{"id":50610,"date":"2026-01-12T14:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/?page_id=50610"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:17:18","slug":"why-cgs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/about\/why-cgs\/","title":{"rendered":"Why CGS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston University\u2019s College of General Studies (CGS) is a two-year core-curriculum general education program that is part of a four-year degree at Boston University. It\u2019s a nationally renowned program that has provided leadership in general education for more than 70 years.<\/p>\n

At CGS, you get to experience the best of both worlds: a balance between a small, private liberal arts college, and a large, urban research university. You\u2019ll also get the opportunity to pursue your passions during your gap semester, explore London in a study abroad program the summer after your first year, and participate in groundbreaking real-world research.<\/p>\n

Here are the top 10 reasons why CGS may be right for you.<\/p>\n

A launchpad while at BU<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Boston University\u2019s College of General Studies is a launchpad for the intellectually curious, offering a distinctive, interdisciplinary curriculum that connects the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n

While CGS follows its own curriculum with its own set of required courses each semester, you’ll have room in your schedule to work towards your major and pursue electives at the same time. This sets you up for a seamless continuation into the college of your choice, while mastering key skills like critical thinking, persuasive writing, data analysis, and teamwork in CGS’s foundational liberal arts curriculum. Your CGS Academic Advisor will work with you to launch you towards the degree of your choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Opportunity to study abroad in your first year of college<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"As a CGS student, you’ll have the unique opportunity to study abroad in your first year. After spending the spring semester in Boston, the vast majority of CGS students seize the opportunity to spend their summer abroad in London, exploring the city’s history and culture while continuing their CGS curriculum. Students who prefer not to go to London can complete their summer study in Boston.<\/span> Both summer options are full of enriching activities and field trips with faculty that are embedded into the curriculum\u2014including historic sites, museums, and general notable landmarks in the area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Outstanding undergraduate research and internship opportunities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

CGS offers you the opportunity to work on paid undergraduate research and professional internships, one-on-one with faculty members in every discipline. This is a great resume-building opportunity for you early in your college career, as well as a way for you to get to know faculty members and explore different fields of study in which you may be interested.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Excellent, professional, full-time advisors to guide students<\/strong><\/h3>\n

CGS is equipped with a full team of professional advisors with master’s degrees in areas like counseling, social work, higher education administration, and related concentrations. While other institutions may have faculty serving as advisors as well as teaching, our unique approach to academic advising ensures that you receive our advisors\u2019 undivided attention and guidance. Your academic advisor will help you navigate the processes of picking the right courses in the right order, discerning a major, thinking about career paths, and adequately drawing from the countless resources that Boston University has to offer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Outstanding, full-time Ph.D. faculty<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our faculty works full-time\u2014no TAs, part-time assistants, or graders. Each professor offers lectures, teaches discussion sections, holds office hours, and grades all assignments and exams. This makes for a seamless learning experience\u2014if a student is having trouble with course material, there is one place to go. In addition, we are fully equipped with a faculty that loves to teach. They are active researchers, with published works on subjects ranging from Victorian literature, to quantum physics, to Boston\u2019s very own Red Sox baseball team.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We don\u2019t just say we\u2019re doing a good job\u2014we assess what we do<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We are national leaders in assessing higher education effectiveness, having presented at multiple international and national conferences and published on the subject. To measure our effectiveness, we have composed a rubric listing outcomes areas that we hope students develop in their two years with us. <\/span>Our e-Portfolio tool helps us track and analyze student progress over their four semesters at CGS, with students uploading their work for every course during each semester. This allows our trained faculty to assess students\u2019 work, and determine their level of mastery for each of those learning outcome areas, for each course, each semester that they are with us. <\/span><\/p>\n

After about 10 years of working with this analytical process, we have found that our students are making three to four times the amount of progress in their first two years of college compared to multiple other national studies assessing tens of thousands of students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Team system helps students form friendships and study groups<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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CGS breaks its student body down into teams of 75-80 students per team, who share the same faculty over the first two semesters\u2014in Boston, and London. <\/span>The socially-cohesive team system is effective in fostering close relationships between students. Students get to know each other and their professors well, and having cohorts of students under the same faculty encourages them to form study groups and work together to prepare for exams and presentations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This system enhances learning, ensuring that students learn the material in a holistic, interdisciplinary way. Professors on each team often work in tandem with one another, allowing students to make connections across the different courses in the curriculum. It prioritizes closer connections among students and their faculty, which in turn helps them obtain better letters of recommendation. The team system also makes it possible to hold an interdisciplinary Capstone project, which marks the culmination of the College of General Studies program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gap semester presents a world of opportunities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve noticed that students tend to finish their senior year of high school exhausted, burnt out, and in need of a break. Our fall gap semester allows students to take that much-needed break and use it to do whatever they like\u2014work a full-time job, get an internship, travel, explore new hobbies, volunteer, or pursue their passions. Students come back in the spring refreshed, ready, and excited to learn. There are no limits to where the gap semester may take you as a CGS student!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Network of more than 35,000 alumni in all industries and sectors<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our network of more than 35,000 alumni across all industries and sectors reflects a fierce loyalty to CGS, with a desire to reach out and help students. This is a great networking opportunity and presents countless opportunities for students as they pursue internships and other career opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stimulating, interdisciplinary curriculum that encourages connection among courses<\/strong><\/h3>\n

CGS offers a stimulating, interdisciplinary curriculum that encourages faculty and students to make connections among their courses. It addresses the question: \u201cWhat should an educated adult know and be able to do?\u201d Our curriculum hones the skills that employers are most looking for, culminating in a group-written, interdisciplinary, problem-solving Capstone project. And, last but not least, CGS fulfills most of BU\u2019s HUB general education requirements\u2014each CGS course is approved for three HUB areas each, meaning that all students have essentially completed all of their HUB requirements upon completion of CGS, only needing to fulfill a few others within their major in their last two years of college.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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At CGS, we believe that education isn\u2019t just about checking off requirements and making a living, but it\u2019s about making a life<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston University\u2019s College of General Studies (CGS) is a two-year core-curriculum general education program that is part of a four-year degree at Boston University. It\u2019s a nationally renowned program that has provided leadership in general education for more than 70 years. At CGS, you get to experience the best of both worlds: a balance between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25247,"featured_media":0,"parent":36782,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50610"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50653,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50610\/revisions\/50653"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}