Dornsife’s Office of Overseas Studies

Dornsife’s Overseas Studies MATH/AMCM page and list of participating universities abroad

Lists of previously approved math courses abroad

 

Studying abroad can be a very exciting and valuable experience, potentially exposing students to material that is unique to the institution or country in which they travel. To get the most out of the Study Abroad experience, we encourage students to seek out courses or topic areas that are less available at USC.

 

At the same time, all USC degrees should be earned by satisfying a large fraction of the degree requirements in-residence at USC. Also note that universities abroad tend to place courses like Real Analysis, Algebra/Number Theory, and Linear Algebra much earlier in their programs, so taking such courses at USC offers the best chance of meeting the prerequisites and succeeding in courses abroad.

 

For both of the above reasons we generally expect MATH/AMCM students to fulfill their core major requirements at USC and reserve their time abroad for upper-division Math electives, hopefully in unique and exciting topics.

 

This page contains lists of math courses that have been previously approved for study abroad.  To take one of these courses through the Office of Overseas Studies:

  1. Schedule a meeting with your academic advisor, to be held at minimum one semester before you plan to go abroad.  Follow-up meetings may be necessary.
  2. Before your meeting, review the mathematics course offerings at the university abroad.
  3. Create a proposed course schedule for each semester abroad.  For any degree that requires them, Math 410 and Math 425AB must be taken at USC.
  4. Confirm that your proposed courses will actually be offered in your chosen semester abroad, and confirm there are no time conflicts among the courses.
  5. For each course in your plan, specify the course prerequisites and how you will have satisfied them by the time of your visit.
  6. For each course in your plan, specify the course modality (in-person, online, hybrid).  Generally speaking, we expect study abroad courses to be taken in-person.
  7. Meet with your academic advisor to review and approve your course plan.  They will help you submit the proposal to OOS.

 

To have the math department consider new courses not on our list of approvals, bring them to your academic advisor with your course plan, having followed the instructions above.  In addition to the above:

  1. Provide links to the course syllabus and/or course description.  The more detailed the better, ideal syllabi will include textbook information and a list of specific learning objectives.
  2. Tell us how the course fits into your major requirements; either as a substitute for an existing USC course, a general Math elective, or an AMCM quantitative elective.
  3. If the course is similar to an existing USC course, provide a syllabus/link for that course as well for comparison.
  4. Please try to limit these requests to 2-3 new courses at a time, and know that such requests take some time to process.

 

Studying abroad outside of the Office of Overseas Studies framework can be quite challenging.  It would require Exception-to-Residence petitions for Fall/Spring semesters to be filed with the Office of the Registrar, and would go through TCS rather than OOS.  Such requests are generally discouraged, and should only be pursued under careful consultation with the student’s academic advisor.