What is Essential Studies at the University of North Dakota?
Essential Studies (ES) is the academic core of your university experience. The courses offered in the ES curriculum provide broad and diverse perspectives on how human beings think and feel, solve problems, express ideas, and create and discover new knowledge. These courses also help you acquire essential intellectual skills: they challenge you to think critically and creatively, reason using numbers and charts, communicate effectively both orally and in writing, find and evaluate information from various kinds of sources, and increase your understanding of the role of diversity in a complex world.
