I can't speak for all schools, but mine (a tech-based school that specialized in math/science majors) had all of two actual writing courses. Neither of them were much more advanced than high school level English, and both could be completed before the end of your first year. There were a couple other English type courses, but they didn't emphasize writing as much, and the other gen-ed courses weren't nearly as picky about proper writing techniques and whatnot.