Your Registration Resources Toolkit
Major Sheets
- 2025-2026 major sheet + suggested plan of study (*Early summer 2026 note: we recently received approval for some significant updates to our major requirements, set to take effect starting with our 2026-2027 major sheet. The most important of these changes are a reduced foreign language requirement and a reduction in pre-major area II. We hope to post an updated major sheet very soon; keep watching this space! Current students, expect an email from us by the end of summer with updates and opportunities for you in relation to this change.)
- Course planning tool
- Tip sheet for interpreting the major sheet
If you are looking for an older major sheet, please email us at global-advising@ucsb.edu. Generally speaking, you'll follow the major sheet of the academic year in which you declared the full major, but contact us as needed with questions.
What classes are offered this quarter?
Each quarter, we look through the schedule and identify which courses on the major sheet are being taught that particular quarter. We also identify additional courses that are not on the major sheet, but can be taken for major requirements by petition. Finally, Global Studies 197 courses are special topics seminars taught by professors from their specific expertise; the course descriptions for these do not appear on GOLD, but can be accessed below.
- Major sheets with current and prior quarter courses circled (select the desired academic year, then desired quarter. These are typically updated about 1 week after the new quarter's schedule is released on GOLD.)
- Additional Courses To Use By Petition document (special for summer: UC Online Summer - Additional Courses To Use By Petition)
- Global 197 special topics to reference (Note: you can take up to 3 of these courses - 2 for Area 2-A and 1 for general upper division elective credit - but make sure you take them all for a letter grade on GOLD rather than as a repeat (if you have taken a 197 class before). You can also only earn credit for additional Global 197s that are not the same topic taught by the same professor.)
Which classes are offered this year?
To help with planning further out, we have created two tentative course spreadsheets for students, as follows (make sure to select the current year tab):
- Global Studies classes
- A schedule of pre-major History classes, for students in the pre-major
You can also use the schedule of classes website to see what has been offered in the past to make some educated guesses about what will be offered. When in doubt you can also check with the department advisor for the classes you’re interested in.
What are the Global Studies classes in general?
To find out what the different Global Studies classes consist of, use the UCSB Course Catalog - Global Studies website. This will let you see all of the courses with a brief description so you can note which you are interested in and can look out for. *Not all of the courses on listed are offered each year.