Students must complete or waive out of six required core courses.

All six core courses must be completed during the first year of study. Students must petition in order to waive this requirement; such petitions require approval by the Department Chair and are only occasionally granted in truly extenuating circumstances.

On entering the program, all students must pass examinations indicating competence in basic mathematics and micro-economics before enrolling in UP 220A or UP 207. Students who do not pass either or both examinations should take Mathematics 1 and/or Economics 1, 5 or 11 at UCLA during their first year of studies. These courses do not count towards the Master's degree. Students must then re-take the proficiency exams at the start of their second year before enrolling in UP 207 or UP 220A.

Five required core courses:

• UP 207 Applied Microeconomics for Urban Planning (waiver by exam)
• UP 211 Law and the Quality of Urban Life*
• UP 220A Quantitative Analysis in Urban Planning I (Prerequisite for 220B; waiver by exam)
• UP 220B Quantitative Analysis in Urban Planning II (waiver by exam)
• UP 222A Introduction to Planning History and Theory

Plus one required urbanization course from among (EAP students can choose any of the four):

• UP C233 Political Economy of Urbanization (for RID students)
• UP M254 Transportation, Land Use, and Urban Form (for TPP students)
• UP 281 Introduction to the History of the Built Environment in the U.S. (for D&D students)
• UP 242 Poverty and Inequality (for CEDH students)

The Urbanization course may also count as an area of concentration course.

*Students may substitute the following Law classes for UP 211 without a petition:

UP M202A and UP 202B /Law M286: Land Use Regulation

UP M264A and UP 264B /Law M290: Environmental Law

UP M203A and UP 203B /Law M526: Urban Housing

By petition, other Law School classes may be substituted for UP 211.