Core Curriculum

Rooted in the Assumptionist and Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition of charity, the love for learning, the integration of faith and reason, and the pursuit of truth wherever it is to be found, Assumption University’s Core Curriculum introduces students to essential works, ideas, and enduring goals of the liberal arts and sciences.  Deepening and broadening the foundations of students’ learning in their major and minor fields of study, the Core cultivates the habits of mind, learning practices and skills, passion for truth, and love of wisdom that are hallmarks of an Assumption University education.

What Is The Core?

The Assumption University Core is composed of five areas of study, each of which brings perspective to a classical liberal arts education. Within these areas, you choose courses that best match their academic and personal interests. Coupled with professional preparation, the cultivation of a devotion to service and an embrace of the conversation between faith and reason, the Core ensures that you are ready to embark upon a life-long voyage of discovery and equipped to lead a life of meaning.

• Core Seminars: The Core Seminars, taken at the beginning of your university career, aid you in embracing the philosophical, literary and theological texts that form the basis of human thought while developing your reasoning, reading, writing, and speaking skills. Your core seminar experience lays the foundation for all programs of study.
• Person and Society: You’ll contemplate the relationship between individuals and their communities through the perspectives of history and the social sciences, gaining insight into the human condition. You’ll learn how history, politics, economics, psychology and sociology all play an important role in how we go about our daily lives.
  • Learning Goals
    • Analyze complex interactions between individual, societal, and cultural forces over time.
    • Achieve multicultural awareness through studies of diverse peoples, civilizations, and culture through time and in the present day
    • Examine how individuals, organizations, and institutions create movements and evaluate policies for social and political change
• Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning: You’ll explore mathematics and the natural and social sciences, becoming familiar with quantitative and empirical reasoning. These important building blocks will deepen your awareness of how the world is discovered and evaluated through analysis and scientific inquiry.
  • Learning Goals
    • Quantitative Thinking: Students will gain competency working with numerical data and be able to apply mathematical or statistical methods and models to solve problems.
    • Scientific Thinking: Students will explore aspects of the world and gain experience with the questions asked, approaches taken, tools used, and methods employed by natural, social, and computer scientists.
• Culture and Expression: Through courses in culture, language and the fine arts, you’ll learn how human beings around the world express themselves, their beliefs, their struggles and their hopes and dreams. You’ll become a better communicator and hone your creativity and unique voice. 
  • Learning Goals
    • To identify, acknowledge and critically examine cultural aspects of the complex world in which we live.
    • To acquire respect and appreciation of the scale and scope of other cultures as well as their application to the understanding of us (based on values). 
• The Great Conversation: By engaging in spirited discussion, grounded in the works of some of history’s greatest thinkers, you’ll deepen your appreciation for, and understanding of, how ideas and great writing shape both the lives of individuals and the evolution of societies.
  • Learning Goals
    • Addressing significant questions or ideas of a primary text and exploration of its meaning or truth
    • Applying a variety of reading strategies, recognizing the structure, style, and significance of a text