Liberal Arts and Sciences

Program Requirements

Our Mission

The Liberal Arts and Sciences are the nexus of all education, providing us with the tools to understand the past, negotiate the present, and create the future. Without them we are lost; with them, we can reimagine anything.

Program Learning Outcomes:

Otis College's Liberal Arts and Science Program Learning Outcomes are action words describing our approach to learning, and what we commit to our students.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Students Will...

Liberal Arts and Sciences student work will demonstrate:

  • Disciplinary Knowledge and Skills:
    Ability, knowledge, and analytical skills to critically examine established beliefs and practices, formulate well-reasoned questions, propose alternative perspectives, and explore speculative possibilities
  • Cross-Disciplinary Awareness and Practice:
    Forge interdisciplinary connections among the liberal arts and sciences, studio, and community
  • Audience-Focused Research, Historical Context, and Field-Specific Discourse:
    Research skills to develop the capacity to conduct independent and original research, to acknowledge diverse points of view, and to contextualize their work within historical and contemporary frameworks

Liberal Arts and Sciences student work will demonstrate:

  • Innovation
    An exploration of unfamiliar intellectual and creative spaces and ideas
  • Experimentation and play
    Discovery of their capacity to embrace and integrate academic skills and rigor to support their creative practice
  • Challenge to the status quo
    How they challenge themselves to be flexible thinkers unbound by their own status quo beliefs

Liberal Arts and Sciences student work will demonstrate:

  • Capacity to Communicate (Orally, Written, and/or Visually) About Their Practice:
    Capacity to communicate self-awareness ethically and aesthetically through oral, written, and/or visual mediums
  • Capacity to Seek, Assemble, Evaluate, and Ethically Apply Information and Ideas from Diverse Sources:
    Capacity to seek, assemble, evaluate, and ethically apply information and ideas from diverse sources, including scholarly sources, personal interviews, and fieldwork

Liberal Arts and Sciences student work will demonstrate:

  • Understanding of Themselves as Parts of a Larger Whole Made Up of Human and Non-Human Beings:
    An understanding of themselves as part of a large living ecosystem made up of human and non-human beings
  • Awareness of Positionality – In the World, Their Field, Their Communities:
    How ideas, lived experiences, and  intersectional identities challenge established frameworks in order to critically synthesize new possibilities
  • Ability to Work Well, Collaborate, and Build Relationships Across Differences in Identity, Perspective, Aesthetics, and Disciplines:
    Ability to collaborate effectively with others to analyze, evaluate, and apply academic and real-world problem-solving skills
  • Integration of Skills, Information, and Concepts:
    Knowledge of the disciplines introduced in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and their relevance to the ideation and creative skills developed in their studio majors
  • Ability to Define Aspirations, Future Goals, and Their Role Within the Creative Economy:
    The value of integrating and applying their intellectual curiosity and critical thinking to enhance their studio practice
  • Compelling Presentation and Exhibition Skills, Through Annual Exhibition, Capstone, and Portfolios:
    The synthesis of their intellectual and creative arc in their Capstone senior research paper and project.
  • Career Readiness:
    As evidenced by strong interpersonal and professional skills, including self-advocacy, initiative, adaptation, and a willingness to both receive and offer feedback

Degree Requirements

Liberal Arts and Sciences Course Offerings

All Liberal Arts and Sciences courses are 3 credits.

Students may take Natural Science, Social Science, and Math courses off campus, unless a specific course at Otis College is required by their major. Students must get their substitute courses approved through the Advising Department before they enroll at another institution.  

Students may not take Art History, English, Creative Action Integrated Learning (CAIL) or Capstone courses off campus without the written permission of the Chair of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Electives

Contact Us

For questions related to the advising and registration process (using Degree Works or Plan Ahead), CAIL, LAS or minors, please contact us.

Monday through Friday
10:00 a.m.–noon

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