They are given the course that makes sense in the context of what they are learning. There is some power to this, but that complicates the schedules. If a student falls out of sync that presents a serious problem. Cooley noted that the honors students are always complaining that they have no opportunities to take honors curricula that they are so bound by these professional school curricula. They cannot get honors level GEC courses or others outside their curriculum.
Some career choices dictate more interdisciplinary kinds of curricula.
The College of Engineering has talked to the Department of Comparative Studies on a number of occasions about creating second writing courses. There was a general consensus that the GECs are important and vital to the programs. Particularly, students should be taking more social science and humanities these days rather than less and that view is shared by a number of faculty in Engineering. Engineers have to be taught about the social consequences of what they do and have to think historically about the emergence of engineering problems and how they are solved. Saying that one social science course will do it for them seems indefensible.