A CS curriculum at a liberal arts institution must achieve two distinct but overlapping purposes: develop knowledge, skills, and professional competencies in preparation for further study or a career in computing and nurture a range of thinking skills applicable across many contexts.

A liberal arts history major may not become a historian, just as a CS major may not become a computer scientist, but they both build a foundation for their future work and lives

Liberal arts students often have significant educational goals beyond the completion of a major. These goals are supported by the construction of “flexible pathways,” a distinguishing characteristic of liberal arts CS curricula

Liberal arts programs not only make space for student experiences outside of computer science, but value and prioritize those experiences.

Where previous ACM-IEEE curriculum guidelines distinguished only between core and elective content, the CS2013 Body of Knowledge is divided into Core-Tier 1 and Core-Tier 2 topics, requiring coverage of only 80% of Core-Tier 2. This structure recognized that some computing curricula will include more or different required content than others

The most common approach to spiral education works through lectures, covering the same topics at different depths in multiple courses. This approach is used at Creighton in teaching essential concepts in computability.