Iowa State students are prepared to meet the challenges of responsible civic engagement and professionalism in a global marketplace. To help achieve these goals, all undergraduate students are required to fulfill graduation requirements in two areas: U.S. Cultures and Communities and International Perspectives. Students may meet these requirements with three credits of coursework (or equivalent academic experience) in each area. In most cases, courses used to meet the requirement may also be used to fulfill the general education requirements of the student’s college or major.

Iowa State encourages the use of study abroad to meet the International Perspectives requirement; the requirement is waived for international students, and U.S. military veterans who have completed at least three months of service stationed outside the United States.

Current course lists

List of approved U.S. Cultures and Communities courses

List of approved International Perspective courses

Transfer credit to meet the U.S. Cultures and Communities requirement

For courses that transfer in as specific ISU courses, the transfer credit will fulfill the requirement if the counterpart ISU course also fulfills the requirement.

If the transfer course does not have an ISU equivalent, students or their advisors may request credit by submitting the following to Kelsey Gillen (kmgillen@iastate.edu): 

  • The name of the student requesting the review
  • The name of the institution offering the course
  • The syllabus for the course and term taken

Decisions on transfer requests will be communicated to the student’s advisor, who may then process the credit in Workday.

Transfer credit to meet the International Perspectives requirement

For courses that transfer in as specific ISU courses, the transfer credit will fulfill the requirement if the counterpart ISU course also fulfills the requirement. Test-out credit in the transfer course may also be accepted.

If the transfer course does not have an ISU equivalent, approval may be granted if BOTH the department or program responsible for the student’s major AND the department most closely associated with the transfer course agree that it fulfills the requirement. The Office of the Registrar will maintain a list of courses without ISU equivalents that have been approved for International Perspectives.

The Transfer Course Request (to meet IP requirement) is used to route the request through the appropriate offices.

Requests for substitutions and waivers

All requests to apply non-approved courses, non-credit experiences or waivers of the requirement are initiated by the advisor via an APR Override request in Workday. Once initiated, requests for substitution or waivers are automatically routed to obtain the approval of the student’s college dean (or representative), and the Provost (or representative). Substitutions or waivers are done on an individual student basis.

Substitutions: A request to substitute another course and/or experience to meet the requirement must include justification/documentation on how the intended learning outcomes for International Perspectives were achieved through the substitute course/experience. Students can request a substitution for a non-approved course or an appropriate noncredit experience.

Waivers: Requests for waivers are typically based on whether the student's personal experience have enabled them to meet the intent of the requirement.

  • If a student supports a waiver request with evidence of personal experience or activities with multicultural or international aspects, these experiences or activities must be of an academic nature although not necessarily credit-bearing.
  • International students - defined as those students whose citizenship status is coded N (for nonimmigrant) or R (for refugee or asylee) on their official university record - are exempted from the International Perspectives requirement because these students, by living and studying in a country other than their home country for an extended period, are meeting the objectives of that requirement.
  • Course credits are not awarded for approved waivers; only the requirement is waived.

Military Veterans

The International Perspective requirement will be waived for U.S. military veterans who have completed at least 3 months of service stationed outside of the United States. This waiver is not automatic and requires a copy of your DD214 be brought to the School Certifying Officers (SCOs) in room 214 of the Enrollment Services Center for verification of months abroad.

Additional information for veteran and military affiliated students.

Study Abroad and foreign language study

Most academic study abroad experiences that involve visiting a foreign country for 3 weeks or greater will meet the International Perspectives requirement regardless of the content of the course. An approved ISU study abroad course involving international travel for less than 3 weeks will also meet the requirement if that course carries 3 or more academic credits.

High school world language study will not, by itself, fulfill the International Perspectives requirement. A student who has completed a significant amount of high school-level world language study may, however, fulfill the requirement if they earn test-out credit in the 1020 course (or higher) in a world language.