Studying abroad can be an exciting and valuable experience. In particular, going abroad gives students the opportunity to be exposed to material that is unique to the institution or country where they travel. Hence, to get the most out of the Study Abroad experience students should seek out to learn in areas that are less available at USC.

As mathematics is in some sense universal, it makes sense to fulfill the large part of your major requirements at USC in order to make room in one’s Travel Abroad schedule to take courses in material that may be less available here. Such a plan is in concert with the notion that a USC degree, in any major, is earned by satisfying a large fraction of the requirements of that degree at USC.

For those reasons, mathematics courses taken abroad should strive to mainly satisfy elective requirements, and the number of those that can be counted for the degree is limited, depending on the particular degree program. Hence, students interested in studying abroad should plan their sequencing of Mathematics courses accordingly.

A list of mathematics courses that have been previously approved for study abroad can be found on this page. To have the mathematics department consider a request to approve mathematics courses not on this list to be taken abroad, please review the mathematics offerings at the university where you plan to study, and follow the guidelines below in preparing a list of possible courses. For items 4,5 and 6 below, include supplementary information detailing you have verified each item. It is very important that the instructions for these last three items are followed carefully, as otherwise a student abroad may discover only at the last minute that they will be unable to take an approved course, without having the necessary time window available that would be required for processing additional approvals. 

 

  1. Your first step is to meet with your academic advisor at least one semester before you plan to go abroad in order to discuss your plans.
  2. For any Mathematics degree that requires them, Math 410 and Math 425ab must be taken a USC.
  3. For each course you propose as a substitute for a USC course, please follow these instructions.
  4. Please let us know which degree program you are enrolled in, and what degree requirement you propose will be satisfied by each course proposed.
  5. Confirm that the courses you propose to take will be offered during the time of your visit.
  6. Propose your course schedule for each semester and confirm there are no time conflicts.
  7. For each course in your plan, state the course prerequistes that are required and how you will have satisfied them by the time of your visit.