Major Requirements Worksheet & Major Requirements Summary

LOWER DIVISION | UPPER DIVISION | FUNCTIONAL AREA | GEOGRAPHIC CONCENTRATION | MAJOR ELECTIVE | SENIOR SEMINAR | FOREIGN LANGUAGE | IAFS OVERLAP WITH CORE

GENERAL NOTES

• A minimum course grade of C- or better is required for all courses. No Pass/Fail allowed for major courses.
• If at all possible, you should arrange to spend a year or semester on study abroad. CU financial aid can usually be applied to CU-sponsored programs.
• If you declared IAFS as your major prior to Summer 2004, or if you're on the pre-summer 2009 Gold curriculum plan, see your advisor for details on requirements.
• Please refer to this semester's schedule for classes currently available.

LOWER DIVISION

• Complete the following five courses (18 credit hours total):

UPPER DIVISION

• Complete the requirements for functional area, geographic concentration, major elective, senior seminar, and foreign language. 
• IAFS 4930 Internship in International Affairs may count for either upper division category or for geographic concentration depending on the structure of the internship and approval by the internship director.  See the IAFS Internship Program page for more details.
• IAFS 3000: Special Topics in International Affairs may be repeated up to 9 credits for different special topics.
   

Functional Area

• Complete one class in each of the four functional areas and complete two additional classes in ANY functional area (6 classes, 18 credit hours)
• Students cannot apply more than four functional area classes from one department (i.e., PSCI, ECON). Please check all prerequisites for courses.

The permanent list of functional area classes can be found here: Functional Area I: Development and Culture, Functional Area II: International Economics, Business, and Political Economy, Functional Area III: Political Geography, International Security, and Foreign Policy, and Functional Area IV: Institutions, Rights, and Norms.

Geographic Concentration

Complete three classes in your geographic concentration (3 classes, 9 credit hours).

IAFS majors must choose an area of geographic concentration, and a language appropriate to that area, no later than the beginning of their Junior year.  Geographic concentration is a part of or a whole region outside the United States: Africa/Middle East, Asia, Europe/Eurasia, or Latin America. Geographic concentration: should be mainly in the social sciences; must include one course in contemporary history; and can include a three hour course of contemporary literature (taught in the foreign language). Students wishing to use other geographic concentrations must receive written approval from the Director of the International Affairs Program.

Major Elective

Complete one additional class from any functional area OR your geographic concentration (1 class, 3 credit hours).

Senior Seminar

Complete one of the following: IAFS 4500 or IAFS 4800 (1 class, 3 credit hours). 
 

Foreign Language

Minimum requirement: Third-year, university-level proficiency in a foreign language appropriate to the area of concentration. This requirement may be met through:

• Completion of two 3000-level grammar courses in the language (except Spanish see below); OR
• Certification by the appropriate department of such competence. See your IAFS advisor for details.

  Specific Requirement by Language

  For the following languages, the third-year courses which will fulfill the language requirement are:

*Please check courses for number of credit hours. For languages not on this page, please see your IAFS advisor for details.  Questions about languages?  Click here for our IAFS Language Requirements: General Guidelines.

IAFS Course Overlapping with Core Requirements

All lower division IAFS courses count for Contemporary Societies. Check the College of Arts & Sciences website for a full listing of core courses. Our individual semester PDF schedules may list other classes that fulfill core requirements.