Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Spanish and Portuguese
Undergraduate Degrees
General Information
Spanish Language Proficiency Examination
Students with previous exposure to Spanish are required to take a placement test, administered by the Center for Testing and Assessment. Students with no record of previous exposure to Spanish are not required to take the placement examination and should contact the department for assistance.
Courses in Spanish
All courses at the 200, 300 and 400 levels are conducted in Spanish unless otherwise noted in the course descriptions that follow. Courses are kept small to allow for maximum interaction between students and professors.
Advisement
A college undergraduate adviser is assigned to provide academic advisement prior to registration and throughout the academic year.
Major Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Spanish
| required courses — Lower-division (8 units)* | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| SPAN 260** | Advanced Spanish: Arts and Sciences | 4 |
| SPAN 261** | Advanced Spanish: Society and the Media | 4 |
| Required courses — upper-division (16 units) | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| Four of the following courses: | ||
| SPAN 301 | Introduction to Hispanic Literature and Film | 4 |
| SPAN 310 | Structure of Spanish | 4 |
| One other SPAN literature, culture, film course | 4 | |
| One 400-level SPAN course | 4 | |
| Electives (16 units): | ||
| Four other upper-division SPAN courses. |
Only one section of SPAN 316x may be taken for major or minor credit.
Honors Program
The B.A. in Spanish with Honors is available to students who have a GPA of at least 3.5 in courses counted for major credit and an overall GPA of 3.0 (by the time of graduation). Desire to complete the major with honors typically should be approved by a department faculty member no later than the second semester of the junior year. To complete the honors program the student must write an honors thesis in Spanish in conjunction with a 400-level course. The thesis, in the range of 25–30 pages (6,250–7,500 words), must be endorsed by a departmental honors committee by April 1 of the senior year.
Minor in Spanish
| required courses — lower-division (8 units) | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| SPAN 265 | Spanish for Communication: Society and the Media | 4 |
| SPAN 266* | Spanish for Communication: Arts and Sciences | 4 |
| Upper-division (16 units) | units | |
|---|---|---|
| Any four courses at the 300- or 400-level | ||
| Basic language ** | units | |
|---|---|---|
| SPAN 120 | Spanish I | 4 |
| SPAN 150 | Spanish II | 4 |
| SPAN 220 | Spanish III | 4 |
Majors and minors may request a waiver of one or both courses (SPAN 265 and/or SPAN 266) if they meet one or more of the following prerequisites: a) a score of 5 on the Spanish language or literature advanced placement (AP) exam, b) a score of 6 or 7 on the Spanish International Baccalaureate Higher-Level exam (IBHL), c) a score of 800 in the Spanish SAT subject exam or d) demonstration of advanced proficiency in spoken and written Spanish. Departmental approval is required in every case.
SPAN 265 and SPAN 266 may be taken concurrently. The second of these courses may be taken concurrently with a 300-level course.
Minor in Latin American Studies
The Latin American Studies minor recognizes the lasting importance of U.S.-Latin American relations. The overriding goal is to encourage students to learn more about Latin America by combining conceptual, area and language studies during their time at USC. The purpose of this 20-unit minor is to deepen students’ knowledge of Latin America by offering courses from multiple disciplines within a context of close faculty guidance. The gateway requirement of one 4-unit course provides the student with options in both humanities and the social sciences, and the designated electives are similarly meant to allow students to blend these specialties.
For fulfillment of the requirements for the minor a student must choose four classes outside of his or her major department dedicated exclusively to the minor (which may be the same four classes). After the gateway course, these elective courses must be spread across at least two disciplines and/or departments.
Required Courses
One of the following 4-unit gateway introductory courses: REL 133, COLT 250, HIST 273, HIST 372, IR 364, IR 365, POSC 350
If the student has chosen a lower-division (100- or 200-level) course among the introductory choices, all area electives must be at the upper-division (300- or 400-) level.
Elective Requirements
Four courses (16 units) from the following list: AHIS 127, AHIS 128, AHIS 318, AHIS 319, AHIS 411, AMST 448, ANTH 425, COLT 250, ECON 340, GEOG 335, HIST 272, HIST 370, HIST 371, HIST 372, HIST 374, HIST 451, HIST 456, HIST 470, HIST 473, HIST 474, IR 364, IR 365, IR 408, IR 426, IR 454, IR 465, IR 466, PORT 250, POSC 350, POSC 430, POSC 431, SOCI 366, SOCI 420, SPAN 320, SPAN 321, SPAN 372, SPAN 462, SPAN 495