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International Studies – Political Science

Program Overview

Lower Division Requirements

  • Fourth Quarter Language Proficiency

Upper Division Requirements

  • International Studies Core (3 courses)
  • Political Science Disciplinary Focus (8 courses)
  • Interdisciplinary Electives (3 courses)
  • International Studies Regional Requirement 

Major Requirements:

Language course may be taken for a letter grade or Pass/No Pass, students must earn either a C- or better or a Pass. All other courses for major requirements must be taken for a letter grade of C- or above.

Language Requirement

International Studies majors are required to demonstrate basic proficiency in a modern foreign language.  This can be accomplished in one of the following ways:

International Studies Core Courses (3 courses)

All courses are 4-units, upper-division and must be taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

INTL 102 may be taken before INTL 101. Both INTL 101 and INTL 102 must be completed before INTL 190. The INTL core courses must be taken at UC San Diego. 

Disciplinary Focus (8 courses)

All eight (8) courses must be 4 units, upper-division and taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

Eight (8) upper-division courses must be selected from the following:

  • Comparative Politics:
    • POLI 120 – POLI 138D*
  • International Relations:
    • POLI 140A – POLI 154ª

A maximum of three (3) courses may be selected from the following subfields:

  • American Politics:
    • POLI 100A – POLI 108
  • Political Theory:
    • POLI 110A - POLI 119A†
  • Policy Analysis:
    • POLI 160AA – POLI 168
  • Research Methods:
    • POLI 170 – POLI 181

Notes:
*POLI 120A and POLI 136 will not be accepted prior to Fall 2022.
ªPOLI 142K will not be accepted prior to Fall 2022.
†POLI 113A will not be accepted prior to Fall 2022.

    

Interdisciplinary Elective Courses (3 courses)

All three (3) courses must be upper-division, 4 units and taken for a letter grade of C- or better.

Course Pre-requisites: Students are responsible for meeting all departmental pre-requisite courses. Please refer to the General Catalog for additional information.

Regional Requirement

At least three (3) of the eleven (11) Disciplinary Focus and Interdisciplinary Elective courses must focus on one region.

  • Note: This requirement is an overlap requirement comprised of courses that count for both the Disciplinary Focus or Interdisciplinary Elective courses and the Regional Requirement.
  • Regional Requirement courses may come all from within the Disciplinary Focus, Interdisciplinary Electives, or a combination of the two.
  • Possible regions include: Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East.

Course Offerings:

Refer to Political Science Department Course Offerings for tentative future course offerings.

Academic Advising Resources:

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Archived International Studies - Political Science Course Offerings

2022-2023 Academic Year

2021-2022 Academic Year

2020-2021 Academic Year

2019-2020 Academic Year

2018-2019 Academic Year