Hence the entire student body in any given semester is enrolled in the same course, freshmen beginning at whatever part of the cycle is being studied when they enter. Each semester, freshmen and sophomores take a writing course, in which they prepare one paper each week on a topic related to the Humanities course. Some of the class meetings are used for oral presentations of those papers and for practice in writing and editing. All students must study Latin or Greek in formal credit courses. They thereby have the opportunity to read in the original language texts they may study in the Humanities courses, so that they develop a sense of the texture and nuances of language not always obvious in translations.
All students take six hours of mathematics and six hours of science.
These requirements introduce students to dimensions of reality best understood through nonverbal means, enabling them to think in a way that transcends the senses. Of primary importance are the philosophical implications of modern mathematics and science. These matters are also taken up in the Humanities sequence . Two required courses in theology consider specifically the significance of Revelation, as it is reflected on in the long tradition of that discipline. All students take a three-credit course in art history and criticism, usually on the Rome campus, with emphasis on the integrity and form of Roman art and architecture.