University Courses

University Capstone Courses

For up-to-date information on Capstone, including the best way to register, the seminars available, their syllabi, and the faculty, please see the Capstone website at bc.edu/capstone.

A course for seniors: Reserved for seniors only, the Capstone program is designed to cap off college by facing the questions of life after graduation. The Capstone Seminars (UNCP5500–UNCP5599 only) directly address the hopes and anxieties that seniors face but seldom find treated in traditional courses. They invite seniors to discover the patterns underlying their choices up to now. They also relate the life and learning of the past four years to the life and learning ahead. In this way, Capstone Seminars take seriously the struggle to integrate four crucial areas of life: work, relationships, citizenship, and spirituality.

Ask some inevitable questions now, not later.
How did my education prepare me to live? With everything I want to do, what will I have to compromise? How can I balance my career and my family? Can I find work with a higher meaning than my income? How do I wish to live responsibly and affect society?

Special features of the courses:

  • Faculty from various departments
  • Each section limited to 15–19
  • Innovative teaching methods
  • Interdisciplinary reading
  • Some guest speakers from professional life

Capstone Seminars may satisfy major requirements if they are cross-listed in certain departments. Check with the instructor.

To Register for a Capstone Seminar

You must be a senior to take the course. Students may take only one Capstone Seminar during their time at Boston College. Capstone Seminars may not be taken Pass/Fail. This is true whether the course is listed under the UNCP department numbers or as a course in a specific department. If a second Capstone course appears on your record, it will be removed. This could make you ineligible for graduation.

Different Capstone Seminars will be offered each semester. All Seminars are interdisciplinary. You may register for any one of the seminars as a University (UN) course.

In addition, several Capstone seminars are cross-listed, both as University courses with a UNCP number and also as courses in the department of the professor offering the course. If you find a particular Seminar closed, try to register under the cross-listed number (e.g., if UNCP5500 is closed, try to register for the class as THEO2410, and vice versa). Some Capstones require “Department Permission”: if so, contact the instructor, not the Program Director. A Capstone Seminar can count as an elective for students in all colleges (Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Connell School of Nursing, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Carroll School of Management). For majors in English, Philosophy, Theology, and certain other departments, it might satisfy the major requirements if the seminar is taken under the cross-listing in the department of his/her major. Check with the instructor.

Students should also understand the following rule:

No student may take more than one Capstone seminar during his/her undergraduate years. Thus, you may not take two Capstone courses in one semester or in two different semesters.

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