At CALS, students enjoy being able to dive right into their majors, which they have identified as academic areas they are excited to begin exploring and making connections in right away. At the same time, CALS builds in flexibility, requiring that only 55 of 120 credits to be taken in CALS and typically about 1/3 of courses are “elective” – therefore not counting towards major or distribution requirements, making for quite a bit of “free choice.” In terms of the College curriculum requirements, here is an overview: CALS Distribution Requirements. You’ll see breadth, as well as a great amount of choice in terms of how to fulfill these required areas. Within the required areas, the Human Diversity requirement is something that we are especially proud of and see great value in. Further, there is ready access to research, a focus on hands-on learning, as well as a purpose-driven, problem-solving culture.