Becoming a Participating Major

A number of Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and administrators worked for over two years to bring about the International Plan. This plan, offering students an important and relevant option for becoming globally competent, has the following significant features:

  1. It is a coherent, degree-long program that is integrated into the student's major.
  2. There is a general template that students in any major must follow:
    • Students must take one course from each of three categories of international studies listed below.

      I. International relations
      II. Global Economics
      III. About a particular country or region related to international experience (see below)

      A list of the courses approved for each of these categories can be found on the catalog Web site.

    • Students must become proficient in a second language.
    • Students must complete a two-term period of international experience lasting not less than six months and consisting of any combination of terms of study abroad, international internship, or research.
    • During or following the international experience, students take a culminating course that is designed by the student's academic unit or in collaboration with other academic units to integrate the international experience and study into the student's major.
  3. The International Plan is tailored by each academic unit to meet the particular needs of its students. For this reason, each academic unit wishing to participate is expected to develop a specific version of the International Plan that is approved by its faculty, the school chair, the dean of the relevant college, the IUCC, Faculty Senate, and the provost. Please contact the program coordinator, Karen Pierce, for additional information.