Two students at a table in a classroom laughing.

Core Curriculum

Launching in fall 2027, the new 40-unit core curriculum connects your learning across disciplines, experiences, and perspectives. You’ll explore big questions, discover subjects beyond your major, and apply what you learn to real-world challenges. Along the way, you’ll develop the knowledge and skills to think critically, communicate effectively, and make a difference in the world around you.

Enter your journey through the Golden Gateway

Start with big questions.

Your first year begins with Golden Gateway, a three-course experience that introduces you to the ways you'll learn at USF. Explore questions about what it means to live a meaningful life, use San Francisco as a classroom, and develop communication skills that help you connect with others and contribute to the common good.

Professor teaching in a room to students

Enduring Questions

Explore questions that have challenged people across cultures and generations. Consider different ways of understanding the world while developing your own perspective.

Three students sit with arms around each other in front of bow and arrow sculpture downtown.

City as Classroom

Take your learning beyond campus. Engage with San Francisco’s communities, organizations, histories, and challenges as you connect your studies to the city around you.

Students chat on a downtown street

Communication for the Common Good

Learn to communicate with purpose. Develop your ability to listen, write, speak, and engage with others across differences.

Bridge to Exploration

Discover New Ways of Thinking

Explore ideas and perspectives beyond your major through six areas of study. Choose courses that expand how you understand people, cultures, society, and the world — while discovering connections across disciplines.

student creating a drawing

Creative Expressions

Discover how art, literature, music, performance, and other forms of creative expression help us understand ourselves and the world.

two student walk in front of a mural in SF's mission district

Historical and Cultural Inquiry

Explore the past and diverse cultures to understand how people, ideas, and events continue to shape the world today.

Two students talk while sitting on a wall at Lo Schiavo Science.

Theological and Ethical Inquiry

Ask questions about meaning, values, and responsibility while considering religious, philosophical, and ethical perspectives.

Students conducting field research

Scientific Literacy

Use scientific inquiry to investigate the natural world, evaluate evidence, and better understand the questions that affect our lives.

Student points to computations on a white board

Quantitative and Computational Literacy

Use data, mathematical reasoning, and computational thinking to recognize patterns, solve problems, and make informed decisions.

USF student in Japantown

Global and Local Society

Investigate the social, political, and economic forces that shape communities and connect people across societies and cultures.

Applied Problem Solving

Put What You’ve Learned to Work

Bring together what you’ve learned across the Core and your major in a culminating, interdisciplinary seminar. Work with students from different fields to investigate a complex real-world problem, develop possible solutions, and put your ideas into action.

Two students presenting at a competition

Take Your Learning With You

The questions you encounter in the Core won’t end when a course does. They’ll shape how you approach your major, your career, and the choices you make beyond USF. The goal is an education you can draw on wherever you go — to keep learning, create meaningful change, and contribute to the communities you’re part of.