Jackson courses are taught by faculty throughout Yale’s academic departments, our Senior Fellows, and visiting faculty. The most up-to-date list of our courses can be found at Yale’s Online Course Search. All graduate and undergraduate courses at the Jackson School are listed as Global Affairs (GLBL).

Most Jackson courses are open to all Yale students. Due to high demand, some of our seminars require prior application. Course applications for these courses are posted on the Jackson Registrar website when available.

Advice to Students

There are eight introductory requirements that students must successfully complete before they can declare the Global Affairs major:

(1) Introductory microeconomics (ECON 1108, ECON 1110, or ECON 1115);

(2) Introductory macroeconomics (ECON 1111 or ECON 1116);

(3) and (4) Two introductory Political Science courses from different subdisciplines: PLSC 1113 (International Relations), PLSC 1413 (Comparative Politics), or one of the following political theory courses: PLSC 1327, 1335, 1352, DRST 0005, DRST 0006 or PHIL 1178;

(5) and (6) Two History courses (any course with a HIST number, enrolling under the HIST number if a cross-listed course);

(7) GLBL 2121 (Applied Quantitative Analysis I); and

(8) One advanced course, choosing from game theory (GLBL 2159/ECON 2159), intermediate micro- or macroeconomics (ECON 2121 or ECON 2122), or an approved qualitative methods course (these courses carry the YC GLBL Qualitative Methods attribute)

Prospective students are strongly encouraged to complete as many of these requirements as possible by the end of their fourth term. Students are also encouraged to work toward the L4 language requirement early in their course planning.

All students interested in pursuing the Global Affairs major should also plan to take GLBL 2121 Applied Quantitative Analysis (AQA) I in the fall of their sophomore year (and not beforehand) to best prepare them for GLBL 2122 Applied Quantitative Analysis II, a requirement that is best taken in the spring of sophomore year and is closed to non-majors.

Prospective students interested in selecting a capstone as their senior project must declare the major by the beginning of the spring semester in their junior year.

Course Substitutes

We strongly recommend that students take GLBL 2121 rather than one of its accepted substitutes unless they have a course planning issue that cannot otherwise be resolved (or another compelling reason). However, the following courses are acceptable substitutes for GLBL 2121: Introduction to Data Analysis and Econometrics (ECON 1117), Intermediate Data Analysis and Econometrics (ECON 2123), or Introduction to Probability and Statistics (ECON 2135).

All courses aside from electives are meant to fulfill their corresponding requirement and cannot fill an elective, regardless of a different class substituting for a particular requirement. For example: If a student counts ECON 1117 for their GLBL 2121 requirement but has also taken GLBL 2121, they cannot count GLBL 2121 as an elective instead.

Finding Historically Accepted Courses

Yale Course Search offers advanced filtering options to enhance your search of courses by department and requirements. In the advanced search section, please use the “Any Course Information Attribute” drop-down to find courses accepted as the various major requirements.

Course Exceptions

If a course you feel strongly about counting towards your elective requirements is not listed with a Global Affairs attribute, you can petition for it to be accepted by filling out the Course Exception form. Please note: You must have the Global Affairs major declared and have completed the course before requesting the course exception. Students not yet in the major and students planning to study abroad should use this Provisional Course Approval form to request exceptions for courses they plan to take.

There are strictly no substitutes for Applied Quantitative Analysis II (GLBL 2122) or for the Challenges in Global Affairs integrated core course (GLBL 3101).

Overlapping courses

Students completing more than one academic program (e.g. double majoring) may overlap two courses in those programs, per Yale College policy.

Academic Advising

Current and prospective majors may schedule appointments with the assistant dean for undergraduate education, Professor Bonnie Weir.