How to Petition Courses

When to Submit Course Petitions:

Once your course transcripts have been transfered to UC San Diego, and the courses become available in your Academic History and Degree Audit, you can submit your course petitions to the appropriate office incluring Japanese Studies.

To petition Japanese language courses, you need to prepare 3+ documents:

1. UCSD Undergraduate Petition form (PDF)
Be sure to include the transferred transcript's course numbers and units. If the courses have not been posted on your academic history/degree audit yet, you cannot submit your petition until they become available.

2. Course syllabus (as a separate PDF attachment)

3. Five photos or scanned images of hand written materials such as papers, essays, quizzes, and writing assignments. You may submit them as five separate images (JPEG or PNG) or combine them into one (PDF). No online documents (such as Google Docs) will be accepted.

Note: If the Japanese language faculty requests additional materials to determine the JAPN equivalency of your course(s), they may ask you to submit additional materials. Be sure to keep all your course materials until your petition gets approved.

To petition Non-language courses, you need to prepare 2 documents:

1. UCSD Undergraduate Petition form (PDF)
Be sure to include the transferred transcript's course numbers and units. If the courses are not posted on your academic history/degree audit, you must wait to petition them until they become available.

2. Course syllabus (as a separate PDF attachment)

Before you submit your petition, review your form:

1. Check the appropriate box at the top. (Departmental Exception is for major/minor, College Exception for GE, and University Exception for DEI.)

2. Fill in the boxes in the "If UCSD Course" sections. Refer to your Academic History/Degree Audit to check the course number, title, and UC units. (Section ID is not required for non-UCSD courses)

3. Write your petition request in details in "Request". It is your responsibility to clarify your major/minor/GE requirement and how you'd like to use your course for it.

Bad example:
"I would like to use this course for my major/minor/GE."

Good examples:
"I would like to use this course to count as an UD non-language course for my Japanese Studies minor"
"I would like to use these three 3-unit courses (9 units) to count as two UD JAPN courses (8 units) for my Japanese Studies major"
"I would like to use this course to fulfill my college GE's language requirement (fourth quarter course)"
"I would like to use this course to fulfill my college GE's area/regional/humanities studies requirement"

4. Save your course petition form and syllabus as two separate PDF documents.

How to submit course petitions electronically:

1. Save your petition as a PDF file and name it as follows:
Name(LastFirst) PTTN Date (MMDDYYYY)
Example: YamadaHanakoPTTN09222025

2. Submit all your documents to japan@ucsd.edu in one email.
In the subject line, enter “Course Petition: Last, First (PID), Reason for this petition (Major/Minor/GE)”
Example: Course Petition: Yamada, Hanako (A01234567), Japanese Studies major

Note:

To find out if you need to petition the courses you took at your community college, go to https://assist.org/ for the articulation agreements.
Course petitions will NOT be processed during the Add/Drop period (Week 1-2). The petitioning review process could take up to 4 weeks. Please submit your complete course petition by Week 5 if you'd like to have it reviewed and approved by the end of the quarter.
You cannot submit your petition if your double major/minor request is still pending and not available in your degree audit yet.