Certificate in STS: Requirements

The STS program requires 9 credits of Basic Courses and 12 credits of Elective Courses.

Students must earn a minimum grade of C in each course they wish to credit toward the STS University Certificate. Students also participate in 8 events annually that are outside of coursework; typically, students fulfill this requirement by attending talks on campus, but there are many exciting opportunities in the DC area. Students are encouraged to note the many talks listed on the "Upcoming Events" calendar in the left sidebar of our program website.

A student's individual course of study may not exceed these maximums: 9 credits of courses applied to the student's major; 3 credits of Special or Selected Topics courses; 9 credits of courses taken outside UMCP; and 6 credits of courses with the AREC, ECON and GVPT prefixes. Once all requirements are met and the director affirms that the student has completed the program, the Registrar includes a notation of the University Certificate in STS on the student's transcript.

As students complete requirements, they notify the director so that this progress may be tracked. Students meet semi-annually with the director.

The University Certificate program in STS is open to any student at UMCP. The 100- and 200- level courses required of the University Certificate in STS also serve to fulfill the College Park Scholars program in STS, so a student who completes the Scholars curriculum needs only a few more courses to complete the University Certificate in STS.