What is Essential Studies at the University of North Dakota?
Essential Studies (ES) is the academic core of your university experience. The courses
offered in the ES curriculum provide broad and diverse perspectives on how human
beings think and feel, solve problems, express ideas, and create and discover new
knowledge. These courses also help you acquire essential intellectual skills: they
challenge you to think critically and creatively, reason using numbers and charts,
communicate effectively both orally and in writing, find and evaluate information from
various kinds of sources, and increase your understanding of the role of diversity in a
complex world.
UND undergraduates take a number of Essential Studies courses out of the conviction
that citizenship in a complex world demands a breadth of knowledge and a wide range of
intellectual skills. You are likely to encounter shifting conditions and challenges over the
next 50 or more years. This knowledge and these skills will prepare you for a satisfying
and effective professional and personal life, and participation in the public life of your
community.
What is the best way to select Essential Studies courses?
When you choose your Essential Studies courses, we encourage you to venture into areas
that are new, interesting, or arouse your curiosity. By choosing courses that range
outside your current experience, you will gain opportunities to explore questions and
issues that can challenge you to grow and expand your knowledge and awareness.
Also consider choosing ES courses that complement each other, so that you can extend
what you learn in individual courses. By linking courses in this way, you can develop the
ability to make connections among them and draw on their ideas and traditions to address
the complex, multi-faceted questions of life in the 21st century. Your coursework should
help prepare you to actively engage in contemporary issues of public importance.
You might want to pay particular attention to your choices of special emphasis classes.
Each special emphasis requirement
highlights a particular area of learning considered to be important by the university. For
example, the U.S. diversity requirement offers a unique opportunity for you to learn more
about American Indian histories and cultures, which is especially important to UND since
the North Dakota Century Code gives the university a particular mission in education
about American Indians. Some of your special emphasis courses may be met within your
major or with a class recommended by your major department.
Finally, you might want to consider meeting some of your Essential Studies goals in
Honors, Integrated Studies, the American College of Norway, Study Abroad, civic
engagement courses, or through another non-traditional option. Programs and courses
such as these can provide an opportunity to focus intensively on Essential Studies goals
and meet ES requirements. But at the same time, a non-traditional option can also
provide a great experience. Such programs are worth further exploration.
Why will I take courses under four different categories of subjects?
All Essential Studies courses contribute to your breadth of knowledge. In fact,
possessing a breadth of knowledge is one hallmark of a well-educated person. The
ability to draw on a variety of fields of knowledge is important for professionals in all
fields; it is also crucial for understanding ourselves, our communities, and our larger
world.
In UND’s Essential Studies program, you will complete coursework that introduces you
to academic fields within Communication, Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, and
Math/Science/Technology. Taking courses across a wide range of subject-areas will expose you to the
way that people think and create knowledge in a variety of disciplines. For example,
your ES courses will give you the opportunity to explore what it means to think like an
artist or art critic, like a psychologist or sociologist, and like a geologist or chemist.
