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Loyola Core

Students walking through Palm Court

The foundation of your experience.

A Loyola education is about learning to understand the world as it is, so that we can work to make it better. It focuses on the values that shape our lives, so that we can free ourselves from prejudice and unexamined views. It inspires us to act and reflect critically on our actions, as we seek the creation of a more just world.

The Loyola Core is the foundation of our holistic curriculum, deeply grounded in Jesuit values and the liberal arts and sciences. It’s designed to build students of competence, conscience, and compassion—so that you’ll graduate with a comprehensive knowledge of your discipline, while also learning to think critically, exercise self-awareness, and commit to a life of learning and service.

The goal of the Loyola Core is to foster your competency in five key areas:

  • Critical thinking
  • Effective communication
  • Quantitative reasoning
  • Information literacy
  • Ethical reasoning

Be you, be true, be whole.

The Loyola Core embraces an interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on the spiritual and intellectual, the moral and ethical, as well as the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. These elements are central to educating you as a whole person, and they're integral to sustaining our learning community, with a goal of serving the greater New Orleans community and the world. The Core is the very root of our Jesuit education, and our promise to develop our students as scholars, so you can go on and change the world.

Loyola Core Overview 

The Loyola Core involves at least 42 credit hours in 14 requirement areas that satisfy specific areas of study to provide the basis of the liberal arts undergraduate education founded in the nearly 500 year old Jesuit tradition of educating the whole person. One requirement serves as an introductory course to each student's major academic program. In terms of curricular design, this means Loyola Core completion requires 13 courses (at least 39 credit hours) within the Loyola Core, and 1 course (at least 3 credit hours) assigned by each program to the major. Some majors do require 4 credit hour Mathematics courses or Natural Science courses with 1 credit hour lab requirements that slightly increase the number of Loyola Core credit hours.  

First-Year Seminar

The Loyola experience starts on day one. The first day of the first semester, actually. All first-year students will take a First-Year Seminar course designed to prepare students for college-level thinking and learning, with an emphasis on examining our Jesuit values as they apply to the real world. Check out some of the courses we typically offer on our First-Year Seminar page. 

Loyola Core Badges 

Loyola Core badge pathways connect the Core curriculum around cohesive and relevant themes inspired by Loyola's Jesuit values. Students can earn shareable and verifiable badges that will appear on their transcripts and can be shared within professional networks. Learn more about the Loyola Core badge program. 

Students can enroll in any of the following Loyola Core badge pathways:

  • Global Ethical Leadership
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Health & Well-Being
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Media & Culture
  • Civic and Social Responsibility 
  • Peace, Justice, and Conflict Resolution

The Common Curriculum

For students who began their undergraduate academic program at between fall 2013 and spring 2016, the Common Curriculum serves as the foundation of a Loyola education. While the same mission and purpose remain, the structure of this curriculum depends more on each student's major program. If you're still taking Common Curriculum requirements, consult your advisors if you have any questions about the different requirements between the Loyola Core and the Common Curriculum.