Core IMPACTS at USG
Every student in the University System of Georgia engages in a General Education curriculum – Core IMPACTS – that provides a solid foundation for life, learning, and careers, and helps you build momentum to fulfill your academic, personal, and professional aspirations. Core IMPACTS introduces the different ways we have of knowing the world and connects you to the big questions that drive your future and provide the essential skills needed to succeed. The IMPACTS Core is structured across seven areas: Institutional Priority; Mathematics and Quantitative Skills; Political Science and U.S. History; Arts, Humanities and Ethics; Communicating in Writing; Technology, Mathematics and Sciences; Social Sciences.
The Core IMPACTS you!
Students have often thought of General Education as a set of “boxes to check”, but Core IMPACTS is not a random collection of courses to “get out of the way.” Each one provides a key part of your intellectual, academic, personal, and professional growth. Together, Core IMPACTS provides a comprehensive grounding, fostering adaptability and resilience in your academic journey, while shaping you into an engaged and effective citizen and leader.
In all, you will take 42 credit hours (or about 13 – 14 courses, depending on your school) in Core IMPACTS, with flexibility in course choices based on your interests, course of study, and program recommendations. Core IMPACTS courses are transferable among USG institutions, giving you options to find the best fit.
The Core IMPACTS your pathway to a degree!
Core IMPACTS includes learning experiences from a diverse range of discipline areas – Mathematics, Citizenship, Arts and Humanities, Written Communication, Technology and Science, and Social Sciences. Your Core Impacts courses should each provide an introduction to the tools and techniques these fields use to know and make sense of the world. These courses are built to invite you to build on what you know, stretch in new directions, and dig into big questions.
Each Core IMPACTS concentration includes an “orienting question.” These questions serve as an introduction to the content within each Core IMPACTS to spark your curiosity. As you progress toward your degree, the skills and knowledge gained in these early courses provide essential tools of inquiry you will call on time and time again.
Finally, courses in Core IMPACTS establish a solid foundation of knowledge, skills and competencies needed for later academic success and lifelong learning. Your Core IMPACTS courses provide opportunities to work with faculty and students outside your chosen major and to learn from these diverse perspectives. Understanding how other fields understand the world and how they may have different approaches to the same problems is critical to developing diverse and integrated approaches to the complex challenges you will face in the future.
The Core IMPACTS your future!
Core IMPACTS courses focus on developing skills and competencies crucial to your post-college success. Each Core IMPACTS course you take will include embedded Career-Ready Competencies – things like critical thinking, inquiry and analysis, persuasion, teamwork and problem solving – that help you build essential skills that are highly valued in the workforce and in central to being prepared to lead in a complex, interconnected and changing world.
The University System of Georgia is committed to preparing global citizens and lifelong learners who are equipped with the skills necessary for self-directed and collaborative learning, the curiosity to seek answers to big questions, and the mindset to persist and thrive. Core IMPACTS serves as the foundation of this work.