2006 - 2007 Undergraduate Degree Requirements

Governing Catalog | Residence Requirement | Academic Major | Academic Minor | Second Bachelor's Degree | Liberal Education Requirements | Fulfilling LE Skills Requirements | Transfer Credit | Prior Learning Assessment | Credit by Examination

Westminster offers courses leading to the undergraduate degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. The faculties of the four schools determine which of these degrees is to be awarded under each instructional program.

Governing Academic Catalog

Students may meet degree requirements as specified in the Academic Catalog in effect at the time of their entrance into the college, or they may elect to meet requirements given in a later academic catalog. All major, minor, and liberal education requirements must be contained within a single issue and may not be selected from several issues.

Students who leave the college for no more than two regular semesters retain the right to be considered under their previous catalog and retain the right for six years following the date of entrance to graduate under requirements current at the time of entrance.

Residence Requirement

Undergraduate students earning baccalaureate degrees from Westminster must complete a minimum of 36 hours of coursework at the college. In addition, undergraduate students must complete in residence:

• their last 36 hours of course work
• at least 12 hours of upper division course work in any major
• at least 8 hours of course work in any minor

A maximum of 88 credit hours of external credit is accepted toward a degree. External credit includes any transfer credit, credit by examination, and credit earned through Prior Learning Assessment.

Academic Major

The college offers the academic programs (majors) listed below:

The requirements for each of these academic programs are listed according to the school to which they belong. Students are bound by the major requirements of their governing academic catalog. Changes made to program requirements for individual students by advisors are subject to the approval of program chairs, the school dean and the Registrar.

Declaring a Major

All students must formally declare an academic major once they have completed 60 or more credit hours (junior standing - see "Class Standing"). Students with junior standing who have not met with an academic advisor and formally declared their major will not be eligible to register for upcoming semesters. Forms for declaring majors and minors are available in the START Center, each academic school office, or the Office of the Registrar. You may contact any of these offices for additional information.

Completing Two Majors

A major is an area of specialization within the degree. Students may complete more than one major at the same time but may not complete more than one degree at the same time.

Courses that are required for both majors may be used to fulfill requirements for both majors, but elective courses may be used in only one major. In other words, the hours may be used only once.

Information about combining two Gore School of Business majors may be obtained from the Gore School of Business or the Office of the Registrar.

Students may choose two majors, one that leads to a B.A., and one that leads to a B.S., but may receive only one degree. The first-listed major on the graduation application determines the degree awarded.

Contractual Major (Individualized)

With the faculty's permission, students may choose to pursue an individualized field of concentration consisting of 40 to 60 semester credit hours, 80% of which must be taken at Westminster from two or more disciplines. The contractual major must demonstrate a coherent conceptual framework of focus, depth, and breadth; relate to a career or educational objective; and culminate in a comprehensive examination or integrative project. The contractual major option is intended to be interdisciplinary in content and methodology and is not intended to make available to students a single discipline traditional major that Westminster may not currently offer.

The program director(s) and curriculum committee must approve each student's plan for a contractual major. This approval is needed four semesters before graduation. The student's academic advisor approves other components of the student's program. A student may apply for a contractual major at the Registrar's Office.

Completing Additional Major or Minor After Graduation

Westminster graduates may choose to complete an additional major or minor after their graduation date and are allowed to use their same governing catalog as long as they stay continuously enrolled. Requirements must be completed within one year of their graduation date and students must meet all requirements in residence at Westminster. The student must notify the Registrar's Office of his or her intention to complete an additional major or minor.

Academic Minor

The college offers an academic minor in most areas of instruction. Each instructional program lists specific minor requirements. Several majors require an accompanying minor. In lieu of a minor, students may support their majors with a broad variety of courses selected in consultation with their academic advisors.

A minimum 2.0 GPA is required for coursework used to fulfill requirements for an academic minor. Minimum GPA requirements are listed for each academic minor. Only grades of C- or better may be presented to satisfy minor requirements.

Courses that are required for both a major and a minor may be used to fulfill requirements for both the major and the minor, but elective courses may be used in either the major or the minor. The hours may be used only once.

In addition to the above-listed majors, the college offers minors in many of these areas plus minors only in Anthropology, Environmental Studies, French, Gender Studies, Music, Paleontology, Political Science, Religion, Spanish and Theatre Arts.

Information about combining Gore School of Business majors and minors may be obtained from the Gore School of Business or the Office of the Registrar.

Second Bachelor's Degree

Students who have earned a bachelor's degree and are working toward a second bachelor's degree must complete a minimum of 36 credit hours at Westminster College beyond the first degree and must meet all degree requirements. Students may not complete two degrees concurrently. Students who already have earned a bachelor's degree are considered to have met liberal education and upper division hour requirements. Transfer students who have earned a bachelor's degree are automatically awarded 88 credit hours of transfer credit.

Nursing prerequisite courses need to be fulfilled by students with prior degrees. Individual evaluations of comparable coursework will be made by the nursing program.

Liberal Education Requirements

The liberal education program at Westminster College includes both skills and distribution requirements. The program is designed to foster in students those values and intellectual skills that are necessary as a foundation for learning and to provide students with experience in the academic disciplines of the liberal arts. The college's goals of encouraging analytical and critical thinking, originality and creativity, and effective problem solving form the core of liberal education courses and are reinforced across the curriculum in major areas of study.

The following course requirements are established for all students seeking an undergraduate degree. Students must earn a grade of CR or C- or above in liberal education coursework to fulfill graduation requirements.

Learning Communities

Coordinator: Barbara Schulz Smith, Ph.D.

As part of Westminsters commitment to develop new models of teaching and learning, several interdisciplinary learning communities are available to first-year students. These interdisciplinary courses are designed to help students:

1. Develop critical, analytical, writing and presentation skills, and
2. Establish strong relationships with other students and with faculty, and
3. Adjust to college.

Learning Communities at Westminster link two classes together with a common theme. Typically, at least one of the classes also fulfills a liberal education requirement. Sometimes, a course is paired with an INTR course which is a course designed for first-year students as a seminar class that focuses on issues of college life. The majority of learning community classes are designed for first-year students and are NOT upper division (300 level) credit.

Learning Communities are taught primarily by full-time faculty members. This is one of the bonuses of Learning Communities. Students get to meet and interact with professors who have chosen to teach first-year students as part of their teaching responsibilities at Westminster.

If you entered Westminster during the Fall of 2006 (or after this date) as a first-year student, you will need to take at least one learning community during your first year here. These interdisciplinary classes vary widely on theme and topic areas. By way of example, Learning Community classes have included the pairing of Psychology and English Composition, Speech and Philosophy, Anthropology and the Arts, and Business and Statistics. Many additional choices are offered each semester. Current Learning Community (LC) class offerings are listed in the class schedule and on the Westminster Learning Community website.

Liberal Education Requirements

Fulfilling Liberal Education Skills Requirements

Meeting Mathematics Requirements

The following guidelines are used in determining when students have met mathematics requirements. (Students without ACT or SAT scores or students who are unsure about mathematics placement must contact the START Center for placement testing.)

Students may fulfill the requirement through:

• acceptance of transfer credit for a college algebra, elementary statistics, or equivalent quantitative reasoning course
• a score of 28 or above on the ACT mathematics test or a score of 620 or above on the SAT mathematics test
• a score of 46 or above on the CLEP college algebra test or a score of 45 or above on the CLEP algebra and trigonometry test (Note: The CLEP program is currently under review by Westminster College faculty.)
• a score of 3, 4, or 5 on the AP calculus test or the AP statistics test
• completion of MATH 120, MATH 141, or MATH 150 at Westminster College with a grade of C- or above.

Placement in English

The following guidelines determine in which level of English coursework a student should enroll.

Public Presentations Requirement

Passing SPCH 111 satisfies the basic speech requirement in the Writing and other Communication Skills category. A student with prior formal speech and presentations training may be eligible to have the basic speech requirement waived. Any waiver of the basic speech requirement will require an interview with the chair of the Speech/Theatre Program and the delivery of a specifically assigned presentation in front of a designated audience that satisfactorily demonstrates the students proficiency. Competence must be shown in two speaking formats: informative and persuasive. The request for a waiver of the basic speech requirement must be made, with no exceptions, at least one semester prior to the semester in which the student plans to graduate. The requirement may be challenged only one time. More information and the form is available in the Start Center.

Fulfilling Foreign Language Requirements

Foreign Language requirements are listed as part of the major requirements for each major (see individual academic program listings). Most majors require one of the following two options:

Eight credit hours in one of the following ways:

• Four credit hours of a foreign language, and either: four credit hours of a Westminster May/Summer international study tour, or four credits of an international study tour transferred from an accredited college or university.
• Eight credit hours of a single foreign language.

Successful completion of any college-level foreign language course that is the equivalent of four credit hours, or five quarter hours, satisfies part of the foreign language requirement as will adequate AP or CLEP examination scores. Students might also qualify to take a Westminster College challenge examination in French or Spanish with departmental approval.

Students who are bi-lingual (native proficiency) are exempt from this requirement but must meet with language faculty to receive a waiver. Effective Fall 1994, Westminster faculty approved American Sign Language for foreign language credit.

Students with some high school language experience who are unsure of proper foreign language placement should arrange for an interview with the professor in the respective language program.

Transfer Credit

A maximum of 72 credit hours may be awarded from two-year institutions. A maximum of 88 credit hours transferred from all collegiate institutions (two-year and four-year) attended may be applied toward meeting the total number of hours required for graduation.

Note: It is not possible to earn upper division hours from a two-year school.

Criteria for the Acceptance of Transfer Credit

Westminster College awards transfer credit for coursework that meets the following criteria:

• The transfer institution is regionally accredited;
• The credit awarded is for non-remedial coursework taken in general academic areas that are part of the Westminster curriculum;
• The credit awarded is for coursework with grades of C- or better. (Marks of credit (CR) or pass (P) are not accepted unless verified as equivalent to a C- or above. (Except physical education classes which are offered only for grades of CR or P.)

Foreign Transfer Credit

All foreign transcripts are evaluated by Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI), which determines the level of coursework taken and the semester hour and grade equivalents. Only coursework that is determined to be equivalent to college-level academic work that meets the criteria noted above will be considered for transfer. Equivalencies to Westminster courses will be determined as outlined below. Transfer acceptance of hours from foreign institutions does not guarantee fulfillment of like courses in majors and minors at Westminster unless approved by the faculty.

Determination of Liberal Education and Major Course Equivalencies

Liberal Education Requirements

Transfer courses fulfill Westminster liberal education course requirements on a course-by-course basis when the transfer courses are deemed equivalent to the corresponding Westminster courses. The Transfer Coordinator makes this determination in accordance with guidelines established by faculty.

Major and Minor Course Requirements

An advisor in the major or minor program of study determines whether transfer credit fulfills specific requirements in the major or minor. A student who receives elective transfer credit for a course may not necessarily be able to apply that course to the major or minor. In addition, some programs have minimum grade requirements.

Transfer Credit and Prerequisite Knowledge

Although the college accepts transfer credit for courses with a C- grade or higher, individual programs may require verification of prerequisite knowledge and may require students to repeat coursework.

Upper Division Transfer Credit

By definition, it is not possible to earn upper division credit from a two-year institution. In certain cases, lower division coursework will be accepted as meeting upper division program requirements; however, these hours will not count toward the 40 upper division hours required for graduation.

Converting Quarter Credit Hours to Semester Credit Hours

A quarter hour is equal to two-thirds of a semester hour, so one quarter hour transfers as .67 credit hours. Students transferring from institutions using the quarter system do not lose credit, because semesters are longer than quarters.

Quarter Hours and Westminster Hour Requirements

To be accepted as meeting Westminster College requirements, courses must not only have equivalent academic content, they must also equal at least two-thirds of the Westminster required hours, e.g., a language class must be 2.68 credit hours or more.

Waiver of Liberal Education Distribution Requirements

Associate Degrees -- Utah and Out-of-State Institutions and Letters of Completion (Utah Schools only)

Students who have Associate of Arts (A.A.) or Associate of Science (A.S.) degrees from regionally accredited institutions or have official letters verifying completion of liberal education requirements from a Utah institution are considered to have completed the following LE requirements:

• All Humanities liberal education requirements
• All Arts liberal education requirements
• All Science and Mathematics liberal education requirements.
• All Social Sciences liberal education requirements
• The Learning Community liberal education requirement
• The Living Arts liberal education requirement

The A.A. or A.S. degree does not exempt students from completing the following liberal education requirements:

• All Writing and Communication Skills liberal education course work
  • ENGL 110 equivalent
  • SPCH 111 Public Presentations equivalent and
  • Information Literacy Workshop required of all transfer students who transfer in the equivalent to ENGL 110
• One course to meet the Cultural Diversity liberal education requirement (see liberal education section of the catalog for individual courses approved for this category).

Students who have Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degrees are not eligible for waivers.

Students should note that certain liberal education courses also serve as prerequisites or are required courses in their academic programs and would not be waived, even if a previous A.A. or A.S. degree has been attained. All students are advised to check the catalog for individual program requirements.

Prior Learning Assessment

The Prior Learning Assessment program is under review for the 2006  2007 academic year. Westminster College is currently exploring a variety of degree completion programs that will be announced in the future. Any changes will be posted to the Registrars Office website.

Credit by Examination

Students may earn a maximum of 40 credit hours under credit by examination programs: Advanced Placement (AP), College Level Examination Program (CLEP), Challenge Examinations, Nursing Examinations, and International Baccalaureate. Credit by examination is not counted as in-residence credit.

Advanced Placement

Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in most subjects cover a full-year college course equivalent to eight credit hours. Some subject areas such as Computer Science A, Economics (Macro and Micro), Environmental Science, Comparative Government and Politics, U.S. Government and Politics, Physics C, Psychology, Statistics, and Human Geography, are equivalent to one semester of college-level coursework and are awarded credit based on the credit hours for the equivalent course at Westminster.

A score of 3 is the minimum score accepted by the college; however, individual departments may require a minimum score of 4 to award credit for the equivalent course and/or liberal education requirement. Individual departments determine how they will apply AP credits toward specific major or minor requirements. Students may receive a maximum of 40 hours of Advanced Placement credit. Listed below are the AP tests that fulfill Westminster LE requirements and the required scores.

*Designates AP examinations equivalent to only one semester of college-level work.

For a complete listing of the AP examinations, the required scores, and equivalent courses at Westminster, contact the START Center or the Registrar's Office.

College Level Examination Program (CLEP)

CLEP is a national program of examination to evaluate, confirm, and assess the academic achievement of individuals who have reached a college level of education through either traditional or non-traditional means of study.

Note: The CLEP program is currently under review by Westminster College faculty. Acceptance of CLEP testing for specific Westminster courses as listed below is subject to change. For a complete listing of currently honored CLEP examinations, please contact the START Center or the Registrar's Office.

CLEP includes General Examinations in three basic liberal arts areas and Subject Examinations in widely-taught undergraduate courses.

Credit is not awarded if duplicated by previous coursework.

CLEP candidates are awarded credit as follows:

Subject Examinations

For CLEP exams taken since June 2001, a minimum score of 50 is required. A higher score is required for the full 12 hours of Language credit. For more information about CLEP, contact the START Center at 832-2282.

International Baccalaureate

Students who have earned a diploma in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in high school are awarded 30 credit hours and cleared of all liberal education requirements. Once awarded, students are not eligible to receive credit from AP or CLEP examinations except for Subject Examinations where upper-division coursework equivalency is awarded. It is not possible to receive credit for partial completion of the IB program. Students are required to provide proof of the diploma upon admission to the college.

Nursing Examinations

Nursing students may validate prior learning through examinations offered by the National League for Nursing and the American College Testing Program. See the Nursing Program requirements for details.

Challenge Examinations

Students may earn credit for independent learning in certain academic areas by means of the Challenge Examination. This is a comprehensive examination covering a given course according to the following conditions:

1. The course challenged must be offered by Westminster College, and the student requesting the examination must be currently enrolled as a degree-seeking student in the college.
2. The student must pay a non-refundable fee of $50 per credit hour prior to taking the examination.
3. Permission to take the Challenge Examination must be secured from the dean of the school under which the course falls and the instructor who teaches the course. The instructor prepares, administers, and grades the examination. Permission to take the examination must be secured 30 days prior to examination, and reasonable assurance of the student's ability to pass the examination must be provided when the request is made.
4. The course being challenged must not be a course for which the student has previously received credit, a course in which the student is enrolled, or a course in which the student was previously enrolled and dropped later than the first week of class.
5. When students successfully pass the Challenge Examination, they receive a letter grade of A, B, C, or D and the appropriate number of credit hours. Students not passing their examinations receive no grade or credit.
6. A course may be challenged only once.
7. Seminars, directed studies, laboratory portions of a course, or activity courses may not be challenged.
8. No more than 30 credit hours by Challenge Examination may be offered toward graduation. Credit received through Challenge Examination is not counted as in-residence credit.
9. The Challenge Examination for the public presentation skills requirement must be taken at least one semester prior to the semester in which the student plans to graduate.