If you’ve taken one look at your course schedule for your degree, you might have noticed some blank spaces labelled ‘BoK’. If you have zero idea what I’m talking about, here’s an example.

BoK stands for Breadth of Knowledge. I like to think of BoKs as a prime example of the glorious American education system, that values a person’s overall growth rather than drowning them in one single area of expertise. They are essentially courses that aren’t directly related to your field of study. For example, I took an Intro to Microeconomics course, and it still counts for my Computer Science degree.

For an engineering degree like mine, students are required to take 4 BoKs over the course of eight semesters. These classes need to fall under certain categories to be counted towards your degree.

FA: Fine Arts
HP: Historical Perspectives
HU: Humanities
SS: Social Sciences
DC: Diversity and Culture
SE: Social and Ethical Issues

There are all sorts of interesting classes offered under each of these categories! If you’re curious about any of them, have a look at the classes other engineering students recommend! They include classes like ‘Stress Reduction’, ‘Human Sexuality’ and ‘Japanese Pop and Anime.’

Now you have no reason to say that your classes are boring! There will always be something interesting you can find among the hundreds of classes offered at UC!