Each student must complete all three of the following: (1) General requirements for the bachelor’s degree, described below; (2) Requirements for one major, found in the Undergraduate Course Descriptions section, or an Independent Major found under Academic Rules for Student-Designed Coursework in the following section; (3) Electives to complete the 120 semester hours required for the degree, chosen from all courses offered, within the limits stated below.
Required Credit Hours and Grade Point Average
The following are the requirements for all bachelor’s degrees:
- A minimum of 120 semester hours
- A maximum of 7 semester hours in physical education and a maximum of 15 semester hours in internships
- A maximum of 6 semester hours of graduate-level coursework (unless admitted into a joint bachelor’s-master’s program, in which case additional credits are allowed, and additional charges will apply)
- Cumulative, un-rounded GPA of at least 2.0 overall
- Cumulative, un-rounded GPA of at least 2.0 in the major(s)
- A minimum of 18 semester hours in the major, including the senior project, taken at Mary Baldwin University
- A minimum of 36 total semester hours taken at MBU.
Program Evaluation
Students are required to participate in official activities designed to assess the effectiveness of the academic program as a condition for graduation. These activities are required by government and accrediting organizations.
Common Curriculum Requirements
All students must complete the Common Curriculum requirements. See the Courses section of this catalog to identify courses that meet these requirements.
Note: The following Common Curriculum Requirements apply to all matriculants beginning in fall 2025 and replace the previous General Education requirements. Students who matriculated prior to fall 2025 should consult their advisors and refer to archived catalogs that outline the previous general education requirements.
The Common Curriculum at Mary Baldwin University introduces first and second-year students to both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary fields of knowledge to build synthetic competencies of critical, creative, and reflective reasoning. Deliberately scaffolded and intentionally latticed, the Common Curriculum presents a sequenced set of courses designed to lead students from introductory comprehension to more sophisticated modes of application and analysis.
Common Curriculum Requirements:
- Communities (COMM)
- Composition (COMP)
- Creativity (CREA)
- Data and Statistics (DATA)
- Decisions (DECI)
- Discovery (DISC)
- Environments (ENVI)
- Identities (IDEN)
- Narratives (NARR)
- Voyages (VOYA)
Students must complete at least 3 credit hours from each category above for a minimum 30 hours. Please see below for more information regarding each category. No more than four courses may double count between the Common Curriculum and the major.
The Associate of Arts (A.A.) or Associate of Science (A.S.) or Associate of Arts and Sciences (A.A.S) or Associate of Applied Science in Nursing (A.A.S. in Nursing) or Associate Degree in Nursing (A.D.N.) or Associate of Applied Science in Human Services (A.A.S. in Human Services) degree is accepted in fulfillment of all Common Curriculum requirements listed above. In addition, the following previously conferred bachelor’s degrees are also accepted in fulfillment of all general education requirements listed above: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.), or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.). These degrees must be earned at a regionally accredited institution in order to be eligible. Students are required to provide official transcripts indicating the degree conferral of one of the approved degrees in order to be exempt from the Mary Baldwin University Common Curriculum Requirements.
Note: Common Curriculum courses may also count toward majors, minors, or certificates, when appropriate. For more information on rules and applicable courses, see the MBU website or contact your advisor, or the Office of the University Registrar.
Additional coursework required by all undergraduate majors at Mary Baldwin University
Students will demonstrate mastery of subject matter, communication abilities, and the accumulation of critical, creative, and reflective reasoning skills through the completion of a research project in an R course designated by their major. They will demonstrate the ability to turn knowledge into practice by completing a research project in their major or an internship, practicum, or field work experience designated as an M course.
- Research (R) courses build on skills developed in the Common Curriculum by refining the ability of students to locate, critically evaluate, and use information effectively. Research courses progressively teach the research process, beginning with the location and evaluation of sources, followed by the critical evaluation of information and development of research ideas, and culminating in the synthesis of these ideas into a final research project. Students will receive guidance from the instructor (and college librarians, where appropriate) throughout the research process and will receive feedback on each stage of the process.
- Major Project (M): Students address an authentic problem in their major using techniques, theory, and evidence appropriate to their field of study OR they apply the knowledge and skills learned in their major courses to a departmentally-approved internship, practicum or field work experience.