Core Curriculum

In addition to the liberal education requirements, WPU offers courses meant to prepare you to succeed in both your professional and personal lives.

WPU’s Core Curriculum includes courses in Empirical Reasoning, Ethical Reasoning, Writing, Professional Readiness, and Critical Thinking about Culture and Society.

Every year, WPU students showcase their research, projects, and performances for the campus community, culminating in a unique and rich academic experience

Core Curriculum Break Down

  • Empirical Reasoning
    You will learn the methods for gathering, analyzing and interpreting data. With this data there is a special emphasis on the validity of your findings through a required course in Statistics, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.
  • Ethical Reasoning
    Through the First Year Experience and the Interdisciplinary Ethics Seminar courses, students will examine current and historical ethical topics while examining your own value systems as ethical criteria. Learn how to identify the values and priorities that underline specific ethical problems and apply ethical standards to contemporary debates.
  • Four Semesters of Writing
    Writing as a communication, is a vastly important skill for students both during and after college. During your time at WPU, you will take four semesters of writing courses taught by English faculty. You will learn how to formulate an argument, by first, finding, then evaluating, and providing appropriate sources. You will then craft your argument through editing and revising and by preparing your supporting evidence, all while tailoring your argument to your audience and occasion.
  • Critical Thinking About Culture and Society
    A required religion course in addition to a series of five courses designed to identify the ways in which human cultures produce values, customs and social identities through evaluating cultural expressions in regional, historical and global contexts.
  • Professional Readiness
    A series of classes focusing on career and professional development and an academic internship related to your major. You will learn how to compose and deliver an effective speech. You will learn how to overcome the nervousness or ‘stage fright’ that everyone experiences and practice verbal and non-verbal techniques that will help you deliver the message in any situation. Through the Professional Development Seminar, you will learn how to construct a resume, build a portfolio, interview for a job, or apply for graduate school. The series culminates with an internship requirement that will combine your education with job experience.