Course Selection FAQ

ISD Students may take courses from virtually all departments of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (graduate and upper-level undergraduate), the College of Science and Health, the College of Communication, the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, the College of Education, and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and College of Commerce. 

Courses in School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the School of Music, and the Theatre School may be taken by special arrangement.

The application process asks that you submit a Statement of Academic Purpose and a List of Courses and a list of courses from DePaul’s offerings which will help you realize those goals. If you are not certain about selecting your courses, the ISD Director will assist you. As you move through the program you have the flexibility to alter your original list of courses while adhering to your original areas of interest. If your interests change significantly, you need to renegotiate your program with the Director.

You may take courses from any number of divisions in the university, as long as no more than six are from any single department of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, or any professional school. This includes: the College of Education, the College of Science and Health, the College of Communication, or the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media.

Please note that no more than FIVE courses may be taken from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and College of Commerce. This includes the Thesis or Culminating Project, if it is in a traditional business subject rather than an interdisciplinary subject. Although the professional schools have their own internal departments, for the purposes of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program the entire school is considered a department. If you find that your educational needs require more than six courses from a department or professional school, you should apply to that program rather than to ISD.

ISD Students may not take courses in the College of Law, or certain performance-based courses in the School of Music and the performance programs in the Theatre School. (These programs are restricted to students enrolled in those schools.)

In the International Studies Graduate Program, the following should be noted:

1. Restricted: INT 401, this course is designed for International Studies graduate students to begin work on their MA theses in the department.
2. Restricted: INT 405, this course may be taken by IDS students, but it has two prerequisites: Introduction to Micro-economics and Introduction to Macro-economics.
3. Open: Other courses in the MA in International Studies, including INT 402, 403, 404 and 406.

In the School of Communication certain core courses in the graduate program are usually closed to students outside those programs. Most courses in the program in Public Relations and Advertising are closed to students outside those programs.