Return to: Majors, Minors and Certificates by Department
The following are requirements for all bachelor’s degrees at Our Lady of the Lake University:
- A minimum of 120 to 128 semester hours, depending on the degree, 36 of which must be on the advanced level.
- A minimum of 45 semester hours must be taken in residence, 24 of which must be on the advanced level, with at least 12 of the advanced hours taken in the major field or in the interdisciplinary major.
Note: Students who earned advanced hours in their area of concentration at a member institution of United Colleges of San Antonio (UCSA) are required to take 12 semester hours in their concentration at Our Lady of the Lake University, but these hours need not be advanced.
- The cumulative grade point average must be 2.0, including a 2.0 average on all work taken at Our Lady of the Lake University.
- Basic requirements, including general education requirements and specialization area requirements, for a particular degree must be fulfilled.
- No “D” grades in major, minor, core, concentrations or teaching fields.
- Satisfactory performance must be demonstrated on any comprehensive examination, professional test, or other special assessment required in the major or area of concentration.
- Computer literacy requirements specified by the major or area of concentration must be fulfilled.
- INDS 1311 required for First time traditional Freshmen.
Time Limitation
Students have 10 years to complete a bachelor’s degree program under the catalog in effect at the time they originally enroll. A student may choose a subsequent catalog under which to complete graduation requirements, provided the student completed at least one course with a letter grade other than “W”, “Q”, “X”, “I” or “WI” during the time the catalog was in effect. The student must complete ALL degree requirements under the subsequent catalog. Choosing a new catalog begins a new 10-year time limit. Students who graduate under one catalog and begin a second degree must begin the new degree under the catalog in effect at the time the second degree is started.
General Education Goals
Learning is a lifetime endeavor, not just an occupation of one’s school days. At Our Lady of the Lake University, therefore, the educational program is designed to help students learn how to learn – not just for the present, but for the future as well. Students cannot hope to master all the world’s ever-expanding resources of knowledge, but they can hope to experience the basic patterns by which humanity obtains and organizes knowledge so that throughout their lives they can discover or recover knowledge as they need it for specific purposes.
General Education Program
The General Education Curriculum at Our Lady of the Lake is designed to foster the intellectual, spiritual, and professional growth of students in the tradition of Catholic higher education and the mission and values of the University and of its sponsor, the Congregation of Divine Providence.
The General Education Curriculum, grounded in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, provides a foundation for the exploration of the purpose and meaning of the human experience in a changing world and for integration of knowledge for higher learning. The General Education Curriculum emphasizes development of Critical Thinking, Oral Communication, Written Communication and Information Literacy, Quantitative Reasoning, and Technological Understanding in nine curricular areas: Communication, Foreign Language and Multi-Cultural Understanding, Natural Science and Mathematics, Social Science, Theology and Philosophy, Literature, Fine Arts, History, and Technology.
General Education Competencies
Five skills competencies were identified by faculty as important outcomes for an undergraduate education at Our Lady of the Lake University, regardless of the student’s major.
- Written Communication and Information Literacy. Students will demonstrate the development and expression of ideas in writing and the ability to work with many genres and styles, and the ability to know when there is a need for information and to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.
- Oral Communication. Students will demonstrate the ability to deliver a prepared, purposeful presentation designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding or to promote change in the listener’s attitudes, values, beliefs or behaviors.
- Technology Understanding. Students will demonstrate the ability to use computer technology and appropriate software applications to produce documentation, quantitative data presentations, and functional graphical presentations appropriate to various academic and professional settings.
- Critical Thinking. Students will demonstrate the ability to explore issues, ideals, artifacts, information and events before acting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.
- Quantitative Reasoning. Students will demonstrate the ability to make sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence and to clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate).
General Education Requirements
The General Education Curriculum requirements provide students with a breadth of knowledge and learning in the liberal arts and sciences. As such they form the scaffolding on which to build further study in any major. Each baccalaureate degree program at Our Lady of the Lake University requires successful completion of 37-38 semester hours (about 12 courses) of the General Education Curriculum. The required courses are distributed among the following categories:
