Hi. Can anyone tell me about required coursework to graduate from Emory? It’s a little unclear to me from their website. Are there required courses or distribution requirements? Mainly wondering if there is a heavy writing or literature requirement., which might impact a STEM-oriented kid.
@joecollege44 : That could only impact you in a GOOD way (trust me as a person who finished their PhD qualifying exam two days ago 
. Thank you Emory). Emory’s GERs are distribution requirements and do include writing requirement:
http://catalog.college.emory.edu/academic/ger/index.html
I actually think this is quite clear.
There is a freshman writing requirement which can be APed out of and I think 3 more continued writing requirements. The caveat (actually an upside in this case) is that these writing requirements are not limited to any type of division and STEM departments also offer them. NBB’s capstone course is a writing requirement. Biology is now offering several upper divisions that qualify. Pchem 1/2 lab qualified, and in the new chemistry curriculum, there will be more electives or capstone focused courses that qualify (some of these courses involve mock grant proposals, some have you write formal scientific journal style reviews on the literature in the field, and some formalize and scaffold the lab report writing process. Just because you are in STEM does not mean you should fear or shy away from writing in really any discipline, but if you are that afraid, since the college is pushing departments towards more explicitly integrating even research like experiences and styles of learning into curricula, that has pushed STEM departments to offer more classes that may also satisfy the CWR.
Trust me, this will help you, especially if you plan to do undergraduate research. Many people don’t associate STEM with writing, but it is actually extremely important. Try (you or whoever is concerned) to look at it as an opportunity is all I’d say.
To echo what @bernie12 said–if you are a STEM major DO NOT avoid writing courses. Exactly the opposite–take them. My S is a STEM major and we have heard from many professionals that a STEM major who can also write effectively is an extremely valuable, and rare, candidate. Too many STEM students avoid writing courses and can’t write as a result. When you get into the working world, there is a lot of writing–whether emails, reports, powerpoints, research summaries, etc. Employees value writing skills. Someone who understands the tech/scientific language and can communicate it effectively has a huge advantage over someone who can’t. Because, really, what’s the point of all that scientific/tech knowledge if you can’t explain it to someone else? Learn how to write.