Academic Advising

A&A Advisors

The Student Affair Advisors are available to assist you with astronomy & astrophysics major and minor requirements, degree audits, academic policies and procedures, research information, course planning, and other astrophysics-programmatic questions. We're also here to connect you to a variety of campus facilities & resources such as the career center, community centers, disability services, teaching and learning commons, study abroad, and more.

Prospective Students

Applicable to non-UCSD students.

If you are not a UC San Diego student, you may email inquiries to astro-advising@ucsd.edu. We recommend learning more about the A&A undergraduate program via the webpage, as well as attending orientation events, please see Incoming Students for more information.

Current UC San Diego Students

Communication

For current UC San Diego students, please use the Virtual Advising Center (VAC) as your primary comminication method for inquiries. The VAC is a great way to contact an Student Affairs' advisor for quick questions and general check-ins for academic progress. Questions submitted via VAC typically receive a response within 1-3 business days. Please do not email us questions, all inquiries must be submitted and answered through the VAC.

Schedule an Appointment

If you would like to schedule an advising appointment with an A&A Student Affair's advisor, please send a message via the VAC with three dates and times you are available to set up a 30-minute appointment. Zoom appointments should be used to discuss more in-depth questions, career and major exploration, and long-term academic (quarter-by-quarter) planning. Advisors will work with students to schedule a Zoom meeting during a time when they and the student are both available.

Course Planning

Academic Advisors can assist students in developing an academic plan toward timely graduation, completing prerequisites for graduate school or a specialized program, and/or prepare for entering the workforce.

We recommend that each students sketches out a quarter-by-quarter course plan (2-year or 4-year), then meet with both an A&A Academic Advisor and College Academic Advisor for review and approval.

To get started making your own long-term academic plan, you can use the online Degree Planner or download the university quarter by quarter planning sheet.

You can then refer to sample plans on plans.ucsd.edu and current course offerings on A&A's website to guide where to place your classes in the current academic year.

Academic Advisors in A&A and College Academic Advisors (see Campus Advising) will aid you in your course planning and degree design. A&A advisors work in partnership with College Academic Advisors in guiding you to successful degree completion.

Please reach out to your College for more information on Academic Planning.

General & Departmental Policies

General policies:

All courses follow the UC San Diego Academic Regulation & Policies. We recommend all students familarize themselves with the UC San Diego grading policies. Each quarter you should be aware of the drop/add/withdrawal deadlines, see Enrollment Calendar.

Departmental major policies:

P/NP Grading Option: Not allowed for any courses applied to the major (the exceptions are courses completed via AP/IB/A-Level and a single four-unit ASTR 199/199H that may only be applied as an upper-division restricted elective).
Grades and GPA: A grade point average of 2.0 or higher in the upper-division major program is required for graduation. Students must receive a grade of C– or better in any course to be counted toward fulfillment of the major requirements.
Waitlists: Classes can be wait-listed until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday of the 2nd full week of classes. You can use WebReg to join a waitlist for a course of section.
Prerequisites: Check Courses sections of the UC San Diego General Catalog for the prerequisites to all listed courses.
Residence Requirements At least 60 percent of the upper-division courses in the major must be taken while in residence at UC San Diego.
Substitutions and Exceptions: Permissible only by approved petition to the department. Please see the Petition page on how to request specfic waivers.
For a full list of policies and degree requirements, see A&A in catalog.

Requesting a Double Major

There are procedures that must be followed when applying to double major, and there is a relatively short window of time in a student’s progression of coursework during which declaring a double major at UC San Diego is normally permitted. When you double major, you complete all requirements for two UC San Diego undergraduate majors.

The A&A department follow campus policity, and you must Petition to have a double major considered by the A&A Department. If you are intersted in completing a double major please follow the instructions on the University's How to Declare A Double Major page thoroughly, as well as see the A&A Petition page under University Exceptions.