General Studies (A.A.)

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60 Credit Hours Required

This program advances participants’ general knowledge beyond high school and meets general education requirements for a baccalaureate degree at any South Dakota public university. Students will also complete 36 credit hours in elective courses.

Students intending to seek a bachelor’s degree after earning an associate degree are encouraged to choose electives that will fulfill bachelor’s degree, major, and/ or minor requirements.

System General Education Requirements (24 hours)

Composition 6cr SGR #1
Oral Communication 3cr SGR #2
Social Sciences 6cr (must be in 2 disciplines/prefixes) SGR #3
Arts and Humanities 3cr (select from either Fine Arts or Humanities courses) SGR #4
Mathematics 3cr SGR #5
Natural Sciences 3cr SGR #6

For a list of courses meeting these requirements, please consult the Degree Requirements page of this catalog.

*Students planning to pursue a bachelor’s degree are strongly encouraged to take another course from SGR #6 and a course from fine arts or humanities not selected for SGR #4.

Electives (36 hours)

Students intending to seek a bachelor’s degree after earning an associate’s degree are encouraged to choose electives that will fulfill bachelor’s degree, major, and/or minor requirements.

Students pursuing the General Studies (A.A.) at the Community College for Sioux Falls (CCSF)

It is recommended that students work with their advisor to consider an Emphasis/Exploratory Track and/or a Certificate to complete their 36 credits of electives to build a pathway.

Center for Advising and Student Engagement
Community College for Sioux Falls campus, FADM 205
4801 N. Career Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD 57107
Phone: (605) 274-9500
Email: ccsiouxfalls@usd.edu

The following certificates may be used towards electives at CCSF:

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will intentionally engage with diversity in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions leading to opportunities for equal access to participation in educational and community programs for all members of society.
Students will be able to systematically explore issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments, and break down complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them.
Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, and combine or synthesize existing ideas, images or expertise in original ways reflecting a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
Students will recognize when there is a need for information and identify, locate, evaluate and effectively and responsibly use and convey that information to address the need or problem at hand.
Students will design, evaluate, and implement a strategy to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.

State Authorization - It Matters Where You Live

If your learning placement course (internship, externship, clinical, rotation, practicum, independent study, study away, etc.) or your online course will be taken outside South Dakota, please reference the State Authorization webpage.

State Authorization