Explore, Prepare, Apply

• Explore this website!  Particularly useful are the Curriculum Information and the Prospective Student FAQs
• Sign up for the OS prospective student email list to get announcements of all informational events for prospective students.
• Attend an OS Information Night.
• Make an appointment with the Prospective Student Advisor or a Peer Mentor.
• Visit us at the Major/Minor Expo or at Festifall.
• If you are a transfer student applying simultaneously to UM-AA and OS for the same fall term, please contact org.studies@umich.edu for specific instructions.
• Missed our Fall Info Night? Check out the recording to get an inside look into the program!

Prerequisites

• Three prerequisite courses are required for all applicants:
  • Intro Psychology  (Psych 111, 112, 114, or 115)
  • Intro Sociology  (Soc 100, 102, 195, 300 or 302)
  • Microeconomics  (Econ 101)
     
• It is preferred that all three prereqs be completed at the time of application, but you are eligible to apply if you have at least two prereqs completed and are enrolled in the third prereq at the time of application.
  
  
• Prerequisite courses may be taken on a P/F basis, but the actual letter grade received will be retrieved from UM records and considered in the OS admissions process (but your UM cumulative gpa will not be affected). 
  "Covid-P" grades are also accepted for semesters where special Covid grading was in effect, and the same review policy applies.  
  
  
• Transferring Prereqs:  Exact equivalent transfer credit is accepted to fulfill any of the OS prerequisites.  It is important to verify that the course you plan to take elsewhere will transfer as "equivalent" credit.  
  
  If the course is listed on the equivalency charts as being equivalent to a course at UM (i.e. Psych 100 at Washtenaw Comm College = Psych 111 at UM), then it will meet our requirement. 
  
  If the course is listed as transferring as departmental credit (PSYCH DEPT), or with an X (Psych 101X), then you must have the course reviewed by sending an email to org.studies@umich.edu with your name, an explanation of which requirement you are hoping to fulfill, and a course description for the external course.
  
  For students taking prereq courses at other institutions, effective Fall 2022, if you wish to elect the course P/F, we request that you verify with the host institution that you will receive an actual letter grade for the course, and that an official document showing that letter grade will be available from that institution to send to UM.  If the host institution does not assign letter grades for P/F courses, and/or cannot produce a document showing a letter grade received, it is preferred that you elect the course on a graded basis (not P/F).  Please contact the Organizational Studies office with any questions or extenuating circumstances.
  
  If you wish to transfer a prereq course, you must have the host institution send an official transcript to the UM credit evaluators to have the credit posted on your UM transcript.  OS will review transcripts from all institutions attended during the admissions process.
  
  
• AP/IB/A-Level credit in Psych and/or Microecon is acceptable to fulfill OS prereqs.  AP Econ credit will appear as ECON 101X for 2 credits on your transcript, and while this is not considered exactly equivalent to Econ 101 at UM, it is acceptable for the OS prereq.  If you plan to take further courses in Econ, however, you must complete Econ 101 at UM or take an exact equivalent transfer course at another college or university.
  
  
• There is no minimum grade required in the prerequisites, but admission is very competitive to this academically rigorous program, so it is important to perform your best and to maintain a strong cumulative GPA.

Other Considerations

• Interested students should apply during the winter term of their sophomore year, but applications from juniors are also accepted if the student is willing to remain on campus for the full duration of the OS Program (see below). Students may only apply to the OS program once.

• The Organizational Studies major is designed to be a 2-year program. Due to our curriculum sequencing, it is not possible to complete the program in one year.  Please see an OS prospective student advisor if you have any questions about the OS curriculum sequencing.

• Admission to the OS program is highly competitive, so it is important to develop a alternate plan that will still allow you to meet your educational goals.

• OS welcomes applications from students who have transferred to UM or are in the process of transferring to UM.  If you are a transfer student applying simultaneously to UM-AA and OS for the same fall term, please contact org.studies@umich.edu as early as possible for specific instructions.

• Note concerning Stats: Many students will take the OS Quant Skills Requirement (Stats) before entering the program.  Please note that if you have credit for AP Stats (Stats 180), it will *not* fulfill our requirement, and unfortunately, you will lose that AP credit when you take Stats 250 or Soc 210.  If you wish to keep your AP credit, you must enroll in Stats 280 Honors Intro Statistics.