Common Core
The King’s College academic programs are built on a Common Core of courses. They are “common” because all students take these courses, and they are “core” because they are the intellectual center of all our other programs. Most colleges and universities in the United States have a small number of such courses that all students must take. For example, students are typically required to take a freshman English course that focuses on writing. The King’s College differs in both the number of required courses (a lot more than most colleges), in the spacing of these required courses (over the full four years of the program), and in the importance of the courses to the overall program (very high).

The Common Core consists of twenty courses in a particular sequence. Students are required to take the first ten of these courses during the freshman year. During the sophomore year, students take seven more courses in the Common Core. Two more courses occur in the junior year, and the last Common Core course occurs in the final semester of the senior year. Altogether, the Common Core accounts for half the courses a student needs to graduate from King’s.

Why this extraordinary number of required courses? The King’s College was created to prepare students for a particular kind of cultural, political, and economic leadership. We believe that students who aspire to change the key institutions of society for the better need to know the best ideas, the most important arguments, and the most influential traditions. We also believe that such students need to achieve excellence in the written and the spoken word. The Common Core is a classical answer to theses challenges: it recognizes that some subjects are more fundamental than others; that subjects are best learned in a specific sequence; and that truly advanced courses must be built on secure foundations.

*These courses are offered in both the Fall and the Spring semesters. Students may take them in either term.
** Courses in bold (POL 110 and ENG 120) must be taken at King's.  No transfer credit accepted.

While the Bachelor of Arts program in Politics, Philosophy and Economics may be started at the beginning of any semester, students should be aware that not all courses will be offered each semester.

While completing this course of study, the following requirements must be met:

1. No fewer than 60 of the semester hours of coursework must be earned at The King’s College, and these 60 hours of credit must include at least 48 semester hours within the PPE program.
2. The successful candidate for this degree must have a cumulative GPA of 2.00 in all work completed at The King’s College. In addition, all students must maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA in the courses that are a part of the Common Core. In order to graduate, students must achieve a minimum 2.7 cumulative GPA (B-) in all courses specific to their major. They must also earn a grade of C or higher in each course taken in their major.
3. The successful candidate for the BA Degree must obtain a grade of C or higher in MAT 140 Mathematical Ideas and Practice or MAT 150 Calculus I with Pre-Calculus.
4. To progress beyond the freshman year, the student must obtain a grade of C or higher in both ENG-110 College Writing I and ENG-120 College Writing II.
5. The successful candidate must satisfactorily complete all the requirements for the Interregnum.
6. The successful candidate for the BA degree must obtain approval for graduation from the Office of the Registrar and upon vote of the faculty.