Instructions for Filling Out Your Plan of Study
Class of 2017
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Fall 2014
Please read carefully!
Courses in the Social Sciences (Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, and
Sociology), and some courses in Philosophy (for theorists only) automatically count in
Social Studies, as do courses in the following General Education areas: Ethical
Reasoning, Societies of the World, and the United States in the World.
We also count courses from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Graduate School of
Education. Please note, however, that to get concentration credit for a course taken at
another school, you will need the Director of Studies’ signature on your Concentration
Credit Petition for Cross Registered Courses (available on the registrar’s website). You
have until the 5th Monday of the spring term to file this petition for courses that you took
last year (as a freshman) or this term (as a first semester sophomore). After this term,
you need to submit petitions by the 5th Monday of the term you are taking the course in.
Please do NOT list courses on your tentative plan of study that fall outside of these
programs. You will be able to petition to count social science courses taught in
other departments (for example, African and African American Studies, Religion,
and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality) but you cannot do this until you file
a focus field and plan of study in the first term of your junior year.
If you are certain that you want to do a joint concentration, please email Anya Bassett
(anya_bassett@harvard.edu) right away. We allow joint concentrations with most area
studies programs and with Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Dr. Bassett will
need to approve your petition and personally sign your plan of study. You can add a joint
concentration later on, up until the fall of your senior year.
List 13-16 half-courses, including the following courses:


Social Studies 10a
Social Studies 10b

Social Studies 40 (Philosophy and Methods of the Social Sciences) OR
substitute one of the following course in social or political theory or
intellectual history or qualitative methods:
o African and African American Studies 128
o Anthropology 1610
o Government 10, 62, 63, 1060-1096
o History 1323, 1324, 1330
o Philosophy 101, 139, 175-178
o Sociology 128
o Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210qt
•
Two Social Studies 98 courses (junior tutorials).

One or two courses in economics (typically Economics 10a and/or 10b, but you
can also take any economics course for which Economics 10 is a pre-requisite)

One course in statistics
o Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning 20
o Government 50, 61, 1000-1020
o Psychology 1900
o Sociology 156
o Statistics 100, 101, 102, 104, 110

Social Studies 99 (the thesis course in Social Studies; two half-courses)

Four to six courses in a focus field, which must be drawn from two social
science departments (anthropology, economics, government, history, or
sociology) and must include one history or historical studies course. Do not list
more than six courses in your focus field.

For the purposes of your focus field, a historical course can be drawn from the
departments of History or History of Science. We will also automatically count
general education courses that engage with the study of the past.

You may include courses from the Harvard Kennedy School or the Graduate
School of Education and courses you plan to take while studying abroad, but at
least 2 of your focus field courses must be taken at FAS.

Junior tutorials are a separate requirement from focus field courses and do
not count towards a focus field.
Do not check off more than 16 half-courses, or 15 if you are only taking one
semester of economics, as concentration courses.
Ultimately, we will count all courses in the social sciences or related core/general
education areas for concentration credit and towards your concentration GPA,
whether they are part of your focus field or not, unless you successfully petition to
“unconc” one or more courses for use in a secondary field.
Please bring your form already filled out when you get your plan of study signed,
and be prepared to explain to the signer which course counts for which
requirement. If you need to make changes, you will need to reprint your form.
See you soon! We look forward to getting to know you!