The Department of Political Science encourages students to consider spending a semester off campus to enrich their liberal arts education and broaden their perspectives about politics. Students wishing to study off-campus can earn up to 8 credits toward the political science major, provided the following conditions are met. Coursework must be:
- completed in-person for a grade at a Grinnell-approved OCS program.
- in departments of political science, government, public policy, law, or international relations.
- completed for a letter grade.
- not replicating content in a course that will be taken for political science major credit at Grinnell.
OCS courses cannot be used to fulfill 200-level subfield requirements, 300-level seminar requirements, or the statistics requirement.
Planning and Applying for Off-Campus Study
Students are encouraged to review the OCS Planning Timeline. When seeking Grinnell approval for OCS, please make note of the following guidelines when preparing your application:
- The political science department does not pre-approve courses to count toward the political science major at the time of application.
- If you are not a political science major, you do not need to have your 4-year plan reviewed by a member of the political science department prior to applying for OCS.
- If you are an intended political science major, you do not need to have your 4-year plan reviewed by a member of the political science department prior to declaring the major. Students should discuss their OCS plans at the time of declaring a political science major.
- If you are a political science major, discussions about which courses on your OCS program might be eligible to transfer back to the major should take place with your advisor after you have been approved for the program and are selecting your courses.