As part of the Foundational Study requirement, all students must take courses in a broad range of subjects. At St. Mary’s College, we think of this as your Core Knowledge and Methods.

Core Knowledge and Methods courses expose you to a range of subjects and methodologies. They make sure that all St. Mary’s College students develop their skills of interpretation, expression, and evaluation– that is, they help you to be good critical thinkers and good communicators. They invite students to consider the many ways through which we come to know about the world– and the impact such knowledge has had on our past, and will have on our future.

Students can fulfill Core Knowledge and Methods requirements two ways: by completing Core Exploration or a Core Inquiry.

Core Exploration— or CoreEX as we like to call it– requires you to take six courses, one from each of the following areas: Arts, Cultural Literacy, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. To see what courses count in each of these areas, visit our current catalog.

Core Inquiries take an integrated approach to these same Core Knowledge and Methods learning goals. Students take four to five courses united by their relevance to a particular topic or theme. Current Core Inquires (CoreINQ for short) include topics such as Public and Environmental Health, Climate, and Justice. See a list of our current Core Inquiry offerings ».