While students enjoy great latitude in the selection of their five electives, we encourage them to focus on a particular country, region, or issue area (e.g., education, humanitarianism, nuclear proliferation, economic development). We encourage students to work with their academic advisors to choose a “cluster” of electives that will allow them to build knowledge that can be applied to junior seminars and especially to senior capstone experiences. We believe that doing so will lead to the most meaningful experience in IAPA.
Elective Policies
- Typically, track electives are taught by social scientists (people who teach in Brown social science departments or have PhDs in the social sciences) and are at the 1000 level. First-year and sophomore seminars do not count as IAPA electives.
- However, we also count courses in the humanities or sciences that are directly related to our core research areas (development, policy/governance, and security). Examples include certain courses in Environmental Studies, Computer Science (Cybersecurity), and Public Health.
- If a course was approved as an elective when a student started at Brown, it will still count!
- Gateway and Foundational courses cannot be taken as electives.
- When submitting the initial IAPA declaration, students can list ONLY electives from the pre-approved list.