Students admitted to UB in Fall 2023 or later should visit the new pathways requirements here.
Take ownership of your education by choosing topics of interest to you and applying them to your major or using them as a platform to explore another field of study.
Pathways are a central component of the UB Curriculum. Students are required to complete both a Global and Thematic pathway. Each pathway requires a minimum of nine credit hours, typically satisfied by completing three courses of three or more credit hours.
The university provides a Path Finder Tool, a planning tool to aid in the selection of your pathway courses. This page provides additional resources to help guide engineering and computer science students with respect to course selection. If you have any issues using the tools provided below or need assistance, contact the SEAS Office of Undergraduate Education to meet with an academic advisor.
Learn how to use the UB Pathfinder tool in this instructional video.
Pathways are typically satisfied by completing three 3 credit hour courses, with the first selected from a “List 1”, the second selected from a “List 2”, and the third selected from a “List 3.” Students who select an introductory foreign language sequence for the Global pathway will complete two 5 credit hour courses.
A typical engineering or computer science student will need to satisfy the following requirements via the pathways:
Engineering majors are advised to select the following courses as “List 3,” as they are also major requirements:
Computer Science BS and BA majors should select CSE 442 as “List 3” in Thematic, and any class as “List 3” in Global that does not have prerequisites.
Selecting pathways that contain courses within the major requirements allows a student to connect ideas from their major with the UB Curriculum and allows a student to move through the pathways most expeditiously.
We recommend that engineering and computer science students select pathway courses as follows:
Students coming in with transfer courses that can be identified with any of the five UB Areas have the flexibility to use their courses in many List 1 and List 2 sections. Specific details can be found under each List by logging into the Pathfinder Tool.
Students coming in with AP or exam credit can use a course if it is identified within a specific List. Students can use the UB Areas and Diversity Learning by Course Table below to determine if their courses are part of a Pathway Topic or List. They can also use the Course Filter tab in the Pathfinder Tool.
Below are a series of tools to help SEAS students find courses in UB pathways. Explore pathways...
The following table provides the number of courses with a given departmental abbreviation that serve as List 3 courses. By selecting a pathway that aligns with a departmental abbreviation it is likely that a student will complete a List 3 course by following the standard program of study for the major. However, in some cases, a List 3 course may need to be selected as an elective within the major.
When clicking on a green cell, the collection of List 3 courses with a given departmental abbreviation will be displayed. The pathway description is provided when clicking on a pathway title.
| Pathway | Type | BE | CE | CIE | CSE | EE | ENS | IE | MAE | MDI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -Global Cultures and Expression | Global | |||||||||
| -Global Economies and Organizations | Global | |||||||||
| -Global Politics and Power | Global | |||||||||
| Communities, Populations and Spaces | Thematic | |||||||||
| Conflict, Violence and Resolution | Thematic | |||||||||
| Cultures, Art and Imagination | Thematic | |||||||||
| Economy, Business and Society | Thematic | |||||||||
| Environments, Technologies and Policy | Thematic | |||||||||
| Equality, Power and Justice | Thematic | |||||||||
| Health, Sexuality and Society | Thematic | |||||||||
| Human Nature | Thematic |
If you have any issues using pathways tools or need assistance, please contact the SEAS Office of Undergraduate Education to meet with an academic advisor.