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study abroad
Study Abroad

UC San Diego offers several ways for students to study abroad: Education Abroad Program (EAP), Opportunities Abroad Program (OAP), and the Global Seminars.  Students may study abroad while earning academic credit.

Be sure to visit the UC San Diego Study Abroad Office for more information! Click here to see the Study Abroad advising schedule and services. UC San Diego Study Abroad will also be offering short First Steps virtual webinars, which are suggested for all students looking to study abroad.

The following guidelines must be met in order for the International Studies Program to consider granting course credit:

  • Courses must be pre-approved by an ISP Advisor - this initial review does not guarantee course credit.
    • Students should come into walk-in advising to obtain pre-approval for abroad courses if they have any questions about their study abroad coursework. 
    • Completed Academic Planning Forms (APF's) should be sent to isp@ucsd.edu for review. 
  • Please adhere to the following guidelines for study abroad coursework:
    • Courses must be UC transferable
    • Courses must be upper-division
    • Courses must be taken for a letter grade of C- or better
    • Courses must transfer as at least 4 units
    • Courses petitioned for the language requirement must be petitioned to the Linguistics Department.
    • Language courses are not allowed to be petitioned for disciplinary, interdisciplinary and regional required courses.  This applies to the ISP minor as well - language courses are not allowed to be petitioned for track 1 or track 2 electives

To receive course credit:

Major Disciplinary Focus

To apply toward this requirement, courses must match the field of study of the Disciplinary Focus and have at least 50% international content.
Major Interdisciplinary Elective

To apply toward this requirement, courses must have at least 50% international content, but can be from any field of study outside of the Disciplinary Focus. 
Regional Requirement Overlaps

Disciplinary Focus and Interdisciplinary Elective coursework taken abroad can overlap with Regional Requirements, and must have at least 50% regionally specific content. 
Minor

To apply study abroad coursework toward the ISP Minor, courses must have at least 50% international content and match the field of study in Track 1 or Track 2.
Petitions

Major: Students may petition a maximum of four (4) courses to count toward their ISP major.

Minor: Students may petition a maximum of three (3) courses to count toward the ISP minor.

After completion of the study abroad courses:

  • Students must submit a formal ISP Online Petition along with supporting materials of course syllabus, course work, class notes, and assignments.
    • Petitions will be processed once study abroad coursework is correctly listed on a student's degree audit. 
  • Petitions will then be evaluated by the ISP Director.

Note:

  • IS majors entering UCSD Fall 2013 and later may petition a maximum of 4 courses to count toward the major including Global Seminars
  • IS majors entering UCSD prior to Summer 2013 and following the old major requirements may petition a maximum of 6 courses to count toward the major.

Scholarships:

  • The Study Abroad office offers scholarship opportunities to students planning on going abroad; please see their website for more information.
  • Go Abroad also has an informative webpage with scholarship opportunities.

First Steps' Quick Guides: One-minute Videos