Core Curriculum
Beginning in fall 2024, Merrimack students can pursue a five-course minor or three-course certificate as part of their core curriculum requirements. Students can tailor their studies to their interests and major while gaining essential modern-world skills.
Merrimack College’s new core curriculum strays from the traditional core curriculum approach, allowing students to tailor their studies to their interests and earn a certificate or minor, adding an additional credential to your degree at no additional cost.
The new core integrates the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, departing from traditional core curricula. This experience equips students with essential skills and knowledge such as critical thinking, scientific literacy and creative expression.
Rooted in Merrimack’s Catholic and Augustinian heritage, the curriculum places a strong emphasis on critical inquiry and social responsibility. It encourages students to apply these values in their academic, social, and personal lives, promoting a lifelong commitment to learning.
By providing a broad foundation in key approaches, perspectives and skills, Merrimack’s new core curriculum stands out in two fundamental ways:
- Earn an additional credential: As part of the core curriculum, students will earn a minor or certificate, with over fifty options to choose from, ranging from chemistry to Catholic studies and from cybersecurity to communication, culture and society. This built-in credential offers added student choice and creates greater coherence in courses outside the major field of study.
- Share a common first-year experience: The “First Year Seminar: Who Am I?” embodies Merrimack’s Augustinian values and commitment to community. It fosters self-reflection, personal growth, and essential skills for success, laying a foundation for understanding oneself and engaging with the world. This seminar sets the stage for ongoing development throughout the undergraduate journey.
““We know a lot of students are interested in adding minors and other credentials to their college experience. With the new core curriculum, we are enhancing students’ ability to develop their own path that emphasizes the skills central to a baccalaureate experience.””
Benefits
- Students will have a greater amount of flexibility and choice.
- Students can easily pursue more than 50 core minors and more than 20 certificates.
- Students will have built-in flexibility to more easily turn their minor into a second major.
- Students will work with the Academic Success Center and their school-based student advising centers to design their course schedules to both fulfill their core curriculum requirements while also tapping into an exciting package of credentials to make them stand out in the working world.
