Major

The Urban Studies major requires students to complete four types of courses totaling at least 73 units:

• 19 units in the core
• 8 or more units of skills courses
• 25 or more units in an area of concentration, and
• 13 units in the capstone sequence.

If the units in these categories total less than 73, the remaining units may be fulfilled by electives, drawn from other concentrations or from Urban Studies courses numbered 100 or higher (except URBANST 198 and 199.)  

Majors must also complete two prerequisites:

• ECON 1A Introductory Economics A, and
• SOC   1 Introduction to Sociology.
  

Core 

The core includes four required courses, totaling 19 units:

• URBANST 110. Introduction to Urban Studies,
• URBANST 112. The Urban Underclass (same as SOC 149),
• URBANST 113. Introduction to Urban Design, and
• URBANST 114. Cities in Comparative Perspective (same as CASA 111). 

Skills

Majors must take two skills courses, totaling at least 8 units.  The following courses are recommended for most majors; please consult an adviser to see if additional courses may be available:

• GES 144. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems
• SOC 180A. Foundations of Social Research

Back to top

Concentrations

Urban Studies majors must complete at least 25 units in a concentration.  Each student must consult with a faculty advisor to develop a program that meets their intellectual goals.

Students choose one of the following concentrations:

• Cities in Comparative and Historical Perspective,
• Urban Education,
• Urban Society and Social Change, and
• Self-Designed.
  

Capstone

All Urban Studies majors are required to complete a 3-credit internship with an urban organization related to their area of interest and a sequence of two 5-credit seminars in which students design a senior research project and write the results of their project. The capstone seminars can be used to fulfill the Writing in the Major requirement and to complete some work on an honors thesis.

The Capstone courses are:

• URBANST 201. Preparation for Senior Project (WIM)

Or URBANST 202. Preparation for Honors Thesis (WIM)

• URBANST 201A. Capstone Internship in Urban Studies
• URBANST 203. Senior Seminar.
  

URBANST 201 or 202, along with 201A, are typically taken in the junior year, and URBANST 203 is typically taken in senior year.

Courses counted toward the 73-unit graduation requirement for the major (except URBANST 201A) must be taken for a letter grade, and a minimum grade of 'C' is required.

For more details on the Urban Studies major, consult the entry on Urban Studies in the Stanford Bulletin. (pdf)

Ready to Declare? Click here.

Back to top