Academic Policies

Double Counting Courses Policy

Students may double count:

• up to 5 courses between the ENVS stand-alone major and each additional major
• up to 3 courses between the ENVS co-major and each additional major.
• up to 2 courses between any ENVS major and one minor.

Students may NOT double-count courses within different categories of the ENVS majors. For example, if EC 30 Environmental Economics is used as a core course, it may not be used as the introductory course in the Sustainability, Equity and Policy track. Students must take at least 15 different courses to complete the stand-alone Applied Environmental Studies major and 10 courses for the ENVS co-major, respectively, in addition to a required internship.

Course Petitioning

Environmentally-themed courses that are not listed in our website can be requested by students to count toward specific requirements of the ENVS majors. Examples might include ExCollege classes, advanced independent research courses offered by different departments or courses taken abroad at Tufts programs or elsewhere (see transfer of credit policy below). In order to use an unlisted course for the majors, students must complete a Course Petition form and submit it along with the course syllabus to environmentalstudies@tufts.edu. Once the petition is reviewed by faculty affiliated with the program, the student will be notified of the decision by email. This process can take several weeks.

Students may only petition one ExCollege class toward the major or the minor.

All courses petitioned for an ENVS degree must be a minimum of 3 credits, which is equivalent to 45 hours of instruction/contact plus 90 hours of homework over the semester.

Transfer of Credit Policy

ENVS majors can petition courses taken at an accredited institution other than Tufts:

• up to 4 courses for the ENVS stand-alone major
• up to 2 courses for the ENVS co-major
• up to 1 course for the ENVS minors

More than the limit number of courses may be transferred if a course is transferred as an already existing course at Tufts. Courses taken at Tufts abroad programs are not considered transfer credits, therefore the course limit does not apply to them.

Please note that just because a course is approved for transfer by ENVS (or other department) through SIS, it does not automatically count toward the ENVS major. Any course that is not listed on our website must be petitioned to count toward the major by submitting a Course Petition form along with the course syllabus to environmentalstudies@tufts.edu. Students planning to take a course abroad for their major are strongly advised to submit a course petition before taking the course to ensure it will be accepted. See Course Petitioning section above.

All transfer courses must be at least 3 credits to be petitioned for an ENVS degree (see Course Petitioning section). The number of credits for transfer courses is determined by the Registrar.