2024-2025 Catalog

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Advising Information

Students interested in Religious Studies are encouraged to take any RELS course at the 100- or 200-level, many of which have seats reserved for first-year students. Most Religious Studies courses do not have prerequisites and as such can be taken in any order.

Placement Information

No placement exams are specifically required for the Religious Studies major.

Sample 4-Year Plan


Fall

Spring

Year 1

  • Fall FYS course

  • Core Requirement

  • Foreign Language (4 or 5 units)

  • General Elective (4 units)

  • Spring FYS course

  • RELS Elective

  • Core Requirement (4 units)

  • General Elective (4 units)

Year 2

  • RELS Elective

  • Core Requirement

  • Core Requirement

  • General Elective (4 units)

  • RELS 250 or RELS Elective

  • RELS Elective

  • Core Requirement

  • General Elective (4 units)

Year 3

  • RELS Elective

  • RELS Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

  • RELS 250 or RELS Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

Year 4

  • RELS 490 (Senior Seminar)

  • RELS Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

  • RELS Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

  • General Elective

Curricular Notes

  • Many Religious Studies courses also fulfill core requirements 

  • Students planning on studying abroad during the spring semester of their junior year should register in RELS 250 during the spring semester of their sophomore year

Religious Studies Transfer Student Advice

Transfer Course Limit for Transfer Students: 1 course/4 units

Designated Transfer Adviser

Expected preparation for transfer students wanting to major in Religious Studies:

  • Transfer students need not have taken courses in Religious Studies prior to starting at Occidental.

  • Rising Juniors should have completed most of their Core requirements before starting at Occidental. 

  • Students will be able to meet the following Core requirements through courses that will count toward the major: Pre-1800, Global Connections, and Regional Focus.

General advice for transfer students wanting to major in Religious Studies:

  • Critical Approaches to the Study of Religion (RELS 250) and the Religious Studies Senior Seminar (RELS 490) must be taken at Occidental.

  • All transfer students should complete all Core requirements other than those that can be met by courses in the major by the time they are Rising Juniors.

  • Students should enroll in as many Religious Studies electives as they can during their time at Occidental.

  • The department is very flexible, and encourages transfer students to meet with the department chair as soon as possible to start planning their time at Occidental.

What courses should a transfer student take during their first semester at Occidental?

  • Rising Juniors starting at Occidental in the fall should enroll in at least one Religious Studies elective, and should enroll in RELS 250 during the spring semester of their first year at Occidental. Rising juniors starting at Occidental in the spring should enroll in RELS 250 during their first semester, and talk to a professor in the department as soon as possible, and no later than the beginning of the second week of classes, about pursuing summer research to develop a comps project.

  • Transfer students starting at Occidental as Rising Sophomores or mid way through the sophomore year should enroll in at least one Religious Studies elective during their first semester, and should enroll in RELS 250 as soon as possible (either in their first or second semester at Occidental).