Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Rules and Policies for Perspectives

NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier should refer to Rules and Policies for Distribution Requirements. The information below pertains to students who started at Northwestern after Spring 2023.

The Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity can be filled as follows:

• Approved NU courses
• Courses from other institutions

Approved Northwestern courses

The US and Global Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity will generally be satisfied by students through completion of Northwestern coursework. The Perspectives are defined by learning objectives, not by department or program academic field. For example, the courses from one department might not all be aligned with specifically US or Global; there may be variation among the courses, and some are not aligned with either.

• You must choose from courses approved by a Weinberg College faculty committee. Each year some courses are added to the lists and others are deleted. Check designations on CAESAR when you register for classes. The CAESAR degree progress report will also reflect how courses are being applied towards your degree.
• No course may be applied by a student towards both US and Global Perspectives at the same time.
• A course taken to fulfill a requirement in a Weinberg College major or minor may at the same time be applied towards either US or Global if it has been approved for one of these.
• Other double-counting among WCAS degree requirement categories is also acceptable; in some cases one course may satisfy either US or Global, be applied towards a foundational discipline, and/or satisfy the Advanced Expression requirement.

Grades in courses eligible to count towards Perspectives

• You must earn a grade of at least D in all courses you apply towards the Weinberg College US and Global Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity requirement. Courses taken P/N may not be used.
• Courses taken under "target grade" registration (currently available in the Schools of Education, Music, and Communication), even if they result in a regular letter grade, may also not be used to satisfy the Weinberg College requirements.

Courses taken at other colleges and universities

Courses taken at other colleges and universities cannot generally be used to fulfill Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity. This includes college-level courses you may have taken before you entered Northwestern as a first-year student. (See the guidelines for transfer credits for entering freshmen.)

However, there are two types of exceptions to this rule, and you can discuss these with your College Adviser.

Study abroad

Some Northwestern-run study abroad programs offer courses with Northwestern course numbers, and some may be approved for Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity; these may be applied even though your studies were not physically on the Northwestern University campus. If you study abroad with College approval but are not taking such Northwestern courses, you may be able to count one unit transferred back to Northwestern towards the two-part Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity.  The maximum is one even if you study abroad for more than one term.

Read about applying study abroad credits toward these requirements.

Transfer students

If you transferred to Northwestern from another college or university, some of your transferred courses (courses completed prior to matriculation at Northwestern) may count toward Perspectives on Power, Justice and Equity. See Transfer Student Credit Evaluation.

NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier should refer to Rules and Policies for Distribution Requirements. The information above pertains to students who started at Northwestern after Spring 2023.