What is the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core?
The Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) is an alternative core curriculum program within Baylor’s Honors College. Students apply directly to BIC, and admission to the program places them in the Honors College.
Each year, approximately 200 incoming freshmen are accepted into BIC.
BIC offers students the opportunity to replace most traditional general education requirements with a unique, challenging, and integrated curriculum. Rather than taking separate introductory courses in subjects like history, philosophy, religion, political science, and science, BIC students study these fields together in a way that highlights how they intersect and shape human culture, thought, and society.
An Integrated Core Curriculum
Through the BIC, students fulfill most of Baylor’s general education requirements by completing a sequence of integrated courses that emphasize the connections among the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
The curriculum includes sequences such as:
These courses invite students to engage directly with foundational ideas and questions, and to see how different ways of knowing inform one another.
A Cohort-Based Learning Community
BIC is built on a cohort model. Students move through the curriculum together, forming a close-knit academic community centered on discussion, collaboration, and shared intellectual life.
Classes are small and discussion-based, with an emphasis on reading and engaging primary texts.
Because BIC courses are team-taught by faculty from different disciplines, students encounter multiple perspectives on the same material. A single text might be explored through its historical context, philosophical arguments, literary form, and cultural impact, helping students develop a richer and more nuanced understanding.
An Honors College Program for Most Majors at Baylor
BIC students represent a wide range of majors across the university, from the sciences and engineering to the arts, humanities, and pre-professional programs. This diversity of academic interests strengthens classroom conversation and broadens perspectives.
Students still complete a major in their chosen field. BIC does not replace a major.