A. Course pre-approvals, credit pre-estimation, and consultation with faculty adviser.
Outgoing students receive from this office, during the week preceding semester break, a package of in-house paper work (see non-academic, V. In-house procedures).
This package contains a form entitled "Application for Pre-Estimation of Foreign Study Credit" (and you may pick up this form any time you wish in the Office for Foreign Study). About this:
1. The form instructs you to obtain the signature of the Foreign Study Adviser before you seek the signatures of your faculty adviser (who, for this form, is the chair of your actual or prospective major department) and of the chairs of the Swarthmore departments, programs, special majors, or concentrations that will, upon your return, evaluate your study abroad courses for Swarthmore credit. This is for the following reason: the Foreign Study Adviser may be able to help you provide these other folks with information about your courses and/or your program which they will need to pre-approve courses, pre-estimate credit, and - in the case of your faculty adviser - endorse your overall plan.
2. Please review your study abroad plans with your faculty adviser, who - for this purpose - is the chair of your actual or prospective major department. For most students, this is not the same person as underclass adviser. If you are uncertain as to whom you should see, please ask Steve Piker or Dean Joy Charlton. Review with your faculty adviser the courses that you plan to take abroad. The two of you, together, should be able to see clearly that your study abroad plans are compatible with completing all of the requirements for the Swarthmore degree on schedule. These include thirty-two units of credit, completion of major, distribution requirement, and twenty-course rule. When the two of you together, clearly see that this condition obtains, your faculty adviser should sign this form on the line entitled, " Chair of Major (Actual or Prospective."
3. The next step is to walk the form around to the chairs of the departments or programs which correspond to the courses you propose to take while abroad, which courses will be listed in the left hand column on the form, under "courses." Take course descriptions with you on this walk around and, if possible, fuller information, e.g., syllabi. If you're not certain where to go for one or more courses, please see Steve Piker, You may sensibly seek pre-approval and credit pre-estimation for more courses than you will actually take when you get there. The chairs' pre-approval of your courses mean that they agree that, on subject matter grounds, the courses can be evaluated for credit by their departments when you return. The chairs will also pre-estimate the amount of credit you will receive for successful completion of the courses, and will indicate whether or not their departments extend the extra work/credit added option (right hand column: this option, which is available at the discretion of departments, allows you to do extra work set by the department to increase the amount of credit received for a foreign study course).
4. Most Swarthmore students studying abroad do not need to take any specific course, or type of course, to complete the degree on schedule. A minority, e.g. some natural science majors, do need to get a specific course e.g., biochemistry) or type of course (e.g., electrical engineering) to complete the degree on schedule. If you are one of the latter, this office and the Swarthmore department that will evaluate the course for credit will work with you to make sure that the course will be available to you at your foreign study destination. Usually, we can be sure. Occasionally, though, we cannot be sure. If we are getting the uncertainty message, it is your responsibility to decide whether or not to chance it.
B. Your Course Load Abroad
Swarthmore requires that you, while abroad, take a full academic load by the standards of the program or
university your are attending. Sometimes this is a single number of courses or credits, e.g., at many universities
in the English-speaking world four equally weighted courses comprise a full semester, or 15 units of credit comprise
a full semester (as, at Swarthmore, four units of credit comprise a normal full semester). For other programs
or universities, 'full academic load' is defined by positing a range, e.g., four or five courses, 16 to 20
credits. For such situations, Swarthmore students are required to be at the upper end of the range, e.g.,
five courses or 19 or 20 credits. Swarthmore permits you to take more than a full load. If you wish to
do so, and if the program requires approval of the home institution, this office will be glad to
provide you with a supporting letter. If you have any uncertainty as to what 'full academic
load' means for your program or university, please be in touch with Steve Piker.
And please N.B., this regulation is in force irrespective of how much Swarthmore credit you have in hand when you depart, and/or what you believe your credit needs to be for your semester or year abroad. No exceptions.
C. Changing your Pre-approved Courses when you get there
You may want or need to change your schedule of pre-approved courses when you
reach your foreign study program, for a number of reasons: i) A course or courses
that you had planned to take is not offered; ii) when you get there, you get
plugged into the grapevine and learn all sorts of things that you couldn't
have learned at a distance; iii) your interests change. If you wish to
change your pre-approved program of courses after you have joined the program,
here is what to do and remember: First, notify this office immediately of
the changes that you propose to undertake in your program, and send us as
well descriptions (at least, course descriptions; if possible, syllabi) of
the courses that you propose to add. This office will then take care of
obtaining the pre-approvals for the new courses or, if there are any
questions or problems with this from the departments that are to evaluate
the new courses, we will get that information to you. Please remember,
Economics, History, Education, Philosophy, Political Science and Psychology will not
evaluate a course done elsewhere for Swarthmore credit unless the student
has completed a course in the department, or program, here at Swarthmore, prior to study abroad (See Swarthmore College Bulletin).
And History, even if you have completed work in History here, will not evaluate a course done
elsewhere unless the department has pre-approved it. If, e.g., your major department has
required you to complete a specific course while you are abroad, and your are thinking of
replacing this course with another, be sure to be in touch about this with the chair of your major department.