Undergraduate Extended Accelerator Pathway (3-Term) - Bachelor of Science in Biology

at Shorelight Group - The University of Utah USA

The undergraduate studio art program will prepare you for an exciting career in creative expression. This program offers education in topics such as visual arts, animation, education, or design. The curriculum helps students to develop a range of hands-on, formal, and conceptual skills. The program is structured as a balance between the visual and the physical: students study Studio Arts Foundations in the first year and focus on a specific Emphasis starting in their second year. Students are given the opportunity to develop hands-on skills through direct practice with material and tools of the trade; the program also covers topics such as form, process, and technique. Ultimately, an Art BFA will allow you to understand contemporary art theories, engage with new forms, and explore art as an active part of culture today.

An economy is a social system where people produce and distribute goods and services. Economists study these systems, focusing on issues related to decision-making in governments, social and economic institutions, firms and industries. Our world is shaped in a fundamental way by economic forces. High unemployment, financial uncertainty, and growing public debt present great challenges for all of us. Concerns about energy sources, and about the environmental impact of economic activity will also be with us for decades to come. Studying economics will allow you to understand these challenges more deeply and will give you tools to help solve these problems. The Economics major is an excellent preparation for a wide range of jobs and graduate and professional studies. Students in the program gain critical thinking and quantitative analysis skills, and these abilities can be used to solve economic and other real-world problems. Beyond the core sequence in micro- and macroeconomics and quantitative and statistical methods, students can choose elective courses focused on money and banking, environmental economics, economic development in poor countries, labor economics, health economics, econometrics, and many other topics.

Communication is much more than just the written word. Communication is also verbal or non-verbal, and it takes place at both an interpersonal and mass scale. With the University of Utah’s Communication program, students learn how to be effective communicators for all different types of audiences. Communication is a diverse discipline and offers a variety of skills to prepare students for their careers. Through a combination of theoretical and technical training, the Communication program allows students to develop a comprehensive portfolio to market themselves to the industry. If you want to focus your studies on a particular area, you can pursue an emphasis in one of the following emphases:

• Communication Studies
• Journalism
• Science, Health, Environmental, and Risk Communication
• Strategic Communication

Sociology investigates the relationships between social order and social change in three interconnected areas along the scale of individual to global; our personal lives, the communities we live in, and the world as a whole. When examining personal lives, sociologists study deviant behavior, family dynamics, and individuals’ racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities. At the community level, sociologists study poverty, prejudice and discrimination, education, corporate and business behavior, the criminal justice system, housing and homelessness, the health care system, and social movements. Finally, at the global level, they review human population dynamics, societal conflict, cultural diversity, socially-induced environmental change, globalization, and modernization.

 The Sociology program consists of five core courses that serve as an introduction to sociological theory and application, research methods, and social statistics. The remainder of the curriculum is comprised of courses from four areas of sociology: Diversity, Globalization, Criminology, and Population and Health, as well as a selection of electives. By the program’s end, graduates have invaluable critical thinking skills and awareness of social issues that affect all areas of modern life. This set of knowledge and skills is necessary to find work in a variety of fields, and invaluable in our increasingly globalized and culturally diverse society.

Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on interactions of gender with race, class, sexual orientation, and nationality. In addition to its focus on the history and achievements of women, gender scholarship has inspired research and curricula that address men’s lives, masculinity, and the lives of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The University of Utah Gender Studies Division offers a space for the study of a wide range of feminist thought and practices: theory and community-engaged learning; activism and professional development; lively debate and professional skill building. Pursue your passions!

The undergraduate Special Education teacher education program provides professional training for those who wish to be educators for young children and students with disabilities.. Through a combination of academic coursework and hands-on experience, you will graduate with the critical thinking skills, pedagogical knowledge, and human understanding you need to be an effective educator to those with unique education needs. The program curriculum consists of a Teacher Education Core, with classes in the following topics: early childhood education, secondary classroom education, assessment and instruction principles, language development, legal and policy foundations, reading methods, writing instruction, math instruction, and classroom technology integration. Students then complete courses and practicums relevant to their emphasis area, with the academic experience culminating in a period of student teaching. Students who successfully complete the program are recommended for licensure to the Utah State Office of Education; once licensure is granted, students may become teachers in the state of Utah.

An economy is a social system where people produce and distribute goods and services. Economists study these systems, focusing on issues related to decision-making in governments, social and economic institutions, firms and industries. Our world is shaped in a fundamental way by economic forces. High unemployment, financial uncertainty, and growing public debt present great challenges for all of us. Concerns about energy sources, and about the environmental impact of economic activity will also be with us for decades to come. Studying economics will allow you to understand these challenges more deeply and will give you tools to help solve these problems. The Economics major is an excellent preparation for a wide range of jobs and graduate and professional studies. Students in the program gain critical thinking and quantitative analysis skills, and these abilities can be used to solve economic and other real-world problems. Beyond the core sequence in micro- and macroeconomics and quantitative and statistical methods, students can choose elective courses focused on money and banking, environmental economics, economic development in poor countries, labor economics, health economics, econometrics, and many other topics.

The worlds of science, engineering, and business are now reliant on data-driven analysis and decision making.  Data Science is the 21st century discipline formalizing this process, and making enormous impacts in new scientific discoveries, engineering how the world works, and driving business decisions which power much of our economic growth.  A data scientist is one who can weave a complete story with data, from its humble and messy beginnings, through its maturation via sophisticated analysis, and concluding with an explanation of its real-world impact.  This program teaches both technical data processing (programming, data wrangling, data management) and data analysis (machine learning, data mining, visual analytics) skills, and also guides students through the complicated explainability, ethical, and domain integration challenges. 

Study product design through the Multi-Disciplinary Design program at the University of Utah. This exciting curriculum uses product design as a vehicle to investigate a number of broader concepts in design and creativity, such as: design research, human-centered design principles, interface development, articulation of product forms, materials, and digital manufacturing principles. Students complete courses from four areas of design: Studio, Technical, History/Theory, and Practice. Through classes on design, graphics, visual communication, and other topics, students will understand the connections among cross-disciplinary design specialties. As a multi-disciplinary design student, you will help map the future of design through production, research, strategy, entrepreneurship, and applied futurism, preparing you for an exciting career in the industry.

Gain a deeper understanding of a culture other than your own through study of the language, literature, and society of Japan. The diverse and innovative program caters to individual student needs and fosters forward thinking and intellectual freedom. This freedom is reflected in program coursework: in addition to Japanese language instruction, students will complete courses on Japanese linguistics, syntax, civilization, contemporary literature, poetry, and classical Japanese. All students additionally must complete a capstone as a culminating experience to their time in the program. The U’s Japanese program provides excellent preparation for pursuing graduate work and entering a variety of professions where critical reading, writing, and thinking skills are paramount.