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Curriculum & Graduation Requirements

All students must complete at least 30 regular courses and two January-term courses in order to graduate from Luther. There are about as many paths to accomplish this as there are students at Luther, but everyone must cover certain territory.

Common Ground
As in all things, a strong foundation is crucial to making the most of your education. To ensure all students have a solid start, Luther requires four common foundational courses:

  • Foreign Language (usually 1 or 2 courses)
  • Religion (2 courses, one of which must be in biblical studies)
  • Wellness (2 1-credit courses)

Fields of Inquiry
In addition to a focused area of study (your major, which usually requires 8-10 courses), Luther requires all students to take courses in three general fields of inquiry:

  • The Natural World (2 courses, at least one of which is lab-based)
  • Human Behavior (2 courses, at least one of which uses social science methods of observation, comparison, modeling, or hypothesis testing)
  • Human Expression (2 courses, at least one of which involves substantive study of primary texts, oral, written, or visual)

Integrative Understanding
Before graduating, students are required to bring together all they have learned in two culminating experiences:

  • Senior Project (1 course, a scholarly study or an artistic work/performance in the students major discipline)
  • Paideia II (1 course, devoted to the interdisciplinary study of an ethical question)

Perspectives and Skills
Luther students will develop the perspectives and skills they need in their lives as citizens and professionals equipped for distinguished service.

  • Intercultural (one course, often satisfied within other requirements)
  • Historical (one course, often satisfied within other requirements)
  • Quantitative (one course, sometimes satisfied within other requirements)
  • Ethical (satisfied within the major and Paideia II)
  • Writing (satisfied within Paideia I, the major, and Paideia II)
  • Speaking and Public Presentation (satisfied within the first-year January seminar, the major, and the senior project)
  • Research (satisfied within Paideia I, the major, and senior project)