP

MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING, PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS

PHYS

PHYSICS

 

The following courses also meet the requirements: 

 

IENV-4500 (cross listed as ERTH-4500), IENV-4700
ISCI-4500
ENGR-110, ENGR-1500, ENGR-1600 (cross listed as CHEM-1500 and CHEM-1600)
ENGR 2090, ENGR-2250, ENGR-2400, ENGR-2500, ENGR-2820
ESCE-2100

Other courses may be possible and will be reviewed by the Associate Dean of Science on a case-by-case basis. A number of upper level courses in several engineering disciplines would satisfy the requirement, but generally they have enough prerequisites so that the science requirement would already have been satisfied. If you have other questions regarding this requirement, please contact Associate Dean Samuel Wait. He is located in the Science Center - Room 1C05 or e-mail - waitsc@rpi.edu

Transferring Science Core Credit

Students entering Rensselaer in their first year may transfer up to two Science courses (up to 8 credit hours) toward satisfying their Science core requirement. Students who have Advanced Placement or who have the International Baccalaureate may be granted credit for all such mathematics and science courses depending on their scores. Transfer students from an accredited collegiate program who have completed at least one college year but who come to Rensselaer with first year status may qualify for additional core transfers at the discretion of the Science core curriculum adviser (currently the Associate Dean of the School of Science).

Transfer students entering Rensselaer at the sophomore level or above are not limited in the number of courses they may transfer for Science core credit.
Students enrolled at Rensselaer who wish to take a Science course for core credit at another accredited institution must obtain prior approval for the course from the science core curriculum adviser. To apply for approval a student must furnish a catalog description of the proposed course and a filled out copy of Rensselaer's transfer credit approval form to the core curriculum adviser. A maximum of 8 credit hours of transfers is allowed.