INFORMATION FOR FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENTS

The Economics Department Undergraduate Advising Office welcomes you to UT-Austin!

Studying abroad is an exciting and rewarding experience but it can also be challenging to navigate a completely new system. We hope this information will help youplan,register for, and be successful in your economics classes at UT. If you still have questions, please contact us:

The Economics Department Undergraduate Advising Office

BRB 1.114, phone 512-471-2973, email .

PLANNING WHAT COURSES TO TAKE

1. Find out what courses will be offered:

  • You can see what courses will be offered in an upcoming semester on the OnlineCourse Schedule.The Fall semester course schedule is posted mid-March,the Spring semester course scheduleis posted mid-October— the specific dateof releasefor an upcoming course schedule is posted on the Online Course Schedule website.
  • If the course schedule for the semester you will be attending UT is not posted yet, the next best thing to do is view the course schedule for the previous corresponding semester (if you will attend in a future Fall semester, look at the previous year’s Fall course schedule). This won’t be 100% accurate but it should be fairly close, for planning purposes. Be sure to check the correct schedule when it becomes available.

2. Look for courses you can access:

  • Some courses require prerequisites (previous coursework), some may be restricted to certain groups of students, and some may be full (exchange students are one of the last groups to register).You will be able to check for these things by viewing the course on the online course schedule.For example, the “status” column indicates if the class is open, restricted, closed, or waitlisted.Click on the “unique number” to viewrestriction notes, prerequisites, and a brief course description.

  • The following economics courses are always restricted to economics majors only: ECO 420K Intermediate Micro-theory, ECO 320L Intermediate Macro-theory, ECO 329 Economics Statistics, ALL economics writing component courses (they will have a “WC” flag after the course title). Non-economics majors (such as business majors) can request access to restricted economics classes in the advising office starting on the first class day.
  • Most business courses are restricted to business majors only. If you are listed as an economics major and want to take a business class— you will need to contact the department offering the course for permission: fill out a request form in The Business School’s Undergraduate Officein CBA 2.400. Decisions may not be announced until the first class day.
  • You can take a maximum of 10 hours (3 classes) of economics coursework in one semester. You can request through our office to take additional economics courses but this is not recommended and approval is subject to availability.
  • Many classes may be open initially but will become full by the time you register, so it is strongly recommended that you select several alternate courses (and have them approved by your home university if that is required) in case your first choices are not available.

3. Review the Course Descriptions and/or Syllabi

  • The online course scheduleincludes brief descriptions with the course listings(click on the unique # to view).
  • More detailed course descriptions of liberal arts courses can be found on the College of Liberal Artscoursedescription webpage.
  • The department offering the course may have course descriptions and/or syllabi posted on their website. Or the instructor may have a webpage there (see faculty list on the dept website). The instructor’s name is usually listed on the course in the course schedule.
  • For economics course syllabicheck the instructor’s webpage: or contact the advising office for help.

REGISTERING

Registration Bars

  • You may have a registration bar from our office if you are declared as an economics major. You will need to meet with an advisor in-personin our office to have it cleared prior to registering. Check your Registration Information Sheet (RIS) to see if you have any other registration bars.

Prerequisites

  • You might need registration assistance from our office.As an exchange student, the registration system (ROSE) will have no record of your prior coursework and therefore may prevent you from registering for aneconomics classdue to not meeting prerequisites. Please contact our office for assistance. Once we verify you have met the prerequisites we can give you a waiver to enable registration in the class.

Access Issues

  • Some economics courses are restricted to majors onlyand students cannot take more than 10 hours (3 classes) of economics coursework.See “Look for Courses You Can Access”.
  • Business majors do nothave accessto restricted economics classes and economics majors do not have access to restricted business classes. See “Look for Courses You Can Access”.
  • Many classes may be full by the time you register. Have a few “back-up” choicesselected just in case. We will not add you to a full class. If the course schedule shows the class you want is “waitlisted” put yourself on the online waitlistas soon as possible.You will need to be declared in the major to access registration or waitlists for restricted economics classes.

Links:

Course Schedule Online

Liberal Arts Course Description webpage

Economics Department

RIS and ROSE

Waitlists

JLC 8/07, updated 8/08, updated 7/10