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How to Petition Courses

A petition is a request for exception and is not guaranteed to be approved. 

Check Eligibility 

  1. Ensure the course you would like to petition appears on your academic history. If the course is not listed, see how to transfer courses. 
  2. If the course is listed, determine the level. For UC San Diego, courses numbered 1-99 are lower-division and 100-199 are upper-division. For transfer coursework, see the "Level" column in your academic history. "LD" indicates lower-division and "UD" indicates upper-division.
  3. Ensure the course level matches with your degree audit requirements (how to run and read a degree audit). You cannot use a lower-division course to meet upper-division requirements. 
  4. If you plan to overlap the course between your major and minor, check how upper-division courses may overlap. If you are overlapping the course with a college GE, visit your college's website. 

Gather Documents

To petition courses to count toward your major or minor, you will need the following:

  1. Undergraduate Petition Form (PDF) - Please complete one per course. 
  2. Course Syllabus (PDF) that includes information about weekly readings/viewings, and other curriculum information. 
  3. Any additional supporting material such as final papers, final projects (links if they are videos), assignments, or anything else that demonstrates the course's relevancy to your major/minor. 

Complete Petition Form

  1. Check the appropriate box:
    • Departmental Exception - Majors/Minors Only
    • College Exception - GE Requests
    • University Exception - DEI Requests
  2. Make sure that "If UC San Diego course" section is filled out completely. (Section ID is not required for non-UCSD courses). If it is transfer coursework, please use the course number and title listed on your degree audit if it is different than the transfer institution. 
  3. Write your petition request under "Reason for Request." It is your responsibility to clarify your major/minor/GE/DEI requirement and where you would like the course applied in your degree audit. Examples:
    1. If you want your petitioned course in a specific place in the degree audit: "I would like to use this course to count towards my upper-division elective requirement." 
    2. If you want your petitioned course to count as a required specific course: "I would like to use this course to count towards FILM 71 or FILM 72 for my major requirements." If you would like your petition to be considered for more than one class for your major or minor, you may include multiple options in the "Reason for Request." If you are not petitioning for a required course, you do not need to name a specific UC San Diego course that you think is similar to petition an elective. 

Submit Petition by Email

  1. Save the course petition, course syllabus, and any supporting material as ONE PDF file. Each course petition should be a separate file. You can use the Adobe PDF combiner. 
  2. Name the file as follows: Last Name First Initial_PETN_DateofSubmission_DegreeAuditCode
    • Example: DoeJ_PETN_10272025_FILM101
  3. Review your completed petition to ensure all necessary information is included. If information is missing, your petition will be returned to you without being reviewed. 
  4. Submit your PDF to your college or department with the subject line, "Course Petition: Last Name, First Name (PID)". For Institute of the Arts and Humanities programs, see contact information for the appropriate email.