The program requirements in your what-if report / academic requirements report and in the bulletin say that you need to take 9 - 12 credits of "advanced electives".

The idea behind this requirement is that we want students to customize their version of the degree to take advanced courses (typically 300 and 400 level, but 200 levels can count depending on the course) that help them build skills for whatever they want to do next. The major does not require many 400-level courses, so between your advanced electives and your supporting courses, you must take 6 credits of 400-level courses.

Anything can count as a supporting course, with only a few exceptions (e.g., a bunch of KINES sports courses won't count). So in general, if you have transfer courses that didn't count as a degree requirement, credits from AP courses that didn't count for a degree requirement, or a random course you took just for fun, those will fill your supporting courses. The advanced electives are meant to be a bit more carefully chosen to flesh out your degree to help you minor in something, or perhaps specialize in teaching, a specific technical skill, astrobiology, and related areas.

So there is a list of a number of courses that will automatically count as advanced electives without you having to do anything special. This list (and the entire major!) are in the process of being updated, and so some obvious courses are missing, and others may seem like they don't belong. Those changes will be made soon. With these caveats, the current list of automatically accepted advanced elective courses are:

Recommended for all students:		Recommended for students who want the astrobiology minor:	Recommended for students who want to pursue teaching certification
ASTRO 410	GEOSC 310	ASTRO 420W	SCI ED 411W
ASTRO 414	GEOSC 320	ASTRO 475W	SCI ED 412
ASTRO 440	GEOSC 340	METEO 466	SPLED 400
ASTRO 451	GEOSC 402Y	BIOL 220W
ASTRO 480	GEOSC 416	BIOL 230W
ASTRO 485	GEOSC 419	BIOL 405
ASTRO 496 (research)	GEOSC 422	BIOL 427
ASTRO 497 (special topics)	GEOSC 424	BMB 401
PHYS 213	GEOSC 434	BMB 402
PHYS 214	GEOSC 439
PHYS 237	GEOSC 440
	GEOSC 454
GEOG 362	GEOSC 481
GEOG 363	GEOSC 489
GEOG 364	GEOSC 496 (research)

Many of these courses in the list above have prerequisites that you may not have taken as part of the major, for example, most of the 400-level ASTRO courses listed above require ASTRO 291 or PHYS 237. So those are best for students who changed majors from ASTRO to PASTR (and therefore likely took 291). There are several newer ASTRO 400-level courses that were designed specifically for PASTR majors to take, and those have fewer prerequisites. See below for a table of courses that are automatically approved as substitutions for the advanced elective list and will be permanently added to the major as soon as we are able:

ASTRO:	GEOSC:	Other:
ASTRO 416 (needs MATH 230) - Data Science in Astro	GEOSC 301 - Plate Tectonics (recommends GEOSC 201 as a prerequisite)	COMM 228 - Intro to Science Writing
ASTRO 476 - SETI	GEOSC 480 - Planetary Geophysics	COMM 328 - Effects of Science, Environmental, and Health Media
ASTRO 477 - Planets and Planetary Systems (not yet officially approved as a course spring 2024)	GEOSC 482 - Satellite Remote Sensing	ENGL 416 - Science Writing

Because this degree is meant to be flexible, you can also request a review of any course that you think is appropriate as an advanced elective. With pre-approval from the PASTR advisor (Dr. Palma), you can take other courses not on these lists. This could include other advanced courses in math, physics, programming, data science, teaching, writing, earth or planetary science, museum studies, or research in other disciplines. For students who choose to study abroad, advanced courses from other institutions can also fulfill these course requirements.