Core Curriculum

Your Foundation for Success
To succeed in the 21st century, you will need more than a specific major. Employers, graduate schools and professional schools will look for college graduates who are:
  • Skilled communicators;
  • Creative thinkers;
  • Scientifically literate;
  • Capable of critical analysis;
  • Adept at quantitative reasoning;
  • Prepared through experience for cultural diversity and global awareness;
  • Ethical leaders seeking to serve in areas of need.

These are the skills you will gain through St. John’s University’s Core Curriculum.

How the Core Helps You
The Core gives you the opportunity to learn and practice all the skills that employers will expect of you. The Core consists of nine common courses and a variety of distributed core courses that view the arts, culture, economics, history and the sciences from a variety of different perspectives related to each course.

During your first year, you will take our innovative course, Discover New York, which uses the city as a “living textbook.” Students research the city’s growth, visit museums, see Broadway shows and tour historic locations as they explore the city’s relationship to our nation and world. Even those of you who are seasoned New Yorkers will find something intriguing that you never knew existed.

Through your studies in the Core, your major and your participation in campus activities, you will graduate as a well-rounded, well-prepared individual – the kind of person that employers seek in today’s changing world.

Please follow our Core Curriculum link for a full description of the Core and the requirement in each of St. John’s undergraduate colleges and schools.