Cornell, Urban Planning, 2007-2008

Credential Requirements: Urban and Regional Studies
DegreeData Program Summary

Year 2007-1010
Award: BA
Total credits: 120
Outcomes statement rank: 3 (on 1 to 5 scale where 5 is explicit workforce outcomes statement)
Highest level of math:

  • ECON 101 Microeconomics (fall or spring, 3 credits)
  • Statistics: One course from a list of statistics courses (fall or spring, 3 credits)

Foregin Language: 3 courses or proficiency
Sponsoring Division: College of Arts and Sciences, City and Regional Planning Dept.
Source Document: Cornell Catalog of Record, 2007


Official Graduation Requirements

The Program in Urban and Regional Studies (URS) is a four-year academic program aimed at assessing the problems of human communities and regions. Students who graduate from the program receive a bachelor of science degree. The program provides both an excellent liberal arts education and a strong concentration of studies respecting urban and regional issues. The urban and regional studies courses in the program provide students with a broad understanding of relevant issues, the ability to assess those issues, and technical analysis skills. The URS Program is truly interdisciplinary. Students learn to evaluate urban and regional problems by using a wide range of analytic tools and disciplinary perspective

Basic Degree Requirements for students in the graduating classes of 2007-2009

URS requirements for graduation include

(a)    eight semesters of residence;

(b)    120 credits;

(c)    General Education Requirements consisting of writing seminars, qualification in one foreign language, and a series of distribution requirements;

(d)    required courses for the major;

(e)    area requirements for the major;

(f)     free electives;

(g)    a minimum of 34 courses; and

(h)    completion of the university requirement of two 1-credit nonacademic courses in physical education.

Note: Physical education credit does not count toward graduation or toward the 12- credit minimum required for good academic standing each semester. No course may satisfy more than one requirement.More specifically these requirements include:

General Education

  1. First-year writing seminars-, two courses. Students earning a score of 5 on both English literature and English language exams will receive 3 credits (in out-of- college electives) and place out of one first-year writing seminar.
  2. Foreign language, three courses or qualification in one foreign languagec.

Distribution Requirements: nine courses.

Students must take a total of nine courses for the distribution requirement: four courses (of 3 or more credits each) from Groups 1 and 2 specified below, at least two of which are from Group 1, and at least one of which is from Group 2; five courses from Groups 3 and 4 specified below, with at least two in each group and two in the same department. No single course may satisfy more than one distribution requirement. URS students must follow previously established College of Arts and Sciences guidelines specifying courses that meet the requirements for groups 1-4.

Group 1: Physical and biological sciences (two to three courses required)

Group 2: Quantitative and formal reasoning (one to two courses required)

Group 3: Social sciences and history (two to three courses required)

Group 4: Humanities and the arts (two to three courses required)

URS students will be provided a complete listing of courses in Groups 1 through 4 based on requirements previously established for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Note:

The Arts and Science distribution requirement was changed for entering freshmen in the class of 2007. Rather than selecting courses from Groups 3 and 4, Arts and Sciences students are required to complete five courses in at least four of the following five categories:

  1. Cultural Analysis (CA);
  2. Historical Analysis (HA);
  3. Knowledge, Cognition, and Moral Reasoning (KCM);
  4. Literature and the Arts (LA);
  5. and Social and Behavioral Analysis (SBA).

Social science and humanities courses are marked individually by category, and any given department may offer courses that fall into distinct categories. URS students are encouraged to select their Group 3 andGroup 4 courses from four of these five categories.URS students may not apply college credit earned before entering Cornell as a freshman to satisfy any distribution course requirement. However, they may petition to have that credit counted toward the 120 total credits required for graduation.

Required Courses for the Major: seven courses

  • CRP 100 The American City (fall, 3 credits)
  • CRP 101 The Global City: People, Production, and Planning in the Third World (spring, 3 credits)CRP 106 URS First-Year Seminar (spring, 1 credit)
  • CRP 200 The Promise and Pitfalls of Contemporary Planning (fall, 3 credits)CRP 201 People, Planning and Politics in the City (spring, 3 credits)
  • ECON 101 Microeconomics (fall or spring, 3 credits)
  • Statistics: One course from a list of statistics courses (fall or spring, 3 credits)

Area Requirements: six CRP courses

  1. Design and Land Use (one course from designated list of courses)
  2. Urban History, Society, and Politics (one course from designated list of courses)
  3. Environment (one course from designated list of courses)
  4. Regional Development and Globalization (one course from designated list of courses)
  5. Methods for Planning and Urban Studies (one course in Qualitative/Field Methods from designated list of courses).
  6. Methods for Planning and Urban Studies (one course in Quantitative Methods from designated lists of courses).

URS students will be provided a complete listing of courses in Groups 1 through 4 based on requirements previously established for the College of Arts and Sciences.