Getting the Credit You Deserve
As the cost of tuition rises, students are increasingly concerned with earning maximum credit for their overseas experience. The best way to avoid difficulty is preparation. Many universities require a process of prior approval and will not accept any credit earned abroad that was not authorized beforehand, this may include getting signatures from people who can approve your anticipated selections long before you have made any travel arrangements.
What's Eligible
Depending on your university, you could earn credit in general education courses, electives, major or minor subjects, and foreign languages. While you may be able to get credit that will appear on your transcript, you should verify if that credit will actually apply toward your degree.
Different universities handle the acceptance or transfer of credit in different ways. Some have already set up exact matches or direct equivalents, which pair foreign universities' courses with courses in your own school's catalog. But most often, your university will accept the overseas courses as substitutes for required courses or electives to fulfill degree requirements.
Verify the source of the credit offered before you sign up for a program. If you are going on your own school's program, find out if the courses actually appear in your course catalog. If you are joining a program at another school, you will need to pay closer attention to the details. Will the sponsoring school issue the transcript, or will a foreign university or agency do so? You may need more details on the courses offered to satisfy your own college's academic counselors that you can earn the credit by transfer.
Making the Grade
The amount of credit you can earn will depend on policies of the host institution and your school as well as what courses you take abroad.
Different universities have different grading systems. For instance, some countries, use number grades rather than letters, while some foreign universities give comments but no grades of any kind. Your home university may or may not convert the grades you received to your own school's grading scale, they might post the foreign grades on your transcript, or average the grades into your personal grade point average. Some schools require that you earn a certain grade or better before accepting the credits.
If a foreign university will issue your final transcript, some admissions officers and registrars will look closely at the number of contact hours in a particular course, including the actual number of hours spent in lectures, labs, field experiences and tutorials.
Some overseas university systems are known to grade more severely than those in the United States. For that reason, many students take advantage of a pass/fail grading option in order to protect their averages. Apply for this option officially in writing, long before departure to ensure acceptability by your school, in some cases you may have to petition your dean in writing.
Many US schools give credit by exam, especially in foreign languages but also in other subjects. After your course abroad, you return home and sit for a formal examination on your campus to see how much knowledge you gained. The exam might be oral, written or both and is almost always designed by your own home campus faculty.
Paperwork
Note that some overseas institutions do not create transcripts. Instead, you may have to get other kinds of documentation, including letters from course professors. Find out in advance what to expect and how to get what you will need.
Be sure to have descriptive course materials available. Even if they're in the language of the host country, you can usually get them translated for the benefit of school officials who will rule on the credit's acceptability.
Be prepared to show your home school other items related to the courses you took, including course syllabi, reading lists, returned exams, papers, your lecture notes and anything else that can document the nature and level of the course work and ensure that you earn full credit.
Many students choose direct enrollment in foreign universities for a semester or a year, while some go on exchanges. It is important to demonstrate to your home school that the foreign university has some kind of accreditation or official standing with the country's ministry of education.
Other Avenues
The federal government has made it clear that US students who are eligible for federal loans, grants and scholarships may use their aid in overseas programs approved by their home universities, as long as the programs are for credit.
Some graduate schools in the United States allow thesis or dissertation credit for research done abroad, and some enroll the graduate students for credit concurrently with the foreign experience.
On the college level, some offer what is called credit for experiential education, often for work experience, public service projects or travel abroad. If this is a possibility at your school, find out what is required to document the experience and earn credit. As well, many universities encourage internships and may give credit for them alone or in combination with course work taken abroad.
Independent study for credit provides valuable possibilities for carrying out research projects and doing work that could not be done for credit in an overseas institution or program offered by US schools. An independent study or readings course is an individualized course for credit agreed upon between a student and a professor that allows the student to pursue some special research topic in a specialized area, usually the student's major field of study. If you can take advantage of this option, be sure to make precise arrangements with your sponsoring faculty members while you are abroad to advise them of your progress and receive direction.
Once abroad, students should expect surprises. You may have to change some courses, or run into other unanticipated difficulties. Act quickly and resourcefully, and keep in touch with your advisors back home.
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