California State University

• CSU Campus List
• AB 540 (California Non–Resident Tuition Exemption)
• Admission Handbook 2022-23
• Basic Subject Courses and the Grade of C-
• CSU Impacted Majors and Campuses
• CSU Information for Counselors
• CSU Transfer
• IGETC Standards
• CSU Stretched English Composition Reference Chart
• CSU COVID-19 Impact on Undergraduate Admissions
• CSU Foreign Language and Second Semester English Requirements for Graduation

Nursing

• Criteria for CSU Nursing Programs 2020
• Nursing Criteria Chart
• Nursing Prerequisite Requirements and FAQ

• Course Substitution & Reciprocity – Local Degrees and Certificates, General Education and ADTs
• Los Angeles Community Colleges Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Reciprocity Guidelines
• Santa Monica College Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Reciprocity Guidelines
• Santa Monica Associate Degrees for Transfer and C- Policy

By University

• CSU Channel Islands
• CSU Fresno (Fresno State University)
• CSU Northridge
• CSU San Diego (San Diego State University)

By Major

• BUS ADT 2.0 Information

• CSUS Curriculum Changes 2021-2022

Area A

English Language Communication and Critical Thinking
Minimum 9 semester units or 12 quarter units - one course in each subarea

A1 Oral Communication (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)
A2 Written Communication (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)
A3 Critical Thinking (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)

A minimum of nine semester units or twelve quarter units in communication in the English language, to include both oral communication (subarea A1) and written communication (subarea A2), and in critical thinking (Area A3), to include consideration of common fallacies in reasoning.

Students taking courses in fulfillment of subareas A1 and A2 will develop knowledge and understanding of the form, content, context, and effectiveness of communication. Students will develop proficiency in oral and written communication in English, examining communication from the rhetorical perspective and practicing reasoning and advocacy, organization, and accuracy. Students will practice the discovery, critical evaluation, and reporting of information, as well as reading, writing, and listening effectively. Coursework must include active participation and practice in both written communication and oral communication in English.

In critical thinking (subarea A3) courses, students will understand logic and its relation to language; elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought; and the ability to distinguish matters of fact from issues of judgment or opinion. In A3 courses, students will develop the abilities to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas; to reason inductively and deductively; and to reach well-supported factual or judgmental conclusions.

Scientific Inquiry and Quantitative Reasoning

Minimum of 12 semester units or 18 quarter units - one course each in subareas B1, B2, and B4, plus laboratory activity related to one of the completed science courses

B1 Physical Science (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)
B2 Life Science (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)
B3 Laboratory Activity associated with a course taken to satisfy either B1 or B2 B4 Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)

A minimum of twelve semester units or eighteen quarter units to include inquiry into the physical universe and its life forms, with some immediate participation in a related laboratory activity, and into mathematical concepts and quantitative reasoning and their applications.

In subareas B1-B3, students develop knowledge of scientific theories, concepts, and data about both living and non-living systems. Students will achieve an understanding and appreciation of scientific principles and the scientific method, as well as the potential limits of scientific endeavors and the value systems and ethics associated with human inquiry. The nature and extent of laboratory experience is to be determined by each campus through its established curricular procedures.

Courses in subarea B4 shall have an explicit intermediate algebra prerequisite, and students shall develop skills and understanding beyond the level of intermediate algebra. Students will not just practice computational skills, but will be able to explain and apply basic mathematical concepts and will be able to solve problems through quantitative reasoning.

Arts and Humanities

Minimum of 12 semester units or 18 quarter units - at least one course completed in each of these two subareas

C1 Arts: Arts, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theater
C2 Humanities: Literature, Philosophy, Languages Other than English

A minimum of twelve semester units or eighteen quarter units among the arts, literature, philosophy and foreign languages. Across the disciplines in their Area C coursework, students will cultivate intellect, imagination, sensibility and sensitivity. Students will respond subjectively as well as objectively to aesthetic experiences and will develop an understanding of the integrity of both emotional and intellectual responses. Students will cultivate and refine their affective, cognitive, and physical faculties through studying great works of the human imagination. Activities may include participation in individual aesthetic, creative experiences; however Area C excludes courses that exclusively emphasize skills development.

In their intellectual and subjective considerations, students will develop a better understanding of the interrelationship between the self and the creative arts and of the humanities in a variety of cultures.

Students may take courses in languages other than English in partial fulfillment of this requirement if the courses do not focus solely on skills acquisition but also contain a substantial cultural component. This may include literature, among other content. Coursework taken in fulfillment of this requirement must include a reasonable distribution among the subareas specified, as opposed to restricting the entire number of units required to a single subarea.

Social Sciences

9 semester units (12 quarter units), with 3 semester (4 quarter) units taken at the upper-division

Six semester lower-division units (8 quarter units) and 3 additional semester units (4 quarter units) at the upper-division. Courses shall be completed in at least 2 different disciplines among the 9 required semester units (or 12 required quarter units).

Area D requires 9 semester units or 12 quarter units dealing with human social, political, and economic institutions and behavior, and their historical background. Courses shall be completed from at least two different disciplines among the 9 required semester units (and 12 required quarter units). One upper-division Area D course is required. Campuses shall not exceed these unit requirements.

Students learn from courses in multiple Area D disciplines that human social, political, and economic institutions and behavior are inextricably interwoven. Through the fulfillment of the Area D requirement, students will develop an understanding of problems and issues from the respective disciplinary perspectives and will examine issues in their contemporary as well as historical settings and in a variety of cultural contexts. Students will explore the principles, methodologies, value systems, and ethics employed in social scientific inquiry. Courses that emphasize skills development and professional preparation are excluded from Area D.

Lifelong Learning and Self-Development

Minimum of 3 semester units or 4 quarter units

A minimum of three semester units or four quarter units in study designed to equip learners for lifelong understanding and development of themselves as integrated physiological, social, and psychological beings.

Student learning in this area shall include selective consideration of content such as human behavior, sexuality, nutrition, physical and mental health, stress management, financial literacy, social relationships and relationships with the environment, as well as implications of death and dying and avenues for lifelong learning. Physical activity may be included, provided that it is an integral part of the study elements described herein.

3 semester units (4 quarter units)

This lower-division, 3 semester (4 quarter) unit requirement fulfills Education Code Section 89032. The requirement to take a 3 semester (4 quarter) unit course in Area F shall not be waived or substituted.

To be approved for this requirement, courses shall have the following course prefixes: African American, Asian American, Latina/o American or Native American Studies. Similar course prefixes (e.g., Pan-African Studies, American Indian Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Ethnic Studies) shall also meet this requirement. Courses without ethnic studies prefixes may meet this requirement if cross-listed with a course with an ethnic studies prefix. Courses that are approved to meet this requirement shall meet at least 3 of the 5 the following core competencies. Campuses may add additional competencies to those listed.

1. Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in any one or more of the following: Native American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latina and Latino American Studies.
2. Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences, and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.
3. Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities.
4. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and/or Latina and Latino Americans are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
5. Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino communities and a just and equitable society.

As described in Article 6, CSU campuses may certify upper-division ethnic studies courses to satisfy the lower-division Area F requirement so long as adequate numbers of lower-division course options are available to students. As described in Article 2, ethnic studies courses required in majors, minors or that satisfy campus-wide requirements and are approved for GE Area F credit shall also fulfill (double count for) this requirement.

American Institutions Requirement

The CSU requires each student to be knowledgeable about the Constitution of the United States, American History, and state and local government. The “U.S. History, Constitution, and American Ideals Requirement” is generally known as the American Institutions Requirement. Students can complete this requirement by passing a comprehensive examination if offered by a campus or by completing the required courses (generally two).

PER CSUS, Fall 2021, only one course from AI can be used to apply to the CSU GE pattern. Please consider applying regardless of the CSU, as this may become a standard guideline.