Determining Your Study Abroad Courseload

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Beware: Hazards in Transferring Credit

Studying abroad is not a vacation . . . at least as far as your home university is concerned. You need to assume that your home university expects you to take as many courses and study just as hard in taking them as you would if you were staying home for the year. And because you want to blend in with the students at your university abroad, you need to expect to take the same amount of classes and do the same work that is required of native students.

Now that you know you'll be working hard in your classes, I can let you in on an important secret. Transferring credit has the potential of becoming one of the trickiest parts of studying abroad. If you don't pay attention to your home university's rules regarding the transfer of credits from other schools, you can end up making mistakes when choosing courses while studying abroad. Some of those mistakes can prevent you from returning to your home university with a full semester or year's worth of credits. Preplanning and keeping someone at your home university apprised of your studies abroad are the best ways of guaranteeing that you'll return home with all your credits intact.

You can consult your study abroad adviser, major adviser, class dean, or registrar at your home university to determine whether the classes you plan to take while studying abroad actually meet credit transfer requirements.

Determining Your Courseload

Universal standards for credits and credit-weighting systems do not exist. Just among U.S. colleges, some students need to earn 32 credits to graduate while others need 132 credits to graduate. Considerable variation in credit structures also occurs among schools abroad. A few programs may use the same credit-weighting system as your home university, so that credit weights are identical. This situation likely happens with study abroad programs that are directed by your home university, which makes transfers of credit very simple. When that's the case, you probably don't need to read any further.

Most American universities use the semester credit system, and by now you know how many credits you need to earn per semester at your home university to carry a full courseload and graduate on time. When you study abroad on a program that also uses the semester credit system, determining how many credits you need to take while you're away probably won't be too difficult. However, you need to realize that many Australian and European universities have credit systems that vary significantly from what you're used to. At some schools, credit weights may vary even from department to department.

Ultimately, how the credits that you earn abroad actually translate to home-university credits is at the discretion of your home university. Before going abroad you need to understand how your home university defines a full courseload and how many courses you're expected to take while you're away to be considered carrying a full courseload. Similarly, you shouldn't leave campus without first knowing how your university defines a full courseload for students on your particular study abroad program.