Taking courses at the 300-400 level outside your major encourages you to build upon the strengths and interests you discovered in your Distributive Studies courses. You may also use Advanced Studies to explore an area of academic interest you have not yet pursued. The goals are to broaden your perspective, help you to acquire critical analysis skills in fields outside your major and challenge you to reflect on relationships between different views of the world.

You must take two courses for a total of at least 6 credits. These courses must be taken after you have completed 60 credits. They must be chosen from a field or fields outside of your major. Some majors may count certain closely related courses outside the department as "within the major" and therefore not eligible to count for CORE Advanced Studies. Make sure that you contact your advisor for a definition of what courses your department considers "inside" and "outside" your major.

Two courses are required. They must be outside your major and taken after you have earned at least 60 credits. A great many 300-400 level courses may be used to fulfill Advanced Studies requirements. You have lots of choices and only a few restrictions.

The following do not meet Advanced Studies requirements:

Professional Writing courses that meet the CORE Fundamental Studies requirement
Courses which are used to meet CORE Distributive Studies requirements
Internships, practica, or other experiential-learning types of courses
Any course taken on a Pass/Fail basis

Additional options for meeting Advanced Studies requirements:

You may substitute a CORE-approved Capstone course or a senior or honors thesis for one of the two required courses (3 credits). Courses MUST be selected from the courses coded as meeting CORE Capstone requirements. See list of approved CORE Capstone courses at Testudo: www.testudo.umd.edu/ScheduleOfClasses.html. Click on the CORE list for the term you wish to explore. Enrollment in CORE Capstone courses will be subject to departmental guidelines.
If you complete a double major or double degree, then you will have fulfilled the campus Advanced Studies requirement, unless your primary major or college has additional requirements.
You may use one independent studies course (minimum of three credits), outside your major, toward Advanced Studies requirements as long as it is consistent with the rules given above, and the faculty member supervising the independent study agrees that it is appropriate for Advanced Studies usage.
Most upper-level CORE Diversity courses (outside your major) may also be used to fulfill Advanced Studies requirements

Note for students in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences:
Effective for students entering UM Fall 1994 and thereafter, all students majoring in departments in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences may not use courses taken to meet departmental supporting or minor requirements to satisfy the campus's CORE/ USP Advanced Studies requirements. However, students with two majors may use supporting courses in one of the majors to satisfy the Advanced Studies requirements.