The Department will apply the following requirements to approving outside courses for Princeton credit. (Note that in very rare circumstances, the Department will approve one outside course to count as a departmental for Politics concentrators.  Accordingly, these regulations will generally apply to non-concentrators seeking University credit for an outside course.)

 In general, for the Department to approve a course, the following criteria must be met:

  1. Length: The course should have a minimum of 30 hours of instruction and be at least 4 weeks in length.
  2. Content: The course's academic content and reading assignments should be roughly as challenging as a Princeton course. 
  3. Instructor: The course should be taught by a Ph.D.-holding member, or a faculty member of comparable position to a Ph.D. (e.g. DPhil). This can include adjunct professors (but excludes graduate students who have not yet completed their Ph.D.'s).

[Please note that these requirements do not apply to Study Abroad courses, which have their own special approval processes established by the Office of International Programs, in conjunction with the Politics Study Abroad Adviser.]

In addition, the Office of the Dean of the College cannot approve for credit a course that is substantially the same as a Princeton course for which the student has received credit.

Students should be prepared to provide evidence that the course for which they are seeking credit approval satisfies all of the above-mentioned criteria.  For full consideration, the following must be submitted with your application form when seeking course pre-approval:

  • A copy of the course syllabus for the term it is being offered.  If the syllabus is not yet available, it is recommended that you contact the instructor directly to request a preliminary version.  
  • Documentation of the instructor's status (for example, a link or screenshot of the faculty member's bio/credentials from their teaching institution).

Upon receipt of your application, the Director of Undergraduate Studies will review the materials submitted and make a final determination at which point you will be notified of the decision.

The applications for summer course approval must be submitted by Dean's Date in May.