Course Substitutions

Students may petition to apply up to three history courses completed at another college or university to their history major or minor requirements. Credit for transfer courses must be awarded and posted to your MyUCSC student portal before they may be petitioned to satisfy history major or minor requirements. NOTE: All community college courses transfer to UCSC for lower division credit.

Applying Transfer Courses

Complete the Department of History Transfer Course Approval Form and submit it to the History Department office for review and approval. Attach the description for each course as it appears in the host university's General Catalog. Consult the "Transfer Credit: Report" in your MyUCSC Student Center to ensure that the transfer courses have been posted to your UCSC academic record. Please note that you may be asked to provide a course syllabus if supplemental information is need. You will be notified by your UCSC email address once your Transfer Course Approval Form has been reviewed.

The History Department encourages its students to take upper-division courses in disciplines related to history, including sociology, literature, history of art and visual culture, politics, Latin American and Latino studies, and others. At least 50% of the readings and written work in these courses must be historical in nature.

History majors who entered the university prior to Fall 2015 may petition to apply a maximum of two interdisciplinary courses to their upper-division elective requirements. History majors who entered the university starting Fall 2015 may petition to apply a maximum of one interdisciplinary course to their upper-division elective requirement. Interdisciplinary courses may not satisfy chronological distribution requirements. History minors may petition to apply a maximum of two upper-division courses.

Applying Interdisciplinary Courses

1. Submit a Petition for Interdisciplinary Coursework and a copy of the course syllabus to a faculty member from your region of concentration if you are a history major, or to History Undergraduate Director, Professor Catherine Jones, if you are a history minor. You may meet with the faculty member/director during their posted office hours or make an appointment. Be prepared to justify why the course should satisfy a major or minor requirement. The faculty member/director may ask for samples of your written work from the course.

2. After your meeting, file your approved Petition for Interdisciplinary Coursework with the history undergraduate program coordinator in the History Department office.

Pre-Approved Interdisciplinary Courses

The following interdisciplinary courses have been pre-approved by the History Department. You do not need to submit a Petition for Interdisciplinary Coursework; these course may automatically satisfy history major or minor upper-division elective requirements. Reminder: these courses may or may not be used to satisfy the requirements of a second major or a minor; consult with the history undergraduate program coordinator.

CRES 112, Chicana/o History and Memory
ECON 125, Economic History of the U.S.
ECON 126, Why Economies Succeed or Fail: Lessons from Western and Japanese History
ECON 149, The Economies of East and Southeast Asia
HAVC 127A, Buddhist Visual Worlds
HAVC 137A, Northern Renaissance Art
HAVC 137B, Italian Renaissance: Art and Architecture
HAVC 160A, Pre-Hispanic Visual Culture: Mexico
HAVC 162A, The Maya
LTPR 144B, Hebrew Bible
LTWL 123, The 1960s
LTWL 132, Global Cities: Shanghai Studies (Spring 2013 Only)
POLI/LGST 105A, Ancient Political Thought
POLI 109, Orientalism
POLI 140D, Politics of East Asia
POLI 141, Politics of China
SOCY 105A, Classical Social Theory

Pre-approved interdisciplinary courses may have enrollments restrictions and/or prerequisites. Consult the UCSC General Catalog for detailed enrollment information about these courses.

History majors who entered the university prior to Fall 2015 may apply a maximum of two independent or field study courses to their upper-division elective requirements. History majors who entered the university starting Fall 2015 may petition to apply a maximum of one independent or field study course to their upper-division elective requirement. Independent or field study courses may not satisfy chronological distribution requirements.

History minors may petition to apply a maximum of two independent or field study courses.

Applying Independent and Field Studies

1. Download a UCSC Petition for Undergraduate Individual Studies Course (pdf). It is best to initiate this process during the quarter before the one in which you plan to do the study.

2. Outline your proposed course of study and obtain the approval of an instructor who is willing to supervise your study; students are expected to initiate discussions with and independently acquire faculty sponsors. The instructor also approves the number of credits (either 2 or 5) to be awarded upon completion of the individual study.

3. Submit the petition to the history undergraduate program coordinator during drop-in advising hours.

4. The history undergraduate program coordinator will review your petition and will issue you a class number. Use this class number when you enroll via the Student Portal. Make sure to enroll with the grade option approved on the petition.